“You’re alive!”
He didn’t reply right away. He was more intent on kissing her until they were both trembling. After that the first thing he said was, “I love you.”
“I love you.”
That required another long embrace until her machines and his racing heart settled down. During that time, Lyon made sure that he accounted for most of the hairs on her head, half of the bones in her body, and the peacefulness in her womb.
“The baby is fine,” he said at last. “You just had a bit of system overload from the stress. You’ll have to rest for a day or two to be sure, but we can get you home as soon as I sign your release.”
“Home. Yes, please.”
In barely an hour, Hope lay in Lyon’s arms before a crackling fire. The world was right side up again and had never been more beautiful to her. She’d felt so blessed, she hadn’t taken her eyes off of him the entire drive home.
Apparently the utility people had arrived just as she was fainting and had him out of the car before Vince and her father could carry her to Vince’s patrol car. Lyon wouldn’t wait for an ambulance and had held her in his arms the whole way.
Her father had stayed in the waiting room for news. When they emerged, he simply pressed his hand to his chest. But when he started to leave, Hope stopped him.
“Come here.”
He stopped before her a tortured man. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I just wanted to thank the chief again.”
“His name is Lyon. He’s your son-in-law.”
“You must hate me.”
It had been tempting at times. But Hope had new life in her—and love. She wouldn’t let hate taint that.
“You can’t talk the way you do, like you have done in front of me since as long as I can remember,” she said. “I want Meredith to be a child, not an adult before her time like I was hearing things no child should hear. I want her to have a grandfather she can be proud of, not afraid or ashamed of.”
Ellis had bowed his head both troubled and ashamed. “You’re naming the baby Meredith?”
“Meredith Rebecca, after her grandmothers.”
Her father nodded his head and his eyes filled. “Those are good names.”
Touching his hand, Hope said, “We’ll talk in a few days.”
“I would like that,” he said gravely.
Now, warm again and dry, having changed into a pink cashmere sweater and black jeans, she snuggled in Lyon’s arms and kept stroking his chest to reassure herself that he was real and that this wasn’t a dream her mind locked her in to hide from grief. He was here, strong and alive.
“Why did you make me wait so long to hear those words?” she said on a moan. “You knew how I felt about you.”
He brought her hand up to his lips for a kiss. “I knew you liked me. I knew the sex was fantastic between us. I thought you might be falling a little in love with me, but…I worried that it was a rebound thing. Then, as I told you, I felt you deserved better.”
“There is no one better, Lyon,” she said before kissing him with all of her heart.
When he finally had to tear his mouth from hers and bury his face in the hollow of her throat, he apologized. “The doctor gave me strict orders,” he told her. “We can’t risk intercourse until you see Dr. Winslow next week.”
“You’re talking about sex,” she told him. “We’ll only be making love. Lyon, wasn’t it that all the time?”
“To me it was,” he said crushing her against his chest. “And I wish I had the words to tell you how that was a dream come true for me because it was always you, all along.” He leaned back to stroke her face with his fingertips. “I was devastated when Will decided he wanted you. I even tried to hate you for not seeing what he was, but I couldn’t.”
“I’m glad.”
“I knew that evening in the bar that I couldn’t let you marry him. I don’t know what I would have done, but you need that truth. Then when the truck exploded and you collapsed in my arms, I was too badly burned to do more than catch you for a second. The soul mates you spoke of—I saw mine in your eyes then. I wanted to carry you away from there and never let you think of him and your time together again.” Lyon shook his head. “I’m not that different than your father, my love. There is and only will be one woman for me.”
“I’ve been so blind. So foolish for not seeing how you felt.”
“Why didn’t you take a risk and ask—or tell me?” he teased.
Hope arched her eyebrows. “Lyon Teague, I am born and raised a southern woman. My mother came from Spanish nobility. We don’t say it first.”
Lyon’s chest shook with laughter. “That didn’t stop you from proposing.”
She glanced at him from under her lashes. “Well, I didn’t say we didn’t know how to go about getting what we wanted.”
His gaze fierce with love and dreams, Lyon leaned over to kiss the place where he last felt Meredith kick, and then lifted Hope against his heart. “Never let us go,” he said.
“I promise, my love,” Hope replied.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5519-1
HOPE’S CHILD
Copyright © 2010 by Helen R. Myers
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