Page 74 of Return to Me Always

But as I looked up at her again, I saw she had unshed tears in her eyes. Oh, no. That was scary. What was happening here?

"Mom?" I tried again, and this time my voice sounded somewhat normal. "Please tell me what's going on."

She reached for my hand. "Oh, hon, I'm sorry. I'm just happy you're awake. It's been a while. And I've been staring at your face, hoping you'd wake up. And now..."

The tears fell down her cheeks then. I didn't know what to say. Was I dying or something? Or were these tears of relief?

Beyond the crippling headache, I felt okay. I reached out a hand to feel my shoulder, but annoying tubes made it difficult. And the beeping started again. Oh, my God. Enough with the damn beeping.

And I was hungry. So freaking hungry. How many days had passed? How long had it been since my last meal? I couldn't even remember the last time I had eaten.

The events of the last several days flooded through my aching brain. The boat, almost drowning, the ruins, fighting Malcolm, the helicopter, Tyler.My God, Tyler. Where was he?

"Mom, are you okay? Can you please tell me what's going on?" I asked.

She swiped a wadded-up tissue across her nose. "I'm sorry, hon. Someday, when you're a mom, you'll understand." She sniffled a bit and took a deep breath before continuing. "So let me fill you in. Goodness, you missed a lot."

"How long?"

"Well, it's only been two days, but it felt like forever. You suffered a concussion. And a bullet wound." She paused as tears almost overwhelmed her again.

"Mom."

"Okay. Okay." She sniffled again. "It's just... you've been through a lot. And when you go through a lot, so do I. You're my baby."

The lump in my throat grew larger. "Come on, Mom. Don't make me cry right now. It hurts too much."

Another deep, shaky breath from her. "Okay. No more crying. I promise."Sniffle, sniffle. "Lucky for you, lucky for all of us, the bullet went straight through."

It did?

"And it didn't hit anything vital. We were very, very fortunate about that."

That was definitely good news.

"You did lose a lot of blood, though. They gave you blood. A lot of blood."

"Ew. Mom, please..." My stomach turned at the thought of bags of blood hooked up to me, coming into the IV line, into my veins. Oh, shit. I was going to throw up.

"Hey, what'd we miss?" The friendly, familiar voice startled me, and I looked up to see Ben entering the small room, Tyler right behind him.

He was here!And I couldn't take my eyes away from his beautiful face.

God, I loved him.

Now that I knew he was here, I felt... I didn't even know what I felt. There were no words for what Tyler did to my heart.

"You're awake," he said, his intense eyes studying me.

Something electric passed between us, something that had grown into a beautiful force of its own after all we had been through together.Together.

"She's alive," Ben whispered like I was some kind of monster from a movie.

As I continued staring at Tyler, taking in the healing bruises on his face that only made him hotter somehow, I sensed another set of eyes on me. Tearing my gaze away from Tyler, I turned to my side to see my mom watching me.

Oh, no. She saw way too much. She knew now, knew how madly in love her daughter was with this man, this warrior who had tackled Malcolm and beaten him down, held his bloody shirt to my stomach, and flown in a damn helicopter. For me.For me.

She cleared her throat. "So I was just filling Kat in on everything."

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