Page 68 of Her Loving Hero

That may be true, but she still gave away some key hesitations, but they were making progress. She now flowed into his embraces like honey and would sometimes pull his head down and demand to be kissed. But anytime she felt the slightest bit hemmed in, she jolted, and he saw that infinitesimal flinch the two times he had told her she was perfect. She was perfect, but she still didn’t believe it.

“Are you really, Em?”

Her eyes flicked sideways, then she faced him head on. “Yes, I’m sick of waiting. I want to be normal. I’m sick of being scared, and I want to get it over with. Once we do it, things can move forward as a real couple.”

“Emily Lynn, as stimulating as it sounds to ‘get it over with you’, I had something a tiny little bit more romantic in mind.”

“But then I’ll screw it up,” she wailed.

“You can’t fail at this, that’s the whole point. This is about love, about expressing our love for one another. You love me, don’t you Emily?”

Her eyes welled up with tears. “I love you so much more than I ever thought was going to be possible. I didn’t even want to like you when I first met you, because you were a Navy SEAL. But you’re like the shore, and I’m the sea. I find myself coming back to you time after time.”

He took her hand and kissed her palm before placing it on his chest. “I love you too. I know deep in my heart we were meant for one another, and when we finally make love, it will be beautiful.”

Her smile dazzled. “You’re right. You’ve got this,” she said.

“No, Honey. We’ve got this.”

* * *

She should have insistedon sex.

Sex now.

Immediately.

Urgently.

But no, she’d practically fallen into a puddle of love goo in Wyatt’s lap thinking about candlelight and rose petals, and they’d been running fast and furious ever since. The phone had rung, and typical Family Hoag style, she finds out her sisters are already on their way to Los Angeles, and Wyatt was called to the base for an emergency meeting.

The fun didn’t stop coming, because when Ben can’t get ahold of Wyatt, he calls her to say that his dad had called him in the hospital. The man had been drunk and unintelligible, and now Ben couldn’t get ahold of either of his younger brothers.

She’d been due to visit Ben anyway to go over tomorrow’s discharge, so she hot footed it to the Loma Linda Hospital and found a young man who was clearly agitated.

“Can you get Wyatt on the phone?” were the first words out of Ben’s mouth.

“He’s in a briefing, so all phones are off. As soon as he gets out, he’ll call either you or me,” she assured him. “In the meantime, let’s get you checked out.”

Ben nodded, then winced. “I think I should stop with the nodding and shaking of the head. Is that in the booklet they gave you?” he asked Emily.

“Uh, no, it wasn’t. If they thought they needed to tell you that, they probably wouldn’t have let you leave,” she grinned at him. Boy, he looked so much better than he had when she’d first seen him in the hospital bed.

“I can see why Wyatt likes you, wise-ass flavored women are hot.”

“Quit flirting and sit your butt down in the wheelchair.” When he opened his mouth to protest, she held up her hand. “They’re not going to let you walk out of here on your own steam, so suck it up.”

Ben moved from the bedside where he had been sitting into the wheelchair. He was a little shaky. Emily needed to get him home and to bed as quickly as possible.

He pointed to his phone on the nightstand. “Can you hand me that?”

She handed it over and he checked it. “Still nothing from either Luke or Kyle.”

“How often have you been talking to them since you got here?”

“Every other day. Luke and Kyle are both done with school for the day and neither of them picked up when I called after Dad called me. Luke normally works at the auto supply store on Tuesdays. I called over there, they said he hadn’t shown up. There’s no answer at the landline.”

“If you call the police isn’t there something they can do?” Emily asked.