Page 54 of Always My Love

He dished them each a huge bowl, and they took the dessert into the living room and watched television.

After Harper fell asleep, he let the dogs out to do their business. When they came back, they had mud on their feet so he kept them in the laundry room. They immediately snuggled down for the night, content.

Then he went into the living room, picked up Harper, and carried her up to the bedroom. She woke halfway up the stairs and held onto him.

“I’m so very glad I went with you to get a puppy.” She sighed. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”

“Me either,” he said, stopping at the top of the stairs to brush a kiss across her forehead.

“This whole town is amazing,” she said as he set her down on the bed. She started pulling off her jeans and then removed her bra while he slid off his jeans.

They crawled into bed, and he pulled her close to his chest as she faced away. He wrapped his arms tightly around her.

“It’s the reason Hailey and I are fighting instead of bolting. We love this place. We both want to stay. We used to have bug-out bags,” she admitted, “just in case.”

“But… you’re staying,” he asked, feeling his heart skip.

“Yes,” she answered with a sigh.

“Good,” he said. He felt her drift off to sleep.

He replayed their conversation, along with the events of the entire day, in his head as he lay there holding her. He thought all the way back to the first time he’d seen Harper. How she’d immediately spiked his interest. But her obvious fear had made him hesitate to ask her out right away.

When he finally drifted off to sleep, his dreams took him back to that night when he’d seen one of his friends covered in the blood of his family.

“Nick!” Harper shook him until he jolted awake.

“What?” He came off the bed, ready for a fight.

“You were having a nightmare,” Harper said, looking up at him.

Every muscle in his body relaxed as he sat back down on the bed. He glanced at the clock and groaned.

The sun would be coming up in less than an hour. Which meant there was zero chance of him falling back asleep now.

“Are you okay?” she asked, wrapping her arms around him.

“Yeah.” He ran his hands over his face, already wishing for a do-over of the morning.

“Want to talk about it?” Harper asked.

He thought of telling her no, of trying to convince her to go back to sleep. But then he realized just how much she’d opened up to him in the past day.

He climbed into bed, pulled her into his arms, and started telling her the reason his dreams were haunted.