“I have to see her.” She struggled against his hands.
“We’re stuck here for a little while. How about I call her?”
“Please.” Her weak and pitiful voice scared him.
He settled her body gently on the ground then made a video call to Russ. “Smith’s dead, and Megan’s injured. She needs to talk to Ella to see that she’s okay.”
“Hang on, I’ll go in there.”
“Russ is getting her.” Reid gently moved a strand of hair from Megan’s face. “Dr. Browne says she’s come through the worst.”
She smiled, soft and sweet and breaking his heart. “You came back.”
“I’m so sorry I left,” he said, filling his voice with the urgency driving him. “There’s no excuse for what I did, but when I saw how sick Ella was, I freaked out. After losing Diane the same way, I didn’t think I could survive if Ella didn’t make it.” He cupped the side of Megan’s face. “I didn’t get far before I knew I’d made a huge mistake. You needed me by your side, so I turned around.”
“God sent you back to me.”
“God, huh? Sounds like you patched things up with Him. When did that happen?”
“Let’s just say a man holding his gun to your head has a way of making things clear.”
“I’m so sorry about that, Megan.” He gently stroked the side of her face. “That would never have happened if I hadn’t taken off.”
“You don’t know that. Besides, if Smith hadn’t taken me, I might not have discovered God really was with me.” She held his hand. “Just like you said. I let my circumstances separate me from Him. But when I reached the end of everything I could do for myself, my only choice was to admit He didn’t exist or decide He was with me regardless of what happened in my life. Now, thanks to Smith, no matter what I face in the future, I’ll know God is by my side.”
“I’d like to be by your side too. I love you, and if you give me another chance, I’ll never leave you again. Never.”
“Here she is, bro,” Russ said over the phone, interrupting any response Megan might have to his admission of love.
He handed the phone to Megan. “Ella,” she said, then stared at the screen.
He couldn’t see what Ella was doing, but Megan smiled, and the world opened up as if a ray of sunshine had broken through the tree canopy and illuminated them.
He sucked in a breath at this woman’s beauty. He’d been such a fool to leave her. He loved her so much. But his feelings didn’t matter right now, did they? Not after bailing on her.
He gazed at her, fear filling the void in his chest and replacing the optimism of a future together. No matter how much he loved her, would she ever be able to forgive him for abandoning her a second time?
Ella’s excited voice bolstered Megan, as did her smile, but it came from an illness-ravaged face. Still, it didn’t lessen Megan’s joy. It even covered the excruciating pain radiating through her leg.
Her precious child was out of the woods and getting better, and Megan had survived Smith’s attack. Only one way that had happened. God had heard her prayers or prayers offered on her behalf by others.
How could she doubt that He was close after that? Sure, skeptics would say if He was watching out for her that she would never have been held hostage by Smith as that was a terrible experience. She would counter with the fact that no one could know God’s reasoning. She could only believe God’s promise in the Bible that He would work this and everything for her good.
Ella chattered away, telling Megan how her new friend Sydney had been reading to her. Ella looked tired, but she was on the mend again, and people who cared for her well-being surrounded her. No, not just people, but the Maddox clan—a family who seemed to be reaching out and drawing her and Ella into their midst.
Ella described the latest Christmas book, and Megan peered at the one Maddox who mattered the most to her. Their gazes met. Desperation lingered there.
I love you…
His words spun through her head. She wanted to reach out for them. Grab hold. Believe in them. Let them convince her to accept something better than she’d ever known. But how?
“Mommy, did you hear me?” Ella demanded.
“Sorry, sweetie, what did you say?”
“I asked if we could spend Christmas at the lodge with Jessie and all of her family.”
Another glance at Reid. “We haven’t been invited.”
