“Dad, are you okay? Dixie?”
“I’ll be back.” She rushed out of the room.
Noelle squeezed his hand. “Dad, you’ve been in surgery. You had a bullet in your shoulder and another one in your gut. You need to stay still.”
He couldn’t. Not until he’d found Lila. She should be here. She should be with them. It was where she belonged, and he’d screwed everything up. He hadn’t even told her he loved her. He started to try to push himself up.
“Oh, you are a stubborn man. Lie back down, Sheriff.” Lila’s pretty face loomed over him. “If you pull your stitches and have to go back to the OR, I’ll be very upset.”
Her voice was husky but that seemed to be the only side effect. She looked gorgeous, like the best present the universe could have given him.
She took his wrist in her hand and felt for his pulse. “You’re in the hospital. You took two bullets, one to your left shoulder. It didn’t hit your scapula, so you’ll heal fairly quickly from that. The bullet to your abdomen was worse. The doctor managed to save your spleen, but it was a close thing. You need to rest for a couple of days.”
“Love you.” He wasn’t going to waste another moment.
She stilled over him and finally looked down. “I love you, too. But, Armie . . .”
He knew what she would say. She would give him all the reasons they didn’t work. He’d done that to her because the truth of the matter was they worked beautifully together. “Love you. Want to marry you.”
“Noelle, could I have a minute?”
Noelle looked up at Lila. “Okay, but don’t forget what I told you.”
Lila nodded and Noelle wheeled herself out. She turned back to him. “Armie, you’ve been through something traumatic.”
She was going that way, was she? His faculties were coming back to him and it was easier to focus. He turned his hand over, catching hers. “Yes, and the whole time all I cared about was getting you back in my arms. I was wrong. I was scared of things changing. You are the best thing to happen to me and Noelle.”
“I want to believe you, but when things got rough . . .”
“I faltered and I won’t do it again. I will never let you down again. I know who you are now, Lila Daley, and you are a woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. You’re the woman I’ve been waiting all my life for.”
There was still uncertainty on her face. “You think you know me so well?”
“I do. I know that you never back down from a fight. I know that even after everything you just went through the next time a woman walks into your clinic and she needs help, you’ll give it to her. You’ll do it every single time. You won’t ever stop. And that’s why we need to build a women’s shelter, one you can oversee. I don’t want us to have to drive two hours to protect our vulnerable citizens.”
Tears made her eyes shimmer. “Armie, that could be dangerous.”
“Life is dangerous. I’ll go you one better. Noelle is going to want to help you and I will not stop her. I want her to be every bit as brave as her stepmom.”
Her hand squeezed his. “Please be sure. I don’t know if I’d be able to stand it if you changed your mind.”
“I never changed my mind,” he promised. “I never stopped loving you. I made a bad call as a father. I didn’t see what Noelle needed, but I know now. She needs what I need. She needs you.”
“The clinic is gone,” she said.
That was what Dixie and Noelle had been talking about. “Then we’ll rebuild it.”
“I don’t have any money left. I don’t know what insurance is going to do. This wasn’t an accident.”
“I’ll find the money. Otis and I will produce a speed trap unlike anything this town has ever seen. I’ll let Roxie arrest Zep as often as she likes. Those two things alone will bring in more than enough revenue.” He had to make her understand that this was her home, and he would do anything to make it right for her.
“You can’t build my clinic with traffic tickets.” But she was smiling.
“Watch me.”
“Be sure,” she said, her fingers tangling around his. “Be sure you want me.”
“I’ve never wanted anything more. Stay with me. Be with me. Build a family with me.”
“But you . . .”
“Am being brave like my wife.”
She stood up and leaned over, pressing her lips to his. “I love you, Armie. I would be so proud to be your wife.”
“Oh, thank god,” a feminine voice said from just outside the door of his room.
“Noelle,” he admonished.
“Well, the waiting was killing me.” She pushed the door open slightly. “And you won’t have any problem rebuilding the clinic. Rene already pledged to do it. I think he’ll pay for the women’s shelter, too, if you play your cards right.”