"Yes." She reached for him with her good arm. "Please."
He sat carefully on the edge of the bed and gathered her against him as gently as he could manage. She buried her face in his chest, and he felt her shoulders shake with silent sobs.
"I've got you," he murmured into her hair. "You're okay. You're safe."
"I'm sorry," she choked out. "I should've been paying attention. I should've?—"
"Don't. Don't apologize for something you had no control over." Devon pulled back enough to cup her face in his hands, careful of the bruise. "This wasn't your fault."
"Callie said—" Emery stopped herself, fresh tears spilling over.
"What did Callie say?"
"That you'd get bored with me. That I was just a distraction. Someone you felt sorry for." Her voice was barely a whisper. "That you'd leave when I stopped being broken enough to need saving."
Fury and heartbreak warred in Devon's chest. "Look at me."
She met his eyes, and the vulnerability in hers nearly undid him.
"I’m not going to get bored with you. You're not a distraction or a project or someone I'm trying to save." Devon's thumbs traced her cheekbones, wiping away tears. "You're the woman I'm falling in love with. The woman I want to wake up next to every morning. The woman who's brave enough to stand up and fight when the whole world's trying to knock her down."
"You're falling in love with me?" Her eyes grew wide, but if he wasn’t mistaken, her lips twitched into a tiny smile.
"Have been for months. Was too stubborn to admit it until you almost got—" He couldn't finish. Couldn't say the words.
"Killed," Emery finished quietly. "I almost got killed.”
"I know." He rested his forehead against hers, careful of her injuries. "And I swear to God, we're going to find out who is doing this. We're going to stop them. But right now, all I care about is that you're here. That you're okay."
"I'm scared."
"Me too."
They sat like that for a long moment, foreheads pressed together, breathing in sync. The hospital sounds faded into background noise—distant beeps and footsteps and overhead pages. All that existed was this room, this moment, this woman in his arms.
"Devon?" Her voice was small.
"Yeah?"
"I think I'm falling in love with you, too."
His breath caught. "Really?"
“I am.” She pulled back to look at him, a watery smile on her bruised face. "Even though you have terrible taste in past girlfriends and your mother is already planning our wedding and your sisters are exhausting."
"My sisters are definitely exhausting," he agreed, relief and joy flooding through him. "Anything else?"
"I’m starving."
“I’ll get a snack, but I’m sure the second Elsa hears what happened, she’ll be in early and staying late trying to nurse you back to health.”
“Oh, Elsa’s waffles and bacon. I could be down with that.”
He laughed, the sound surprising him. How could he laugh when she'd just been hit by a car? But sitting here with her, acting like this was just another normal day at the winery while she looked at him with love in her eyes despite the fear—it felt right.
Devon was going to make sure that Emery didn’t have to lift a finger for the next few days. And whoever was trying to destroy her was going to learn a tough lesson about what happened when you came after someone a Boone loved.
Thirteen
