She settled in the crook of his arm, her head on his chest and her hand on his abdomen. He wiggled his left leg and she made a contented noise as she finished entwining their bodies. He said a quiet prayer of thanks as they lay there, just breathing together.
Fuck me, I could be dead right now.A hard knot formed in his throat and he closed his eyes.
“Rafe?” Her voice was shaky and small. He squeezed his arm around her as best he could. “I talked to Dani this afternoon. Lynn’s funeral will be the weekend after next. After we get home.”
He grunted. It was the best he could do without crying and he sure as shit wasn’t going to dothat. He needed to talk to Ryan. No, first he needed to talk to Dean. Find out what he needed to know about why Lynn had been there. How it all had gone so terribly wrong.
And then he needed to man up and call his friend. There weren’t any words to properly express his grief at not being able to save her life.Fuck.
“It’s okay,” Liv whispered, and he realized he’d lost his fight against the tears.Motherfucker.
She held him as he composed himself, and then they talked quietly into the night. He told her all of the things he’d been thinking in the weeks before the shooting. That he couldn’t change his work habits in big ways, but he’d make whatever shifts he could to prioritize their relationship. She told him it didn’t matter, but it did. It mattered more than anything else, especially now.
— TWENTY —
“DON’T even think about it,” Olivia warned as Rafe reached for his keys on the hook by the door.
“You’re seriously bossy, you know that?”
She’d never been in the past, but almost losing Rafe had changed that. She never wanted to let him out of her sight. “I’ll drive you to your physio appointment.”
“You’ve got work to do.”
“And I’ll do it when we get back.” Dancelight had been really good about letting her cut her hours back until after Christmas. The temporary loss of income had been mitigated nicely by the fact that she wasn’t carrying the mortgage on her own anymore. While they were in London, Rafe’s family had packed up his apartment and moved him back into their house, at her request.
They’d been home for two weeks. Rafe was cut out of the plaster cast before they left London, and at first blush he looked like his old self.
But there was no way he’d be able to brace his arm against the wheel if he hit black ice or quickly shift the truck between reverse and drive if he needed to rock his way out of a ditch. They’d had four days of snow and freezing rain. There was no way he was driving himself all the way to Owen Sound and back. The distance alone would be tiring for him.
“I’m driving. End of story.”
He lifted his eyebrows, obviously choosing to be amused instead of annoyed. But as she got closer, he flipped the keys to his left hand and raised them over his head. “Sure thing, short stuff.”
She batted at his arm, but she wasn’t going to haul on him. What was he thinking?
“Come and get them, Liv,” he repeated, his eyes darkening as he looked down at her. “Tackle me to the ground if you can’t climb me.”
“I’m not going tohurtyou, sweetie. Come on, we have to get going.”
“We’ve got a couple of minutes. This is important.” He slid his right hand around her waist and brought her in close enough so she could feel the beginning of an erection. He lowered his voice to a husky whisper. “You need to stop thinking of me as an invalid.”
“I don’t—“ She cut herself off. Yeah, maybe she had been. But he’d beenshot. “I’m just being careful.”You’re too important to me. God, just the thought of losing him made her teary.
“It’s going to be a long time before I can shoot a gun or play basketball, but I can drive. And Liv…” He nudged her cheek with his lips on his way to her ear. “I can accept blow jobs like a champ. Just sayin’.” She growled as he pressed the keys into her palm. “Come on. I’ll nap while you work up a good rage, and then I can drive back while you blow me.” He was good. Her lips twitched as he gazed down at her. “I’m. Not. Broken.”
“Are you sure you didn’t hit your head at some point?”
He shrugged. “It’s possible.”
They held hands for much of the drive. She dropped him at the clinic and went grocery shopping, and on the way back he actually did fall asleep.See?She wanted to tell him.You’re not one hundred percent. But he wasn’t an invalid, either. She thought about that box of lingerie she’d ordered and never had a chance to wear before their lives were disrupted. She’d been thinking of bringing one of the outfits out at Christmas, now just ten days away. A formal reintroduction of intimacy to their relationship. She’d read articles on range of motion and the best positions, but still…it had seemed scary. And now Rafe had just ripped off that bandage with ease.
Or at least peeled up the edge.
She glanced across the car to her sleeping man. She did have work to do, a couple of hours of proofreading location schedules, and that needed to get done today. But as soon as she’d sent that off, she was going to shave her legs and put on something silky.
— —
When they got back to Pine Harbour, Rafe convinced Olivia he could safely drive across the village to his parents’ house while she did her work. He ignored the deep tug as he looked over his shoulder reversing out of the drive.You’re fine. Just park on the street in front of their house.
