Page 76 of Stolen Dreams

“We’ve come to take you home,” Casey declares, and I try to smile, but I just sit on the bed.“I’m going to take all the flowers in my truck.”He looks around the room at all the flowers I’ve gotten over the past two days.Flowers that were supposed to make me feel better, but I just hated seeing them.

They bring me a wheelchair, and after a couple of minutes of a staredown, I give in and sit in the wheelchair.Casey opens the truck door for me and holds out his hand, and he gingerly helps me in.I watch him walk around the front, getting in and looking at me.“You ready to go home?”Charlie asks, and I shake my head.

“No,” I answer, and his eyebrows pinch together.“Can you take me to him?”

Charlie exhales deeply, and his head hangs.“Please, Charlie, I?—”

“The two of you…” He starts the truck and pulls away from the hospital.“Like, how much more can you guys take?”I don’t answer him.I just look out the window, but the answer is everything.I’ll take everything and anything for him as long as I’m with him.

We pull up to the house, and I see his truck parked there.“He’s not home,” Charlie says when I open the door.“He went riding.”

“Lucy?”I ask, and he smiles softly.

“We hired her to help with Billy,” he says with a smile, and I get out of the truck as slow as a snail.“Call us when you guys get your shit sorted,” he states before taking off.I walk up the steps toward the front door, then go over to the chair on the side of the house that he keeps there just for looks.

I sit down and hiss out when my side itches.I look out into the field, my eyes roaming the forest, looking for him.I don’t know if it’s minutes or hours by the time I see him coming out of the forest.He’s riding his black horse, and his back is straight as his hair flies in the wind.He doesn’t look my way, probably because he would never expect me to be here.

He heads to the barn, and ten minutes later, he’s walking out, dusting his hands off.He’s wearing his blue jeans and a long-sleeved blue jean shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.He takes five steps before he must feel my eyes on him.

When he looks up, he stops mid-step.I can see he hasn’t slept.His eyes are dark, and he looks exhausted.“What are you doing here?”he asks when he gets to the bottom step, and I walk over to him, looking down at him.

“Were you just going to let me go that easily?”I fold my arms over my chest, wanting nothing more than to feel his heat under my fingers, touch him, hold him.Be in his arms where I belong.

“What are you talking about?”he says, and I can see his fingers twitching.

“I’m talking about you not giving me a chance to say anything to you.”I swallow the lump.“You just walked away from me.”He shakes his head and looks over to the side.“After you said you wouldn’t leave me, you did just that.You left me.”

When he looks back at me, the look takes my breath away, just like it did when he told me his story.“I saw it all over your face.”I take a step back.“You were disgusted by me.”

I hold up my hand to stop him from talking.“I wasn’t disgusted by you.I was sad for you, and then I was mad for you.Then, well, then I just wanted to knock you on your ass.If only you knew.”

“Knew what?”he asks softly.

I shake my head.“It doesn’t matter, does it?If you can walk away from me so easily.What does it matter?”

“I never left you except for this morning when Charlie and Casey came to take you home.”His confession shocks me.“I was in the waiting area the whole time.I couldn’t sleep next to you, but I wasn’t leaving that fucking place without you.”I have to swallow down the lump in my throat.“Lilah.”My name is on his lips like he’s pained.

“Don’t fucking Lilah me!”I yell and then wince when the skin pulls.He takes a step up, and I stop him.“No, I’m not done.If only you fucking knew how safe I felt with you.If only you fucking knew how strong you are.If only you knew how caring and nurturing you are.If only you saw what I see, what we all see.Charlie loves you like a brother, and I know that when push comes to shove, you would die for him.All of the men look up to you, not because they have to but because they know that whatever happens, you have their back.Who shows everyone respect.Who is reliable and kindhearted, but more importantly, someone who protects the people he loves with everything he has.”I put my hand on my stomach.

“Can we do this inside?”he suggests.“You can lie down.”I want to say no, that we are going to do it right here, but my body is giving out on me.

“Fine,” I retort, and he walks up the stairs and stops in front of me, and I smell his musky smell.

“Let’s get you inside,” he urges, slipping his hand in mine.We walk inside, and I see the blankets thrown on the couch.

“What happened?”I point, my curiosity getting the best of me.

“I slept there.”He walks over to the couch to move the blankets.“I’ve been sleeping here since you left.”

“What?”I watch him turn toward me.

“Couldn’t sleep in that bed without you.”I close my eyes.“It was torture.”

“You did that to yourself,” I remind him, and he nods, agreeing.

“I did,” he agrees.

“Do you love me?”The question is the biggest question I’ve ever asked him.It’s the question that I’m holding my breath for.The question I have to know the answer to.

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