Breathing in the fresh air as I walk out of the hotel, my eyes land on Felicity and her brother as they walk out of the Chinese restaurant. He has his arm around her, which he always seems to do, and they’re smiling.

It makes my heart lighter to see the smile on her face and I’m hoping that she managed to tell him about me, and that he’s okay with me being with his sister.

Watching her now though, with her long hair blowing behind her in the wind and a gorgeous smile on her face, makes me long to capture that image forever.

She’s beautiful and when she smiles like that for me, it unmans me. I’m so lost in her that it’s only as her smile slips that I realize something is wrong, and then she’s looking across the road at me, and our eyes lock.

In seconds, she’s grabbing at her brother and I feel panic rising because he’s so close to dragging her in the street. She continues to tug him away from the edge of the sidewalk, but every time she gains some footing, he seems to fall closer.

I drop my bag, intending to dash across the street, when Blake’s teammate, Roger, curses beside me.

“Whatever those two are arguing over needs to stop. He needs to let her have a life.”

I snap my head to him and he shrugs. “She’s his little sister. He raised her since she was twelve. He loves her, but has a temper if their relationship is threatened…Oh fuck!” he curses loudly.

My eyes fly across the road, just in time to watch Blake dash from the sidewalk, and into the path of an SUV.

The tires from the SUV smoke as the driver desperately tries to avoid hitting him, but although the impact isn’t as hard as it could have been, it’s still enough to send Blake flying up and into the road, where he rolls before coming to a stop.

Other cars screech, breaking hard, and in the next minute, I hear Felicity screaming as she takes off toward her brother. That gets me moving as I race toward her, and crouching down behind her, I wrap my arms around her waist, holding her up. Felicity turns her face into my chest and cries. Her sobs are so hard that they wash out other sounds.

I’m not sure how long we’ve been sitting in the middle of the road with her brother, while an off duty medic tries to help him, but a paramedic unit finally arrives and they take over.

He’s still alive but unconscious and with the odd angle of his leg, I’d say it’s at least broken. I’m just praying that there isn’t anything more serious going on inside of him. He’s always been an arrogant asshole on the ice, but he’s the brother of the woman I’m in love with, so I need him to pull through, for her, if for no one else.

“Which hospital are you taking him to?” I ask once they’ve loaded him on the gurney.

“Mercy. Are you family?”

“This is his sister and I’m her fiancé. Can you tell them that his family is on the way?” Small lie but I’ll be damned if they don’t let me stay with her.

The paramedic nods.

“Can I travel with him so he isn’t alone?” Roger asks, looking like he’s about to lose his shit.

“Who are you?” the other paramedic asks.

“His brother.”

Roger gets into the ambulance with Blake and I have to smile. Technically Roger didn’t lie because they’re teammates and brothers on the ice, but he mislead them, just like I did. I’m not even sure Felicity heard either one of us because she appears to be in shock.

I just need to get her to the hospital in time to be there for her brother, so before the emergency vehicle moves, I usher Felicity into a cab and tell the driver to step on it to the hospital before I finally turn to Felicity.

“We’ll be there soon and knowing your brother, he’s not going to go down without a fight.”

“It’s all my fault.” She sobs. “I told him about us and he really appeared to be okay with it, but I left out your name. But then he saw you staring at me across the road, and he turned and asked me outright if it was you. The answer was written all over my face. He tried to go after you but I held him back. He got my fingers loose and ran. He didn’t even look…Oh God,” she wails. “Why does he always have to be so hot tempered?”

Holding her tightly against my chest, I let her cry while I pray that he really will be okay. There was blood to one side of his head along with scratches over his face and arms. There’s at least one break, which is going to lay him out for a while. It’s that last part that has me worried about what’s going to happen between Felicity and me. Makes me a selfish bastard but everything between us is so new even though it feels like I’ve known her for a long time.

At least her tears have stopped by the time we climb from the cab. Keeping my arm around her shoulders, we make our way inside and to the reception desk.

Felicity rests her hands on the desk and when the nurse looks up, she offers her a soft smile. “What can I do for you?” She glances at me and back to Felicity.

“My brother…” She swallows and lowers her head.

“Her brother, Blake Kelly, was just hit by a car. I’m not sure whether or not we’ve beaten the paramedics here. He was unconscious at the scene.”

“Let me check for you.”

I slip my arm around Felicity’s waist and kiss the top of her head when she settles against me. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing,” she admits.

“You’re here for him, and that’s all you can do right now.” I kiss her again and watch the nurse as she reads something.

“The paramedics arrived five minutes ago.” She smiles softly. “The trauma team is with him now. Once I get some details from you, I’ll let them know that you’re waiting out here. Someone will eventually be out to give you an update once they have something to tell you, okay?” the nurse speaks softly, trying to soothe Felicity.

Felicity nods against my chest before she straightens up. “What do you need to know?”

It takes ten minutes but once the nurse has all the information she needs on Blake and contact details for Felicity, I guide her over to a quiet corner in the busy waiting room.

She sits huddled against me and doesn’t even notice Roger approaching us until he crouches down in front of her. Pushing her hair away from her face and wiping her eyes, she stares at Roger.

“He’s going to be okay, Felicity.” Roger glances from her to me and back to Felicity. “It’s going to be a long ride I think, but he’s strong and he’ll do it.

“What are they saying is wrong?”

“I don’t have the full picture because they ushered me away before I could hear what they were saying. But what I did catch is that his leg is broken in three places, there’s no internal bleeding, but, and this is the bigger thing, there is swelling at the base of his spine, and when he briefly woke up, he couldn’t feel his legs.”

“Oh no.” Felicity covers her mouth with a hand, her eyes round with shock and her tears reappear.

“I told the doctor that I’d be out here with you. The doc thinks that I’m his brother.” Roger watches Felicity. “I hope that’s okay.”

She nods. “Of course it is. You’re his best friend, so of course it’s okay. I just want to see him.”

“I know. He asked for you just before he went out again.” Roger stares at us, but not in anger, more like confusion. “How do you two know each other?”

I squeeze Felicity on the hip and answer, “We met in Vegas, and bumped into each other last night.”

“You’re the guy who rescued her when that bitch, Bev, set her up?”

“Yeah, that’s me.” I lean forward. “Look, I know what it seems like, okay. I’m not stupid. An older man taking advantage of a younger woman—”

“No,” Felicity interrupts.

Kissing her briefly on the lips, I continue, “I connected with Felicity like I haven’t done with anyone before, and she felt it too. It’s difficult to explain, but I want her in my life for more than a day. I want the chance to see where what we have can go.” I smile at the woman in question before sorrow fills her gaze. “It was my fault that Blake was injured. Felicity had just told him about me, apart from my name. He saw me on the sidewalk and figured it out. He was trying to get to me.”

Silence follows and I really do feel sick to my stomach because my involvement with Felicity is what caused this. I just hope I don’t lose her because of it.

“This isn’t anyone’s fault, but Blake’s. Him and his damn temper is what caused this, so don’t beat yourself up about it.” He glances at Felicity. “Don’t you either. You know what your brother is like. He doesn’t think.”

“We had such a good lunch.” She sniffles into a tissue. “I mean it was really, really good. He listened to me for a change without going off on a rant. He listened while I explained about Kasey, and by the time we’d finished eating he’d apologized to me for being an overbearing brother. He explained why and I felt as though a lot of things got said that should have been said a while ago.” She glances at me and caresses the side of my face softly.

I capture her hand and place a kiss to her palm and she continues, “And then he saw the way that I looked at Kasey when I saw him across the street. He knew.”

Roger shakes his head. “I’m glad you got to talk to him, but you still can’t blame yourself. If Blake had thought first instead of reacting then we wouldn’t be here now. You need to forget the guilt and concentrate on being here when he needs you, which he will.”

“He’ll be an asshole when he wakes and needs help,” Felicity says with a smirk on her lips. “That would be good though because it would mean he’s still around.” Her eyes fill again.

“It will be good and he’s going to have to accept me being part of your life because I’m not prepared to lose you again. You’re stuck with me, babe.”

“I don’t want you to go anywhere,” she agrees and snuggles beneath my arm.

My gaze meets Roger’s. “If the topic comes up when you’re with him, then I want you to know that I’m in love with Felicity. I’ll do anything to protect her. I’ll tell him myself, but if you need to, then point that out to him. I won’t let him shame her or treat her badly because she’s with me. I won’t walk away from her either.”

I catch Felicity’s surprise from the corner of my eyes, but keep my gaze on Roger, who studies me carefully. “I understand.” He winces. “Blake’s a stubborn asshole, but he loves Felicity. He’ll come around. It might take a while.”

“What are we going to do about the hotel? We’re due to check out tomorrow,” Felicity mentions.

Without thinking about it, I offer, “You can both stay with me.” I shrug. “Roger can stay in the spare room now that Andie’s left.” I look at Felicity. “And you can share with me.”

She blushes, nodding her head.

“You sure you don’t mind me crowding you?” Roger asks.

I laugh. “You won’t be crowding me. I like my space and you’ll see what I mean when you get there.”