Page 103 of The Moment They Can Never Forgive
“Yes.”
“Dan…”
“Yes?” he prompted when she didn’t go on.
“When I heard you’d been hurt, I—” She broke off. “I was scared,” she added softly.
He let the silence stretch, waiting.
“I don’t want you to be hurt,” she said at last, her voice unsteady.
“Me either,” Dan managed, wondering where she was heading.
“It made me realize something.”
“What’s that?”
“That I don’t want you to matter to me…but you do.” The words came out rushed, almost panicked, as if she regretted them the moment they were spoken.
“You matter to me too, if that helps,” Dan said, fighting the fog in his head.
She didn’t answer right away. Then, carefully, as if trying to retreat from what she’d just admitted she said, “I just wanted you to know I’m sorry you’re hurt.”
“Leah?”
“Yeah?”
“I can’t think straight right now, and when we have this conversation, I want to be able to do it properly. But I need you to know that I care about you, Leah Reynolds. Very much.”
He heard her sharp inhale, then a shaky exhale. “Oh God,” she whispered.
“And you care about me,” he said softly. “Don’t be afraid of it. I’ll protect you.”
There was a pause. Then, in a voice that sounded like she was retreating back into her shell, “Good night, Dan. I hope you sleep well.”
“Good night, sweetheart.”
Dan set his phone to silent, then lay in the dark, his shoulder throbbing, but all he could think about was Leah—the woman he loved, and the one he knew he’d spend the rest of his life fighting for.
Chapter 28
Leah threw the ball at Zoe hard, and she caught it, the sound a loudthwackas it hit her glove.
“Nice day for it,” Sawyer said, wandering over to where she stood warming up with the others. “It would be even nicer if that fucker, Grill, was caught and behind bars so I could go into the station and entice him to take a swing at me. Then I could break his arm like he broke Dan’s.”
“That’s a thorough revenge plot right there,” Jed Knox said, swinging his arms, which Leah guessed meant he was warming up.
“He broke Dan’s shoulder. I’ll kill him for that,” Sawyer said.
“Wewill kill him for that,” Ryder Duke corrected.
“Amen,” Brody added.
It had been four days since the raid on the Bandits. Four days since Dan had been hurt. When Uncle Callum had come home with pizza and the story of the arrest, something inside Leah shifted. Fear for Dan had her thinking clearly for the first time in years.
She let the past blind her to what was right in front of her. Coming back to Lyntacky had awakened a fragile kind of hope,and no matter how hard she tried to deny it, Dan was part of that hope. He had always mattered to her. She just hadn’t wanted to admit it.
But the moment she heard he was hurt, the truth had surged to the surface. She couldn’t pretend anymore. Leah cared deeply for Dan Duke.
