Strong arms slipped beneath my lower back and behind my knees, lifting me up off the mattress. I groaned in protest and got a throaty chuckle in response.

“I know it’s early, baby. We need to talk.”

Those four words were enough to jolt me fully awake. “Talk?” I rasped. “Did we not already do that?”

In fact, I’d been hoping to sleep most of the day to make up for all the ‘talking’ we’d done last night. My brain was mush and I longed to stay buried underneath the covers until it had recovered.

He carried me downstairs, stopping to grab a blanket on his way out the back door. “Need to tell you somethin’.”

I tried to sit up in his arms, briefly throwing him off balance. The cold early morning air hit my face and nearly took my breath away. “Couldn’t you just tell me in bed, where it’s warm?”

Charm shook his head. “Nope, wouldn’t be the same.” He led me onto the patio where he had a fire burning in the outdoor fireplace. He wrapped the blanket around my shoulders and settled me on his lap.

The sky began to lighten and I had a flashback to being in the truck with streaks of sunlight beaming through the trees onto my face. “Kane?”

He rubbed my shoulders through the blanket. “Yeah?”

I leaned into his chest. “Um, last night in the bathroom, those things you said…had you said them before?”

His grip tightened around me. “What do you mean? You think I’d say shit like that to anyone else?”

Either this would make perfect sense to him, or he’d think that the coke and fentanyl had done a number on my brain.

I took a deep breath. “No, it’s just—god, this is gonna sound crazy—I heard you. When I was in that coma, I could see and hear everything. In the waiting room, you told the doctor to do whatever he could to save me—”

Charm interrupted. “Neve, I did say that, but it’s somethin’ anyone would’ve said given the situation. Maybe you dreamed it—”

I shook my head impatiently. “No, you wanted to know who gave me the Narcan—it was Blade, by the way. You—you—” I was getting frantic to prove that I hadn’t imagined what had happened. “You talked to me about Luck…told me I was your lucky charm. You gave me mistletoe and…” I trailed off, unsure of what else to say.

Charm let out a low whistle. “Jesus, honey…”

My cheeks flushed as I stuttered, “I—I know it sounds insane; maybe it was just some crazy hallucination—”

He tightened his hold on my shoulder, turning me around to face him. “You didn’t dream it—I’ve heard of coma patients being able to hear people around them talking, but nothing like this. It’s true then—you said my name the morning I left you with Blade, didn’t you?”

I nodded. “You heard me?”

He brought his hand up, running his thumb over my cheek, while seemingly lost in thought. “Clear as fuckin’ day. I could’ve sworn you were standing right behind me.”

“What did you say—before you left?”

Charm suddenly looked uncomfortable. “It—uh—I just said that I loved you.”

I laughed and poked his side. “You did not. Tell me!”

“You’re not gonna drop it, are you?” I shook my head and he sighed. “I gave you the mistletoe and said that I would petition every god necessary to resurrect you.”

“Is that why you brought me out here? To declare your undying love for me?” I laughed easily, but his face turned solemn.

Clearing his throat, he lowered his hands down to clasp mine. “I found the money, Neve.”

I couldn’t help it; I laughed again at the sheer madness of it. “Oh, okay. Good to know. That’ll really clear up everyone trying to kill me for it now, won’t it?”

His expression never changed. “I’m serious, baby. Blade was close, but he was a fuckin’ moron.”

I narrowed my eyes at him and shifted closer to the fire as the sun hit the horizon; chasing away the darkness and bathing everything in light. “I don’t understand—how did you find the money if I didn’t even know it existed?”

The corner of his mouth turned up in a smile and I couldn’t help myself; I leaned forward and pressed my lips to it.

It widened even further. “You told me that after your parents died, you tried to OD and when that didn’t work, you snorted yourself into oblivion. I figured your parents had to have known that you might relapse. They would’ve wanted to ensure that you didn’t blow through the money, right?”

My mouth dropped open. “Oh my god—they put it in a trust!”

He nodded. “Bingo. Your parents left you everything, but they also knew you were an addict. So, they had everything put into a trust—real estate, bank accounts, stocks, and bonds.”

I shook my head. “I don’t understand how you figured it out, when Blade and Clint couldn’t.”

Charm laughed and pulled me into a hug. “Because they were fuckin’ idiots, like I said. They were so damn convinced that your parents would’ve left you everything, free and clear, that they never looked anywhere else. Me? I ain’t ever had any kids, but my sister was an addict and I know that I’d never leave her money without some qualifiers in place.”

I was still crushed up against his chest, so my words were muffled. “The trust has stipulations that must be met, I’m guessing?”

He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and read from it. “Beneficiary must be a college graduate. Funds have been set aside for tuition and living costs.”

They’d known I was strung out, yet they had faith that I would come back from it. The only way I was ever going to graduate was if I sobered up. I’d had the money the entire time—and it wouldn’t have mattered who they killed, Blade and Clint would’ve never gotten a dime of it.

“It still doesn’t matter—I never finished college.”

Charm moved me away and stood up to pace. “Yeah, that’s why I wanted to talk to you. I told myself that I’d make all the money you’d ever need—that there was no point in telling you about the inheritance. I can’t do it though. You gotta go back and finish school. Live your dream and make your parents proud.”

He trailed off, leaving the birds to sing their early morning songs in peace. I wasn’t entirely familiar with normal relationships, but I was fairly certain that guys didn’t propose right before a break up, did they?

I hugged my knees to my chest to stop them from shaking. “So, you want me to leave?”

Charm looked out over the landscape and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “Fuck no. I want you to stay here—but it’s not about me. I may be an asshole, but I couldn’t live with myself if I kept you from fulfilling their dying wish.”

Tears fell from my eyes onto the fleece blanket. Each drop connecting with the last until the tops of my knees were damp. “You asked me to marry you…”

His jaw tightened as he nodded, still looking away from me. “Yeah, honey, but I can’t force you to stay here. This isn’t a life for you. You deserve to finish school and then do whatever you want with your millions. See the world—”

His voice cut off suddenly as he continued to look beyond the wilderness and to a life that didn’t include me in it.

I slid off the chair and wrapped my arms around him, resting my face against his back. “That sounds nice,” His body tensed beneath me. “But I want to be with my family. You’re my family, Kane. My home is here with you and I wouldn’t give that up for all the money in the world.”

His hands dropped down to cover mine. “You wanna stay here? What about the trust fund?”

I smiled to myself. “I’ll enroll in online classes—if I need to drive to Boulder a couple of days a week, I can. I think my biggest concern right now is making an honest man out of you though.”

His back vibrated beneath my cheek as he laughed. “You could have the entire world, but you wanna stay here and marry me?”

I stepped around him until we were face to face. “Meh, why waste hours sitting on a plane when I can see the world on the back of your bike?”