“He’s probably stuck at the airport,” Rusty offers.
“Roxanne, why don’t you take a hot shower,” Leo says. “You must be freezing.”
I try to protest, but then my teeth start chattering. “Thank you.” I wrap my arms around Rusty.
He closes his warm, fatherly arms around me and presses his chin to the top of my head. “Crazy lady. You could’ve been hurt out there, but that was a noble thing you did. Goose won’t forget it.”
He releases me and I wipe a tear away with the back of my hand because there’s only one person I want to talk to now. Only one person I want to tell about Goose, about the storm, and about the fact that I wasn’t afraid this time. I hand Rusty his coat back and head upstairs to change, shower, and wait up all night if I have to until Duke comes home.
homecoming
DUKE
By the timeI pull up the drive, the storm has calmed, but my chest hasn’t. Hours of tension, a charter flight reroute, and Rusty’s text with half-buried information about what happened with Roxanne, have me sprinting up to the house like I’m dodging sniper fire. I tip the driver, grab my bags, and burst through the door.
Everyone is sitting in the great room, low lights still on. Leo’s barefoot, a blanket around his shoulders. Rusty’s got a mug of something he’s sipping, and they both rise when I come in. My eyes land on Roxanne, asleep on the sectional, Jameson curled up against her hip. Her hair is damp, cheeks pink, chest rising slow and steady. She’s tucked in under one of those thick throws from the linen closet, wrapped up like she’s finally let herself rest.
Suddenly, I forget how to breathe.
“Hey,” Rusty says softly. He motions for us to talk in the kitchen and Leo follows. “We were waiting up ’til you got here, but…” he glances toward the couch. “She conked out finally.”
I nod and Rusty moves closer and drops his voice. “She forgot to lock the door to the house and when she thought Jameson hadwandered out … she went out there alone, into the storm, saw Goose stuck in the paddock, and she didn’t even hesitate.”
My head swirls with questions, but all I can think about is holding her. Part of me was pissed off that she would put herself in danger and part of me is overwhelmed by the fact that this seems like something the “old Roxanne” would do. Maybe she has finally healed enough here to be the woman she was fighting to restore.
“She went out into that mess for Jameson and Goose?” My voice is quiet, but it scrapes my throat raw.
Rusty’s nod is slow. “Didn’t think twice.”
“I should’ve been here.”
“She didn’t need you to be here,” Rusty says gently. “She chose to be brave on her own, but she’s gonna need you now.”
Leo glances toward the couch and back at me. “And you two probably would like to be alone.”
Rusty claps a hand on Leo’s shoulder. “I’ll drop you back at the lodge and then head back to my house.”
“Thanks for waiting up,” I say.
“We knew you wouldn’t have wanted us to leave her alone,” Leo says as he grabs a bag and heads out with Rusty. I wait until the door clicks shut and approach the couch. Jameson finally notices me and hops down, wagging his stump of a tail.
“Hi, bud,” I whisper, kneeling to scratch behind his ears. “You gave everyone a heart attack, huh?” He wiggles into my leg, then plops right down like he’s decided I’m not allowed to leave again. When I look up, she’s staring at me with these lovely sleepy eyes.
“Duke?” Her voice is sleep-warm and full of relief.
“Hey, beautiful,” I say, moving toward her.
She pushes herself up, the blanket falling around her waist. “You made it back.”
I sit beside her and brush a strand of hair from her face. “Thatunhinged squall was not going to keep me from getting to you tonight.”
She smiles then, wide and full of something soft and golden, and my whole damn core erupts with giddiness.
“I missed you,” she whispers.
“There’s actually no way to quantify how much I missed you.” A beat of silence follows, and then I shake my head. “You went out into a storm, though? You could’ve gotten hurt?—”
“I had to,” she says. “Jameson was missing. Goose was out.”
