Page 90 of Her Devoted HERO

“What?”

“Stop trying to make everybody else feel better.”

“Now that she knows Buddy is doing well, Rosalie is intent on doing as much as she can for Lyle’s victims. She’s sure it is all her fault for forcing Buddy to buy Lyle’s company, and she’s paying for the funeral services and―”

Dex drove his fists on either side of her waist, and his face stopped inches from hers. “The only victim I give a shit about is you.”

“She’s a victim too. Buddy almost died. Her grandson almost died. She feels terrible.”

“He was a whackjob, Kenna. You can’t predict crazy.” Dex kissed her forehead. “You’re going to be here two more days, and instead of recovering I’ve seen you do nothing but try to make your mom, your son, Rosalie, and your co-workers feel better. You can worry about Austin, but nobody else. Especially me.”

“What are you talking about?” She scowled. “I’ve been a basket case around you.”

He slid his big hand under her back and hugged her close. “Do you know how scared I was at the thought of losing you? And now all you’ve tried to reassure me that you’re all right, instead of giving yourself the greenlight to have a meltdown.”

“Well, I am all right!” She pushed against him. “I survived.”

He pressed the softest kiss she’d ever felt against her neck. Tears pricked her eyes. “Of course, you survived, Kenna. You’re a survivor. Now lean on me. Can you do that?”

A tear trickled down her face. Could she? What happened if she leaned and then he went away, she would never stop falling. That she couldn’t survive.

Stop that. Those are old tapes, Kenna Leigh! This man is your own personal hero!

He moved his head so he could look into her eyes. “My life almost ended two days ago. You’re my everything. I want to be here for you.”

She looked into those diamond bright brown eyes and saw a new truth and the start of a new life for herself. She had somebody who loved her, somebody she could trust to take care of her heart.

“I’ll lean on you until the day I die,” she promised.

“Thank God.”

Epilogue

It had taken two months for Kenna to convince everybody that she was all right. Austin was the last hold-out. It turned out that he had watched too damned much of that fucking video to be placated with anything but the truth. Kenna sat on the picnic table at Moonlight Beach and watched her son up on his feet on the surfboard and thought about that conversation they’d had last week.

It’d been after a wrestling match where Austin had been called for unnecessary roughness, something that had never happened before. She could tell he was horrified because afterwards, he immediately let himself get pinned. On the ride home, she couldn’t get him to open up. When they got home, he went straight to his room.

It was one of the few times that Dex wasn’t spending the night, and Kenna was wound tight. She had trouble sleeping when he wasn’t there, so that night she was up watching a movie when Austin came downstairs.

“Mom, we need to talk.” He didn’t sit down beside her on the couch. Instead, he chose the recliner, and he sat forward, hands clasped in front of him. Kenna sat up.

“What is it?”

“I’ve heard you crying.”

Oh fuck.

He continued. “You’ve never come clean about that day.”

“Austin, I told you most of it,” she said slowly.

He looked up at her, his gaze solemn. “Dex is helping you with it. I know he is. You’re starting to heal. But I want to be there for you too.”

A sob bubbled up before she could contain it. Austin was out of his chair and beside her on the couch in an instant.

“Tell me.”

She was never going to tell her child everything that happened. But Christ on a cracker, could she have a better child?