Chapter 38 Lara
Lara
“Are you sure this is what you want?” I stood with my sister on the front porch of the Stone house.
She gave me a small smile. It had been six days since we’d rescued her from the cult, and every day the wound it had left on her healed a little more.
Six days we’d spent in the haven of the ranch.
Walking. Gardening. Cooking. Playing with Colby’s animals.
Sitting by the house’s fire with hot cocoa every night. And talking. So much talking.
I told her what had happened in the ER with Ian. She gave me her version of what had happened with Brandon. We talked about Mom. We talked about college. About Calder and Allen and her pregnancy scare. I told her more details about how we’d found her, and I told her about Ben.
She wasn’t the only one who’d been healing over the past six days, and I wished she’d stay longer.
While Cassius hadn’t resorted to chains like I’d joked, he’d certainly done the bulk of convincing her to stay a few more days when she wanted to leave on day four. I wanted to worry that she was rushing things, but I also understood why she wanted to go.
Staying felt like staying put. And if there was one thing my sister had done in the face of every hurdle she’d been through, it was that she hadn’t stopped moving forward. Even if it hadn’t been exactly in the right direction.
I had a feeling it was, now.
“I need to learn how to take care of myself,” Rach murmured and reached for my hand, giving it a squeeze. “And I think you could do with more time not having to take care of everyone around you.” Her smile widened slightly as she looked at me. “Being loved looks good on you.”
“One day, it will look good on you, too,” I promised her, refusing to hear anything to the contrary as I pulled her in for a hug.
She’d said her goodbyes to the rest of the family, including Calder, who then dispersed to give the two of us a private moment together. I’d offered to take her to the airport, but she said Cassius was going to and she didn’t seem to want to change that.
She’d told me how grateful she was to him and Calder for everything they’d done, but I had a feeling it had taken her some time to work up the courage to be able to say it in person, which was what she wanted to use the drive to do.
“Thanks again for loaning me your apartment.” I didn’t like that she was going so far, but my place in Phoenix was super safe, and the lease was still mine for another ten months whether I was there or not.
“You’ll love it.” I remembered how good it had felt when I moved there.
There’d been a honeymoon phase when I enjoyed my residency, enjoying a place where I wasn’t reminded about Mom’s death or the difficulties in my and Rachel’s relationship.
Maybe it wouldn’t be good for her forever.
Selfishly, I hoped at some point, the mountains would call her back, too.
But for right now, it would be good. It would be what she needed.
“Have you heard from the hospital?” Rachel pulled back and combed her fingers through her hair. I loved to see its natural curl. She’d always straightened it or tamed it into loose beach waves—she’d always made it into something for someone else. Not anymore.
“Not yet.”
She sighed. “What are you waiting for, Lara?”
“What do you mean? For them to call me about my job?”
“I mean, why don’t you call them?”
My mouth opened and shut. “Because they have to decide if they still want me.”
I still hadn’t heard anything after Dr. Morgan had notified me that the internal investigation had cleared me, but maybe they were waiting until the lawsuit was settled to see how much the incident had cost them.
“When they call me, then I can decide what I want to do.”
She shook her head and laughed, the wind taking one of her curls across her face.
“What?”
Leading me by the hand, we walked off the porch and to the end of the house, where she stopped us, facing toward the hill where the Airstream was parked.
“Why are you waiting for them when you already know what you want to do?”
My heart stumbled, unsteady beats rushing into my veins. Maybe I did know. Maybe I had known for some time. Maybe I was still having a hard time letting go of the person I’d been all these years, who took care of everyone else before even considering what I wanted.
“Thank you,” I told her and hugged her again.
We separated when the front door opened and closed. Cassius stepped off the porch, his face shadowed under a cowboy hat.
“Ready?”
Rachel hugged me tightly again.
“I love you,” I told her, hanging on to her fingers until the last moment.
“I love you, too.”
“Call me when you land,” I added as she approached Cassius’s truck.
She looked over her shoulder. “Call the hospital.”
I smiled and waved, watching them until the truck disappeared on the drive before reaching for my phone.
She was right. I’d known I didn’t belong in Phoenix the moment I’d set foot back in the mountains.
“Calder?”
My entire body hummed after the voicemail I’d just left for Dr. Morgan.
I didn’t know why it had taken me so long.
To just admit I didn’t want to go back. Maybe I thought it would be easier if they were the ones to terminate my contract.
Maybe I felt like I owed them something after what had happened with Ian.
But I wasn’t the guilty one. I’d done my job. I’d tried to save him, and he’d almost killed me. And as soon as I’d said the words formal resignation, I realized what haunted me deeply about that day in the ER.
It wasn’t that Ian had died, though there was natural guilt with that. It was that I could have. He came for me. He hurt me. He could’ve killed me, and I would’ve died without living. Without loving.
“Everything okay?” Calder stepped out of the Airstream, shirtless and devastating, and I almost forgot my plan. Almost.
“I have another case for you,” I said, pinning some worry to my voice.
“What?” He came toward me.
“Another case.” I fought hard not to laugh at the blank confusion on his face.
“There’s a doctor who’s gone missing from a hospital in Phoenix.
Red hair. Short.” I smiled as recognition started to dawn.
“They said she called and quit her job today, left a message that she was never coming back to Arizona, and they think she’s now lost in the mountains in Wyoming. ”
He stopped in front of me, the warmth of his eyes tracking every inch of my face. “Really?” he rumbled, and I heard the hope—the ache—in his voice.
Biting my lip, I nodded slowly. “Really.”
With a big shudder, his hands framed my waist and hauled me against him. “What’s my reward for finding her?” His mouth lowered, but I pulled back enough to look him in the eyes and smile.
“You get to keep her.”