Page 15 of If This is Love

A nasty scrape marred the perfect, smooth skin on the apple of her cheek, and she was still enough to make my body vibrate with panic.

Gunner growled from nearby, and a second later his head pressed against my back. The other dog pushed his nose against my face as though inspecting me to make sure I was safe to be around his unconscious person. I rubbed my hand over his flank to calm him and eyed the bright blue collar.

Jax.

I looked him in the eyes. “Jax.”

His ears perked forward.

I pointed at the sidewalk. “Sit.”

He stepped to that exact spot and sat.

I returned my attention to Ruth, rubbing her back firmly and slowly. “Ruth, try to look at me, okay?” I said as gently and calmly as I could. “Can you hear me, Ruth?”

She suddenly jolted like she was shaking herself out of a dream, and her full, pouty lips parted. A long breath drained from her like a wistful sigh, and she tilted her chin upward as though her beautiful mouth was reaching for me.

“Ruth? Can you hear me?” I repeated, my eyes suddenly glued to her lips.

She murmured something so quiet that I couldn’t understand, and I leaned closer to her in reflex.

“Ruth?”

She was perfectly still for another couple of seconds, and then she drew in a deep breath. Her long, thick eyelashes fluttered and then slowly lifted to reveal deep, warm amber eyes that stared straight into mine as she murmured, smooth and breathy, “Yes, Lord.”

And goddamn if it didn’t sound like the sweet salvation I didn’t even know I’d always wanted.

And goddamn if I didn’t already know this woman was going to break me in some way—whether she even realized it or not.

RUTH

ALGIERS POINT, NEW ORLEANS

“Ruth.”

The darkness was thick and inky and simultaneously flushed with light. The light and dark warred and mingled until a voice broke through the static hum that surrounded me.

“Ruth. Hear my voice.”

My head swirled and spun amidst the warring, mingling contrast of light and darkness, and I was cold and hot at the same time, andwhat was this place?

“Hear my voice, Ruth. Look upon my face.”

Was that the voice ofGod?

Had the fall on the concrete killed me and this was my ascent to heaven?

“Ruth.”

If it was heaven, God sounded a lot younger than I’d always imagined. And this wasn’t exactly the version of heaven that everyone in church always talked about. Where were the streets of gold? Where were the pearly gates? Where was Saint Peter with his big book of names?

“Ruth. Hear my voice. Look upon my face.”

“Yes, Lord,” I murmured.

The light slowly overtook the darkness, and my eyelids flinched and cracked open.

“Ruth, can you hear me?”

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