“Beau—he?—”
“You don’t have to talk about it yet. Not now.” He pulls back just enough to look at me. His hands frame my face, thumbs wiping tears, palms warm against my cheeks, his touch so impossibly gentle after everything those hands have done today.
“All you need to know right now is that you’re safe. Wyatt is safe. And I am never letting you out of my sight again.”
I hiccup through a sob-laugh. “That’s going to make showering awkward.”
He chokes on something between a laugh and a cry. “I’ll take that risk.”
His forehead presses against mine. I can feel his breath on my lips. His pulse racing in his wrists where they rest against myjaw. “I am so sorry, Lola,” he says. “For this morning. For what I said. For letting you leave that house thinking?—”
“Stop.” I press my finger to his lips. “Don’t.”
“I need to?—”
“You don’t.” I hold his eyes. “You came for me. You found Wyatt. You came, and you got me out.” My voice breaks again, but I push through it. “That’s all that matters. The rest of it… It’s nothing. It’s dust. It’s already forgiven.”
His eyes close. A tear rolls down his cheek and disappears into his stubble.
“I nearly lost you,” he chokes out.
I reach up and wipe it away with my thumb. “Don’t cry, cowboy. You’ll ruin your tough-guy reputation.”
He laughs, and I smile. I actually fucking smile.
“That reputation went out the window the day I met you, city girl.”
He kisses me. His lips barely pressing against mine because he’s treating me like glass, and I don’t have the energy to tell him I’m not breakable. Not anymore.
Because right now, I need him to look after me.
When he pulls back, his hand slides down to mine. His thumb finds my bare ring finger and traces the empty space. “First thing when we get home,” he murmurs.
“First thing,” I agree.
He settles into the chair beside my bed, and he pulls it so close that the armrest presses against the mattress. His hand doesn’t leave mine.
“Is Wyatt okay?” I ask.
“He’s with Colten. He’s safe, I promise you.”
I nod. Letting the relief wash over me. All of this pain is worth it knowing that no harm came to our boy. “Does he know I’m okay?”
“Not yet. He’s asleep now. I’ll call Colten in the morning and bring him to see you.”
“Tell him I said I kept my promise. I came back.”
Hunter’s grip tightens on my hand. “Yeah, you did, firefly. You came back.”
“He called me mommy. Is… that okay?”
He brings my hand to his lips and presses a soft kiss there.
“That is the best damn thing I’ve ever heard in my life, other than you saying you’d marry me.”
I can’t stop the tears and the little hiccups that fall out of me. But I can’t fight my body any longer. Exhaustion is pulling me under. My body is screaming at me to rest. “Hunter?”
“Yeah, baby?”