The aching in his heart began to ease when he realized they were almost back to their original, kissable color. She was going to be okay. Physically, Ro was alive and was going to be okay.
As for the other, well. He would be just like he was now. Right by her side, every step of the way.
EPILOGUE
Three months later…
“Congratulations!”
Ro smiled wide hearing the joyful cheers and well-wishes. Today had been an absolutely perfect day.
Blue skies. Sunshine. White, puffy clouds filling the sky like the most perfect of paintings.
The day reminded her of that day with her dad. By the pond when he’d asked her to take a selfie with him. That had been a perfect day, too. And now, thanks to the man dancing in her arms, Ro realized…
I have so many more perfect days ahead.
There’d been a time she hadn’t been so sure. Right after Brody and the others had rescued her from that awful metal box.
She had no memory of her time inside there, thank God. But that didn’t diminish the residual terror the events leading up to her kidnapping had left.
The nightmares came less frequently now. During those first few weeks after Brody’s former team leader broke into his home and took her against her will, they’d come for her every time she closed her eyes.
Megan had referred her to the therapist she’d turned to after her ordeal. Ro liked the other woman a lot, and felt their sessions had really started to help.
Brody had attended some with her. The man was a constant surprise of support and encouragement. He was also the sweetest, most amazing lover she could have ever asked for.
And he was all hers.
“Penny for your thoughts.” His deep rumble brought her back to the present.
“Just thinking about how lucky I am.” She smiled up at him. “After everything, we’re both still here. Still together.”
Minus the times when he had to go to work, they’d damn near been inseparable.
“You happy?” Those dark eyes searched hers for the truth.
Ro’s lips curled into a wide, toothy smile. “Very.”
And she was happy. A bit damaged, perhaps. But who wasn’t?
Even Brody—a man she would have sworn could handle anything—had opened up to her about his own struggles with PTSD. Both during their shared sessions with her therapist and at home.
Home.
Almost immediately following her discharge from the hospital, they’d put her house up on the market and she’d moved into Brody’s house with him. It had been Ro’s decision. Brody had offered to move in with her.
But his house was bigger and needed less work, so it made sense that she be the one to move. Besides, something about living in a man’s house surrounded by his things…
Or maybe it was just this man that did thatsomethingto her.
“I love you, you know?” She stared up at him and smiled.
Brody’s bearded lips curled into a crooked grin that left her greedy sex craving what she’d already had just that morning. “I love you, too.”
They said those precious words to each other every single day. Multiple times a day, most weeks. And every time she heard them falling off this man’s lips, Ro felt as if it was the very first time all over again.
She’d heard him that day. She’d just come to, and he’d whispered them so softly. Ro was still struggling to comprehend what was going on around her, but she’d heard them.