Hunter hated seeing her so upset about her self-imagined inadequacies. To him she was perfect, exactly what he’d always wanted and so much more than he’d ever dared to dream. He’d meant it when he told her he didn’t need the words. Maybe he was being a fool. Maybe he was on the path to disaster, but at least he’d go happy.
Watching her sleep, he let her silky hair slide through his fingers. He thought about the ring he’d bought for her and wondered if he’d ever get the chance to give it to her. If he worked up the nerve to ask her, would she turn him down? If he asked her and she said no, would that ruin everything between them?
He couldn’t bear to think of that possibility. Did he wait until she was more secure in the relationship before he asked, or would a proposal tell her everything she needed to know about how serious he was? He wasn’t sure, and he was never unsure. He always knew what to do in any given situation. Or he had until now, until he fell in love with Megan.
Even with all her foibles and fears, he wouldn’t trade one minute with her for a lifetime with someone else. Somehow he had to find a way to convince her he was in it for keeps.
He should go to sleep. Tomorrow, he was going climbing with his brothers—a long-planned day trip that he wished now he hadn’t committed to. Tomorrow was also Nina’s last day at the diner—they were opening to give Nina one last chance to see everyone before she left—and he wanted to be there to support Megan. He was truly torn between the plans with his brothers and his desire to be with her.
Will had just gotten engaged, and he was still going. They’d be back by sunset, and he could lend his shoulder to Megan then. Blowing off his brothers wasn’t an option when they’d had these plans for weeks, unless he wanted to hear how pussy-whipped he was for the rest of his natural life. But oh how he wanted to blow them off.
For once, he was up before Megan to shower and grab some coffee that he took up to her when he woke her with kisses to her bare shoulder.
She came to with a groan. “Am I dead? Please tell me the truth because I feel like total death.”
“You’re very much alive and going to stay that way for at least ninety more years.”
“I’m not going to survive this day. Everything hurts.” She pulled back the covers to take a closer look at her hip, which had exploded in vivid shades of purple overnight.
“Oh, baby,” he said with a sigh. “That’s mean looking. We’ve got some stuff at the store for bruises. I’ll get you some later.”
She pushed herself up onto the pillows he piled behind her and took the coffee from him with a grateful smile. “I might still be here when you get back.”
“You’re more than welcome to be.”
“I’ve got to go to be with Nina. She needs me.”
“Will you need me?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll stay home if you want me to.”
She raised a brow. “And risk the relentless torment of your brothers? I wouldn’t do that to you. I like you too much.”
“That’s good to know.” He kissed her forehead and then her lips. “Take your time here this morning.” He pressed a key into her hand as he kissed her again. “Use this to get in later. I’ll meet you here when I get back.”
“You’re giving me the key to your house?”
“You’ve already got everything else. It’s just a key.”
“Thank you. You’ll be careful up on the rocks, right?”
“Always,” he said, touched by her concern. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I’ll make some dinner.”
“Don’t bother if you don’t feel like it. You need to take it easy. That was one hell of a fall you took. And did I say thank you enough yesterday for what you did for Hannah and the baby?”
She smoothed the hair off his forehead. “I did it for you, too. If she hurts, you hurt, and I don’t want you to hurt. That’s why I keep telling you—”
He kissed her, devouring her mouth with sweeping strokes of his tongue.
“Why do you never let me finish a sentence?”
“Because I don’t want to hear all the ways you’re not good for me. All I can see and hear and feel are the ways you’re entirely perfect for me.” He kissed her again, softer this time, lingering over the taste of coffee and Megan. “And on that note, I’ve got to go.”
She grabbed his hand. “You promise you’ll be careful, right?”
He kissed her forehead and then her lips again. He’d never get enough of those lips. “I promise.”
Hunter had fully intended to keep that promise, but hours later, riding in an ambulance after his brothers had carried him out of the mountains, all he could think about was Megan and what would happen when she heard he’d fallen. The paramedics had him strapped down so tight he could barely breathe, even with the oxygen they were giving him.
Riding with him, Landon hovered over him, looking anxious, dirty, sweaty and exhausted. Hunter wanted to ask his brother what had happened, but that would take energy he didn’t have. One minute he’d been clinging to the side of a sheer wall of rock, busting balls with his brothers and having a fantastic time testing his physical and mental limits. The next thing he knew, he was on a makeshift backboard looking up at trees rushing by as his brothers made a frantic sprint back to where they’d left their trucks to meet the rescue.
He’d been pretty out of it for most of the sprint, but he’d been aware enough to know that Lucas and Landon, both paramedics, had been dead serious about getting him the hell out of there.
“He’s trying to say something,” Landon said to the other paramedic, who removed the oxygen mask over Hunter’s face.
“What happened?” Hunter asked, every word causing him pain.
“Line slid through your hand, and you went down fast. Thankfully, it stopped you before you hit the ground, but you crashed into the wall hard on the way down.”
That explained the unbearable pain in his entire body, but how could that have happened? They were always so careful. “How bad?”
“Hard to tell, but nothing seems broken except maybe your elbow. We’ve got it immobilized. We’re worried about a head injury, too. You were out cold for a couple of minutes. Scared the living shit out of us.”
“Aw, you do love me,” Hunter said, even though the words cost him.
“Shut the fuck up,” Landon said with a grunt that might’ve been a laugh.
The other paramedic smiled at their banter, and Hunter could see the relief on Landon’s face. His younger brother looked away as he battled his emotions. Hunter hated to think about the ordeal he’d put his brothers through. “Megan.”
“Mom’s going to get her. They’re meeting us at the hospital.”
With the oxygen mask back in place, Hunter closed his eyes against the relentless pain in his skull. His parents must be freaking out, his grandfather … And poor Megan. He’d promised her he wouldn’t get hurt. She’d never forgive him for this.
Megan knew something was wrong the minute she saw Molly Abbott come rushing into the diner, her face ashen and her eyes wide with fear.
She wanted to run from whatever Molly had come to tell her, but there was no way out of the diner except through Molly.
“Megan, honey, there’s been an accident.”
The coffeepot in her hand crashed to the floor, smashing into a million pieces. Megan’s heart did the same thing, shattering into as many pieces at the thought of Hunter hurt or worse. “No,” she whispered, taking a step back. If she didn’t let Molly say the words she wouldn’t have to hear about something happening to him.
“Honey, he’s hurt, but he’s going to be okay.”
“No, please.”
Nina came to her side, putting her arm around Megan’s shoulders. “Megan, it’s okay. Molly said he’s alive but hurt, and he needs you.”
“He’s asking for you,” Molly added.
“I can’t.” This was exactly why she’d told him she couldn’t get involved. Something always happened to the people she cared about. They died, they moved away, they got hurt, they left. At the thought of Hunter being hurt, pain cut through her like a knife, leaving her bleeding inside.
“I thought you were made of better stuff than this, Megan,” Molly said, her disappointment coming through loud and clear.
“I’m not. I told him that. I told him I couldn’t do this. I told him.” She was sobbing so hard she couldn’t breathe.
“I’ll talk to her,” Nina said to Molly.
“Don’t bother,” Molly said as she turned and left the diner.
Megan wanted to call after her, to tell her to wait, to take her to him, to tell him … To tell him what? That everyone had been right about her? He was too good for her?
“Butch,” Nina said. “Take over out front. I’ve got to get her out of here.”
“I don’t know what to do,” Butch said, frazzled by Megan’s tears and Nina’s instructions.
“Just shut the place down,” Nina said. “We’re done here anyway.” She hustled Megan out the back door and into her car, driving home with one eye on the road and one eye on Megan. “You going to tell me what that was all about?”
“He promised this wouldn’t happen,” Megan said between sobs. “He promised.”
“What did he promise?”
“That he wouldn’t get hurt! He wouldn’t leave. He promised.”
“Megan, it was an accident. He didn’t do it on purpose. He’s not leaving.”
The thought of him hurt, in pain … She couldn’t bear to think about it. “This is why I told him I couldn’t do it. I tried to tell him, and he didn’t want to hear it.”
Nina pulled into the driveway and shut off the engine. “It’s your life, and I’d never presume to tell you how to run it, but you’re going to regret this. If you don’t step up for him when he needs you, you’ll be sorry. He’s a great guy, and he loves you. If you let him get away, you’ll have to live with that for the rest of your life.”
“I never wanted him to love me! I told him not to! I told him he could do better.”
“Why would you say that?” Nina produced a tissue from her purse and used it to wipe away a flood of tears on Megan’s face.
“I don’t want him to love me, and I don’t want to love him. I never wanted that, and I kept trying to tell him, but he was relentless.”
“Megan, honey, the reason you’re freaking out right now is because you love him.”
“No, I don’t.”
Nina took Megan by the chin and forced her to meet Nina’s determined gaze. “Yes, you do, or you wouldn’t care so much that he’s hurt.”
“It brings it all back. The night they came to tell me about Mom and Dad.” She’d been home alone, waiting for them to get home and wondering what was taking so long. And then the police were at the door with the snow swirling all around them, bringing news that would shatter her world and change her life forever.
“I never wanted to feel that way again.” Her eyes and chest ached from the emotional firestorm. She felt like her heart had been wrenched from her chest and stomped on.
“I know, honey. I understand better than anyone. But you can’t hide out from love for the rest of your life because you’re afraid of what you might lose. That’s no kind of life for someone who has so much love to give.”
She released a deep, shuddering sigh. “I messed this up, Nina. I should’ve gone with Molly.”
“Stay here. I’ll go inside and make some calls. I’ll find out where they’re taking him.”
Megan sat in the car, staring out the windshield, aching. She would go to him. She’d make sure he was all right, and then she’d tell him she couldn’t do this anymore.
The next few hours passed for Hunter in a sea of pain and discomfort. After arriving at the Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital, he was poked and prodded and X-rayed and CT scanned. Since Landon was well known by the ER doctors, they allowed him to stay with Hunter through it all. After a thorough evaluation, the doctors decided there was no need to transport him to the level-one trauma center in Burlington.
They brought in an orthopedic doctor to set his fractured elbow and diagnosed a moderate concussion among other contusions and lacerations, one of which was on his leg and required ten stitches.
“Can he go home tonight?” Landon asked.
“We’d like to keep him for observation for at least twenty-four hours,” the ER doctor replied.
They gave him something for the pain, and by the time he came to, he was in a dark quiet room with his mother hovering over him, stroking his hair.
“There you are.” Molly’s smile was bright and reassuring even if her eyes told the true story of how afraid she’d been. “You gave us quite a scare, my love.”
“Sorry.” His mouth and throat were so dry he could barely speak. “Is there water?”
Molly helped him drink through a straw from a cup of ice water that was about the best-tasting thing to ever cross his lips.
“Did someone tell Megan?”
“I did, but she said she couldn’t come.”
Hunter understood immediately. “She’s probably freaking out. I promised I wouldn’t get hurt.”
“Hunter …”
Closing eyes that refused to stay open, he squeezed the hand his mother had wrapped around his. “Don’t say it, Mom. I know exactly why she isn’t here. I get it.”
“I’m glad you do.”
He forced a smile for her behalf even as his heart broke for Megan, who’d probably flipped out after hearing what’d happened. In light of what she’d been through, he didn’t blame her for that. Not one bit. As soon as he was able, he’d find her and make sure she knew he was fine and wasn’t going anywhere.
“Everyone is here,” Molly said. “Dad and Gramps are pacing the hallway, and Hannah was with me until a few minutes ago when Nolan made her go and get off her feet for a while.”
“Good,” he said, drifting, comforted to know his family was with him.
The next time he woke up, Megan was there, looking down at him with those adorably furrowed brows.
“Hey,” he said, thrilled to see her, but concerned about the fear he saw in her gorgeous blue eyes.
“Hey, yourself.” She wiped her cheeks. Was she crying? He couldn’t tell in the dim light.
“Sorry about this. I promised it wouldn’t happen.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Are you okay?”
“Why are you asking me that? You’re the one in the hospital bed.”
“Because I care more about you than I do about myself.”
“Don’t say that.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I wanted to make sure you’re okay, but I have to go now.”
Though it caused his IV to pinch and pull on his skin, he reached for her hand before she could withdraw it. “Stay with me. I need you.”
She shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Megan, look at me.”
“No, I can’t look at you. I can’t let you tell me again that you love me, and you’ll never leave me when we both know you can’t keep those kinds of promises.”
“I do love you, and I can promise I’ll never leave you because I want to. This was a freak accident. Shit happens. I’m a little banged up but mostly fine.”
“You could’ve been killed.”
“But I wasn’t.”
“You do this stuff … rock climbing and snow patrol and skiing and snowmobiling …”
Though every movement caused pain to ricochet through his head, Hunter felt like he was fighting for his life far more than he had earlier on the mountain. Any chance he had at being happy rested in her fragile hands. “I like to do all those things.”
“They’re all dangerous.”
“They’re fun.”
“I can’t live in fear of something happening to you. I can’t do it.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to me.”
“How can you say that when today something happened to you?”
“Today was a bad day. Tomorrow will be better. That’s life, sweetheart.”
“I’m so afraid of everything, Hunter. I don’t want to be, but I am.”
“You’ve had good reason to be afraid, but you can’t live in fear of what might happen and miss out on what’s happening right in front of you. If you leave me, you’ll ruin my life. Is that what you want?”
“Don’t put that on me after I told you from the beginning that I didn’t want this.”
“I can’t help how I feel any more than you can.”
Hannah poked her head in the room. “Everything okay in here?”
Hunter looked up at Megan, seeking a verdict.
“He’s feisty,” Megan said after a long pause, during which he died a thousand painful deaths. “I guess that’s a good sign.”
Hunter’s chest, which had been tight from not breathing, loosened and allowed in the oxygen he desperately needed. She wasn’t going anywhere. Not right now anyway, but the battle for her heart was far from won.