NAOMI
With the fluorescent light buzzing overhead, I finally found the strength to sit up. My head pounded in pain and my mouth felt like it was on fire. But, it still didn’t stop me from looking down at my left hand. It didn’t stop me from studying my left ring finger, clocking the stark tan like across my skin. I didn’t even tan easily. I always burned more than anything else. I was freckled from head to toe from sun damage as a child, and yet the tan line was clear as day.
For years, I’d been wearing a promise to Gordon that he had never once anted up on. We should’ve been married years ago, but he always kept finding reasons to put it off. His career, or Dad’s health, or the move into the house, or something with his friends.
There had always been something more important than our wedding day.
That is, until he had sprung that “surprise” on me.
“Selfish bastard,” I murmured.
It wasn’t the tan line that struck me as odd, though. Well, it was odd, but it didn’t explain how light I felt on my feet. Removing that ring from my body had released me from a burden I never once realized I had been carrying around. I felt so flipped upside down, and I couldn’t make sense of it. I was free, but not at the same time. And yet, every time I thought about returning to my life, it scared me. Being held as an actual prisoner had shown me just how jailed I had been in my relationship with Gordon. At my job. In the fight to keep my father from death. Everything in my life had trapped me, and I never understood how bad it had gotten until those guys had removed me from it.
Until I had a reason to step away from it.
Since when did I hate my life so much?
Dum, dum. Dum. Dum, dum, dum. Dum, dum. Dum.
Footsteps above my head ripped me from my trance. I turned around, forcing my pain into the back of my mind as I made myself face the door. I slid to the edge of the bed, still holding the melted ice pack to my face. And when Ranger appeared in the doorway, my heart skipped a beat.
“Hey,” I said softly.
He stood in the doorway, his body filling it up as his head fell off to the side. “You’ll never be bothered again at the bar.”
I swallowed hard. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
He started walking toward me. “Do you really want to know?”
I tilted my head back to keep him in view. “I don’t get any of this.”
He knelt in front of me, crooking his finger beneath my chin as he gazed into my eyes. “Neither do I.”
“I don’t—I don’t understand anything, anymore.”
He stayed there, unwavering and unmoving, as his finger held me hostage.
“I just--,” I said breathlessly.
“Take your time,” he said.
I had no more energy to fight. “It’s like… just… everything… it was all a lie, you know? With Gordon, a-a-a—and… and everything.”
His finger moved before he cupped his hand on top of mine, holding the ice pack to my cheek. “I think you need another one.”
I snickered. “Yeah, I think so.”
A shadow of a grin ticked his cheeks. “Sometimes, sweet girl, no one knows what they want until they’re staring it in the face.”
My gaze searched his. “Yeah?”
He nodded. “Yeah. That’s how it was with me and my crew when I first pledged.”
I shrugged. “Maybe you can tell me the story sometime.”
“Maybe over breakfast.”
I scooted closer to the edge of the bed as my voice fell to a whisper. “Maybe.”
