I jerk back. "What?"
"When this is over. When I'm healed. Move into my cabin." His eyes are intense, urgent. "I know you have a company in San Francisco. I know you have a life there. But we can figure it out. Commute, remote work, whatever it takes. I just need you close, Mara. Need to wake up next to you. Need to know you're safe."
"You're asking me to uproot my entire life."
"I'm asking you to build a new one. With me." His hand finds my face, thumb brushing away tears I didn't know were still falling. "I spent three years in these mountains alone. Planning, preparing, controlling every variable. And then you showed up and destroyed all my carefully constructed walls in less than a week. I don't want to rebuild them. I want to build something new. Something with you."
"Boone..."
"You don't have to answer now. I know it's a lot. I know I'm probably high on painkillers and saying things I should wait to say. But I almost died tonight, and it made me realize that Idon't want to waste any more time not telling you exactly what I want." He takes a shaky breath. "I want you, Mara. All of you. Every chaotic, brilliant, impossible part."
I stare at him. This controlled, methodical man who plans for every contingency, lying in a hospital bed, asking me to throw out my own life plan and build a new one with him.
It's insane. It's reckless. It's everything I've spent my career telling myself I don't have time for.
And it's exactly what I want.
"Yes."
His brow furrows. "Yes?"
"Yes, I'll move in with you. Yes, I'll figure out the logistics. Yes, I'll build a life with you in these ridiculous mountains with your ridiculous team and your ridiculous cabin with the panic buttons." I'm laughing now, tears streaming down my face. "Yes, Boone. To all of it."
He pulls me down for another kiss, deeper this time, and I'm careful of his injuries but not careful of my heart. I give it all to him, every beat, every breath.
The door opens behind us. I pull back, wiping my face, expecting a nurse.
It's my father.
Richard Plummer stands in the doorway, gray haired and broad shouldered and looking like he hasn't slept in days. His eyes move from me to Boone to our joined hands, and his expression cycles through about seventeen emotions before settling on something that looks remarkably like satisfaction.
"So." He crosses his arms. "Anyone want to explain why I just flew six hours to find my daughter making out with my best friend in a hospital bed?"
"Richard." Boone tries to sit up, winces, settles back. "I can explain."
"Can you?" My father moves into the room, his presence filling the space. "Can you explain why you didn't tell me you were falling for my daughter? Can you explain why I had to hear from Deck that you took two bullets protecting her? Can you explain why the first words out of your mouth when you woke up from surgery were apparently about her instead of, I don't know, the fact that you almost died?"
"Dad." I stand, positioning myself between them. "This isn't his fault."
"I didn't say it was anyone's fault." My father's expression softens as he looks at me. "I'm not angry, sweetheart. I'm..." He shakes his head. "I'm relieved. About all of it."
"Relieved?"
"I asked Boone to protect you because he's the best man I know. Loyal, capable, dedicated. Everything I'd want for my daughter." He moves around me to Boone's bedside, looking down at the man who nearly died for me. "I just didn't expect you to fall in love with her in the process."
"Neither did I." Boone meets my father's eyes steadily. "But I did. And I won't apologize for it."
"I'm not asking you to." My father reaches out, gripping Boone's uninjured shoulder. "I'm asking you to take care of her. Not because she needs protecting. Because she deserves someone who sees her. All of her."
"I see her." Boone's voice is rough. "I see everything."
My father nods slowly. Then he pulls Boone into a careful, awkward half hug that makes Boone wince and my eyes fill with fresh tears.
"Welcome to the family," my father says gruffly. "Now stop getting shot. It's terrible for my blood pressure."
He releases Boone, turns to me, and opens his arms. I fall into them, breathing in the familiar scent of his cologne, feeling his strength surround me the way it has my entire life.
"I'm sorry I lied about why you were coming here," he murmurs into my hair. "I just needed you safe."
