Page 6 of A Moon Lake Christmas Hero

Once he had it and gave us a nod, I made myself step to the side and let Alan sweep in.

Despite every fiber in my body screaming to check on her myself and having enough training and experience to do so,

Alan was the doc. And I wasn’t stupid enough to not use his superior capabilities.

“Are you hurt?” Alan asked her while checking her eyes, then he manually scanned her skull and neck.

She shook her head, then grimaced.

So she was hurting.

Something dark and urgent coiled inside of me. And it took every ounce of my willpower to stay back and let Alan do his job and not wrap her into my jacket and sweep her up into my arms, like she’d done with the dog.

“Headache? Nausea? Trouble breathing?”

“No.”

Her voice sounded hesitant and tinny. Was she lying? My protective instincts skyrocketed.

Alan stepped back and met my gaze. I could see in his eyes he didn’t believe her either but there wasn't anything more he could do right than and there.

I shrugged, then took a step toward her, opened my jacket and my arms. Why, I didn’t know, but she looked like she needed a hug, and at the minimum, she needed my body heat.

When she stepped into the embrace without even hesitating, the knot in my chest, that had formed on the way over loosened slightly.

Nothing worse than having someone on the phone and hearing their distress, witnessing their tears, and not being able to be there in person.

Her scent hit me first: coconut mixed with something deliciously sweet—cinnamon?

I took a deep, calming breath, then closed my jacket behind her back.

At least I could give her a shoulder to cry on, a hug to buffer the shock, and my body to warm up hers.

I ignored Alan’s raised brow and Richard’s half-grin.

Usually, my cuddly side was reserved for my twins, Marley and Abby, and confined to our home.

But this felt right.

And necessary.

And inevitable.

ERIN

Iwoke up with a start and looked into two identical faces staring at me.

I blinked. Double vision? Maybe I've been hurt more than I thought.

I focused on their faces, and noticed slight differences.

Two girls… twins…not double vision.

I smiled because the two girls were just adorable. Their age must’ve been somewhere around five years old and it looked like they tried to do their pigtails themselves or maybe helped each other with them, and the toothy grins they returned were just super cute.

“She’s awake,” one of them whispered loud enough, it would’ve woken me up if I’d still been sleeping, and I chuckled when the other one nodded enthusiastically.

“Girls?”

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