“What else is wrong with me?” Fear sent a shiver through me. “Am I paralyzed?”
“No.” Wilder’s breath was shaky as tears spilled against his lashes. “Broken arm and erm, a huge gash down your side. You probably ache because you were thrown to the ground. You saw him coming for you and at the last minute jumped to one side. Otherwise…fuck, Brownie, I don’t want to think about it.”
He pressed his lips to my palm and then placed it against his cheek. I watched his throat bob on a hard swallow and felt more tears well against my lashes.
“Something else you should know.”
“What is it?” I asked, the dried blood under his fingernails making me realize he’d been through hell, too.
“It was Glenn who was sending the messages, and it was Glenn who let Petey out of the paddock.”
I gave a shocked gasp and Wilder leaned closer.
“The sheriff got him and found a burner phone, but we’ll talk about that once you’re feeling a little better. All you need to know is he can’t hurt you any longer.” His exhausted eyes blinked slowly. “Christ, if I’d lost you. I don’t…”
“Hey, I’m not going anywhere,” I whispered. “I’m staying here.”
“Good because I’m never letting you go.” He swallowed. “I-I love you Brownie. I know it’s not what we agreed on, but I do. I don’t know if you love me, but I don’t care. I love you and want to start a life with you. I want a future with you.”
He said it like he was surprised by the truth of it, like the words had been growing inside of him without permission. I understood that feeling, the sense of it happening rather than choosing it. Like gravity. Like the weather. Love between us had been inevitable, it was simply waiting until we were both ready to understand it. The tears that had threatened moments before started to crawl slowly and I could taste the salt on my lips, feel wetnesson my cheeks. My heart and stomach flipped in unison as warmth spread through my chest, momentarily defeating the pain.
“You sure?” I asked between sobs. “You love me?”
“So fucking much, Brownie.” Wilder laughed and sniffed at the same time. “You crept up on me when I had no damn clue you were what I needed. What I wanted. Best thing my brother ever did hiring you.”
“You think?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” He blew out a breath, puffing up his cheeks. “Don’t want to think about himnotmaking that decision.”
“Me neither,” I said, my chest clenching at the idea of not ever meeting him. “Must have been fate, right?”
“I know it’s a lot, especially after what you’ve been through, but you had to know. How I was feeling.”
At that moment a stabbing pain hit me in the side, winding me and I grimaced.
“You okay?” Wilder asked anxiously, looking toward the door. “Let me get a nurse.”
“No, no, I’m fine, honey, honestly.” The pain was excruciating but I needed to tell him before I passed out again. “I love you, too. I have for a while, but I was too stupid or maybe too scared to tell you.” Another wave of pain took my breath away. “I just…” I took a deep breath. “I just didn’t know if it was what you wanted.”
“Didn’t know I did, Brownie, didn’t know I did.”
He leaned closer to kiss me, the salt of our tears mixing into a promise for the future.
My brothers were like two ends of the spectrum. Liam was sitting, grim-faced, staring at me like he was scared I was going to drop dead. While Cole, he insisted on cracking jokes about doing anything to get a month or so off work, all while eating the candy he’d brought for me. He didn’t want to, but I’d made Wilder go to the hospital cafeteria to grab himself some food. Insisting he wasn’t hungry didn’t cut it when his stomach growled loudly.
“Liam, I’m going to be fine.” I could hear his breathing, tense with worry. “Stop looking at me like I’m already dead.”
“You fucking could have been,” he said low and growly. “If I find that guy he’ll wish he was, believe me.”
“You’ll have to get past the sheriff and Wilder. He has first dibs,” Cole added, throwing a Gummy Bear into his mouth. “And I don’t fancy anyone’s chances against a cowboy in love.”
“I could take him,” Liam grumbled, crossing his arms over his broad chest.
Cole shrugged, his shoulders staying up around his ears. “I don’t know man. You tell men what to do and he wrestles cows for a living. My money is on him.”
“And you draw fucking pictures for a living, so I guess you’d be bottom of the pile, shit head.”
“I’m an architect, so my pictures cost a whole heap of money.” Cole never took offence at anything Liam ever said to him. No one did, probably because he lived under a constant gray cloud of misery.
