Chapter 22
Laird
I was losing my mind. It was still a full day before I would get to see Fiona. I was alone with my thoughts – after Jackson had called Fiona for me, he had left to do work, and he would be busy all weekend.
I didn’t have anything to do, and it was driving me crazy. Usually, I would be right next to Jackson out there, handling the hikers, taking care of them, taking the invalids back down to the lodge.
Not that I had done such a swell job of it the last time. I had nearly written myself off, and I could have hurt the woman behind me badly as well. It wasn’t that I’d lost my nerve, but I wasn’t in the best place about the accident.
But that didn’t matter right now. What mattered was Fiona and that she was so damn far away. If my leg wasn’t hurting like a bitch right now, I would be pacing. Because I was stuck on my ass, my frustration was so much worse. I couldn’t even walk around to get some of this pent-up energy out.
I couldn’t imagine what she had been going through. To see me in a state like that only to have me wake up and not know who she was? It had to have been terrible. I tried to figure out how that would be like if I had been in her shoes. If she had been the one to nearly die, I would have lost my mind.
And the baby, God, the baby. How must she have felt thinking she would have to go through the pregnancy completely alone? That I didn’t even know who she was or anything about the baby? It had to have been torture. And Jackson hadn’t told me anything about her. What had he said to her about me?
The thought of Jackson trying to keep us apart in some way made my blood boil. I hadn’t pummeled him yesterday, but maybe I should have gotten a shot in.
But he had only been trying to help. I couldn’t blame him for doing that. What would I have done had I been in the same shoes? I shook my head, trying to get rid of the thoughts. Putting myself in everyone else’s shoes was doing nothing more than confusing me. What had happened, had happened. I couldn’t change that. All I could do was fix what had broken and move forward.
Now that I had all my memories, I didn’t have to start over, and that was a big deal.
I tried to get up and hobble around, but it hurt too much so I sat back down again. Shit. I couldn’t wait another twenty-four hours before I saw Fiona. I was going to lose my mind.
When I couldn’t take it anymore, I found my phone and called into town for a cab. It would cost me a shitload of cash to get a cab to come all the way out here to pick me up, but right now, I was willing to pay anything. I needed to see Fiona. I needed to get into town and see her face, to reassure her that everything was okay, now.
The cab took almost an hour to arrive, and it pissed me off that I had to wait so long, but finally, the car pulled up in front of the cabin. The driver opened the door.
“Mr. Fairchild?” he asked.
“That’s me,” I said, hobbling out of the house. The driver looked down at my cast and raised his eyebrows. I made my way to the car and maneuvered myself in. When I was buckled up and ready to go, the driver pulled out onto the main road. I was jostled around again and now and then my cast knocked against the door so that I curled in pain. The driver apologized profusely every time it happened.
Finally, we hit the main road, and it was smooth sailing from there. The drive to the city felt longer than usual but we arrived, and I directed the driver to Fiona’s offices. She had told me the name of her company, and it had been easy to find on Google.
“Thank you,” I said to the driver and paid him.
“Are you going to be okay getting inside?” he asked.
I nodded. “I’ll be fine, thank you.”
The driver took off, and I was left outside the building, looking up. I made my way inside, hobbling on my cast. I had brought my crutches, but I felt like I looked like a pussy using them.
As far as I went, heads turned toward me. Everyone was staring. I guess it wasn’t every day a rugged, muscular guy with crutches and a cast made their way through an office building.
I stopped in the lobby and found Fiona’s name on the list along with her office number.
Thank God, there was an elevator. I summoned it, and when the doors opened, I hobbled in. Two women were already in the elevator, and they made no effort to hide how they were looking me up and down.
When I reached Fiona’s floor, I hobbled out again and made my way down the corridor. She wasn’t in her office. I continued on, ending up in a break room where a handful of people were already standing around a coffee machine.
Fiona was one of them. When she saw me, her face changed. Her mouth opened in a little ”O” of surprise and everyone fell quiet.
“Laird,” she said breathlessly. My name was like music on her lips. I hobbled toward her and grabbed her, holding her against me. I balanced on one leg and held onto the woman that had become everything to me in the shortest time.
“I couldn’t stay away,” I said.
Her arms were wrapped around my body, pressing herself tightly against me and I knew I would never, ever let go. And neither would she. This was perfect. Everything between us was perfect. We were meant to be together – I knew it now more than ever.
“Come to my office,” Fiona said, letting go of me.
I shook my head. “Come home with me.”
She blushed. “Let’s talk in my office first,” she said. “At least get off that leg of yours.”
As soon as she pointed it out, my leg started throbbing, and I knew she was right. A murmur rippled through the rest of the crowd in the break room. Fiona blushed again as if she was self-conscious, and it was gorgeous. It made me hot for her. Whenever she blushed, I wanted to strip her down and make her mine again, give her something to blush about.
Fiona took me to her office and offered me a seat.
“I can’t believe you came all the way here,” she said.
“I had to see you.”
She walked toward me and kissed me. It was a long kiss, an I-thought-I’d-lost-you kiss. It made my head spin.
“Come home with me,” I said.
“I have so much work left,” Fiona said.
“So? You have the rest of our lives together to do that. Come home with me.”
She paused for a moment before she turned around and left the office. I was alone in the office for a while before she returned.
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay?”
She nodded and smiled. “Charlene heard that you were here and Jamie, a colleague of mine, told her it was you. She’s letting me go, but I have to work a bit on my laptop this weekend.”
“Let’s go,” I said and got up.
Fiona laughed. “Take it easy.”
We called a cab, and when we were finally on our way home again, Fiona and I tangled together in the back seat. I put my hand on her cheek. She leaned into me.
“I’m sorry I forgot you,” I said.
Fiona shook her head. “Don’t. It’s not your fault. I’m so glad you’re back.”
She put her hands on my cheeks and kissed me, and I forgot about everything, but this time it was the good kind of forgetting. When Fiona broke the kiss, there were tears in her eyes.
“Don’t cry, sweetheart,” I said. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and I wiped them with my thumbs. “Have I told you how beautiful you are?”
She smiled, and I kissed her. When I kissed her, I was home. I wasn’t ever going to let her go again. And I wasn’t going to forget her, either. Fiona was the woman for me, and no matter what, that wasn’t going to change.