M att was holding her hand when Pip finally awoke. She fought off the instinctive panic being in the hospital brought her and forced herself to stay calm. Matt was alive and looking down at her. Holding her .

Smiling .

Which meant…they were all ok, weren’t they? “Matt, where’s Perci ?”

“Next door. I heard her yelling at Nate a few minutes ago. Apparently, he threatened to chain her ass to the hospital bed if she so much as moved a muscle. And that’s a direct quote.” His voice was horse beyond belief. His arm was in plaster and he had stitches in his forehead. But he was alive and leaning over her—from a hospital bed that had been pushed up right next to hers. “She’s ok, honey. She did break her leg, and she’ll have a scar where that damned rafter landed. But she’ll be just fine eventually. We all three will .”

“And Jay? What happened to him?” The last thing Pip remembered was Perci telling the EMTs—people her sister knew through the hospital—that Gunderson was an attempted murderer and her sister and Matt were to be treated first. The EMTs had listened .

It had been hard not to with Jay Gunderson screaming over and over again that Matt needed to die, that Perci did, too, for trying to keep Pip away from him .

She’d never forget the things he’d been yelling or what he had tried to do .

Pip was not going to let herself be afraid of him anymore. He had almost taken everything from her this time. But she hadn’t let him win. She had fought him herself. Fought for the people she loved most in the world .

And she had won .

It had been a team effort, but no one lived in a vacuum, did they? Family and loved ones and those she could trust—that was what mattered .

She loved the man looking down at her. Holding her, when he should have been lying down resting, healing. Taking care of himself instead of her .

If he was busy taking care of her all the time, who was taking care of him ?

That was going to be her job from now on—showing him just how much she loved him. Trusted him .

Wanted him. Loved him. Was there any other way for her to put it, even to herself? She’d probably started trusting him the day he’d been there at the flooded river. Caring about him as the weeks had passed and they’d been together. Loving him the moment he’d given her Wind Lover, perhaps. Or the first time he’d ever kissed her .

Or the moment she’d realized he wanted her. That she mattered to him as much as he had grown to matter to her .

Or when he had touched her for the first time in that barn .

It had only become clear to her when that damned Jay Gunderson had almost taken him from her .

“I love you.” It mattered that she be the first to say it, didn’t it? That she be in control of this epic change in her future. It mattered .

He leaned down and kissed her lightly—she had a stitch or two in the side of her mouth where Gunderson had hit her—and whispered the words right back to her .

Pip reached out and wrapped one arm around him gently. He looked so banged up and battered, after all .

She just held him as close as she could .

Until his brother came in and forced Matt back into his own hospital bed. “Behave, you two. There will be plenty of time for that kind of stuff later. When you’re both able to sing your ABCs at the top of your lungs again. And no making me an uncle before you’re married. What would Mother say if you did that ?”

Matt laughed. “Be good, Nate. Or I’ll tell Mother all about the crush you have on Perci. And that you really need Mother’s help to convince her of your feelings. How would you like that ?”

“You are a horrible older brother, Matthew. But I am glad to see you’re alive to torment me. Now, back in your own bed. Or I’m ordering you moved across the room again .”

“Just try it and see. I’m right where I belong. And this is where I am staying .”

Pip was going to hold him to that. And she told him so as Nate finally stepped out of the room, leaving them completely alone .

They just stared at each other for a long, long time .