“I was so scared he’d kill you or Gracie,” Ava said. “He killed Greg. He was the one who killed him. We’re so lucky you got him. Make sure he is watched.”
“We are. That man is never going to hurt you again, Ava. He’s not getting near Gracie,” he said to her. She wanted tobelieve him. Chay had never lied to her, but she was in pain and couldn’t stop crying.
“He almost got Gracie.”
“But you saved her. You saved our girl,” he said.
Our girl.She was their girl. Chay wanted her to be as well. As soon as her body stopped throbbing in time with her heart and her head cleared, she was going to tell him that they were getting married.
He tried to lift her, but she winced in pain and he laid her back down. “Where does it hurt?”
“Everywhere. I think he might have broken my ribs…I definitely have a concussion. I’m cold and tired,” she said, feeling herself starting to fade. Now that Chay was here, she knew she didn’t have to stay alert.
He wouldn’t let anything happen to her. “Where’s Gracie?”
“With Grandmother. She’s safe.”
“He thought Gracie was our daughter,” Ava said.
“He was right,” Chay said. “She is ours. And as soon as you are better, we are going to start the paperwork to make her ours.”
Or that’s what she thought he said. She sort of drifted in and out of consciousness after that. She remembered being transported to the hospital, but then it was all a bit black. She woke up two days later in a room not dissimilar to the one she’d been visiting Fern in.
Chapter 23
Chay hadn’t left Ava’s side since they’d brought her into the hospital. Her parents and brother had been by. As had his grandmother, Jacob and a slew of other people who knew her. Ava was like that. Lots of friends who cared about her.
If he needed another example of how different they were, he’d gotten it, but the truth was he had enjoyed those visits. Had felt like he was part of her inner circle. Even if, for a loner, it had been a bit overwhelming at first.
Ryan had brought her a bag of M&M’s—apparently she’d spoken to him about her long-ago deception. It had made Chay laugh to think of Ava apologizing for a childhood prank.
Gracie was sleeping quietly in his arms. He couldn’t wait to share with Ava that he’d started the paperwork to try to adopt Gracie. Something that he knew would please her. But more importantly, he couldn’t wait to tell her that he loved her. He’d been scared he wouldn’t get the chance to.
When he’d seen Daniel Wayne holding that gun to her head…that was something that Chay wasn’t going to forget for a very long time.
Gracie’s eyes opened up, and she made that little cry she did when she woke up. Chay stood up and sort of jostled the baby on his shoulder, trying that rocking move his grandmother had showed him.
“Shh…yazhi, Mama’s sleeping and we don’t want to wake her up,” Chay said, making a circuit around the room. “She’s had a rough few days.”
“But she’s safe now,” Ava said from the bed.
“Mamam,” Gracie said, turning her body toward Ava’s voice. The baby had wanted to cuddle with Ava, but of course that hadn’t been possible.
“Hey there,” he said as she adjusted the bed and tried to raise it. Holding her arms out for Gracie.
He handed her the baby and then helped get the bed into a sitting position. “How are you feeling? Do you need me to ring the nurse?”
“Groggy, tired, I get why Fern doesn’t like to be drugged. It’s such a weird feeling. I’m thirsty, too,” she said.
He got her some water and handed it to her so she could drink. “I’m sure you have some questions.”
“Lots of them. How did you find me?”
“Lou remembered there were a string of old hunting cabins that ran along the edge of the wilderness. We divided them up. I choose the one farthest from the house, figured he was going to want to get as far away as he could before the storm hit again.”
“I don’t remember much of that. He knocked me out. I was so afraid he was going to get in the house and then kill Gracie and wait to kill you.”
Her hands trembled and there were tears in her eyes. He wanted to hug her, but she had an IV hooked up and he wasn’t sure how to get close without disturbing it. Leaning over, he squeezed her shoulder and dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
