Summer snuggled closer. Luke was so warm and so strong, and if he hadn’t arrived when he had, who knows what might have happened. He’d saved them. As another shudder rippled through her, Luke pulled her closer and tightened his arms around her.
He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. “You’re safe now, Summer. I won't let anyone hurt you.”
She relaxed a little because she knew that was true. Luke would do whatever he could to keep her safe. She was glad she’d agreed to date him.
* * * * *
12:29 P.M.
His heart was still hammering painfully in his chest.
Luke hadn’t drawn a proper breath since he’d seen a man firing a gun at Summer’s house. Knowing she was in there and might have been hit had terrified him.
It wasn’t until he’d run inside and saw her lying there, unmoving, that he realized real feelings for her were starting to develop. Feelings beyond just thinking she was pretty and wanting to date her because he was desperate to have a family. Now he felt something more. That she had supported him, even though they barely knew each other, and believed in him when she had no reason to, had changed things and made him realize that Summer could actually be exactly what he had been looking for.
Now he was sitting on a stool at her bedside in the emergency room holding her hand while a doctor stitched the gash in her knee, and keeping it together only for Summer’s benefit. She was freaked out enough as it was, she needed him to be strong right now.
“You’re doing great,” he encouraged when she winced as the doctor put in another stitch.
“Is he almost done?” she asked. Summer had had her eyes scrunched shut ever since the doctor had arrived.
“Almost,” he assured her.
She sucked in her bottom lip and chewed on it, obviously struggling to keep her composure. Luke wished there was something he could do to help her. Just sitting beside her and holding her hand didn’t seem like enough.
He satisfied himself that he must be doing something to help soothe her, she was clutching his hand like a lifeline. When the paramedics had arrived and gently pried her from his arms, she had asked him to stay with her. She had also asked him to ride in the ambulance with her, and stay with her while a doctor carefully removed the shard of glass from her knee and stitched it. She wouldn’t have done that if his presence wasn't helping calm her.
“All done,” the doctor announced, snipping the end of the thread with scissors.
“Is the blood still there?” Summer asked, her voice still trembling.
“It’s mostly gone,” he replied.
“I’m going to bandage it,” the doctor added, pulling out a roll of gauze and wrapping it around and around Summer’s knee. Once it was secured, he stood. “I’ll go grab some crutches for you.”
“Thank you,” Summer said, then once they were alone, “is there really no blood left?”
If he had known how much the sight of blood freaked her out, he wouldn’t have let her see her knee earlier. He had freaked out when she had suddenly thrown up and then almost fainted. “The blood is all gone, it’s just a clean white bandage.”
Cautiously, she opened her eyes, giving a quick glance at her leg, then when she saw all traces of blood were gone she relaxed back against the mattress. “You saved my life, Luke. Mine and Hope’s. If you hadn’t shown up right when you did then …”
“Stop.” He held a finger to her lips. Tears were pooling in her beautiful brown eyes, and he didn’t want to see her cry ever again. “Ididshow up when I did. And thankfully neither you nor Hope were hit.” How, he had no idea. Summer’s living room was a mess. It was a miracle neither she nor her friend were killed or seriously injured. “Try not to think about it.”
“I can't stop,” she said softly. “It keeps replaying in my mind over and over again, each time the ending gets worse and worse.”
“Summer …” He broke off as the door to her room swung open. Summer tensed too, but relaxed a little when she saw who was there.
“Hey, Rylla, Matthew,” she greeted the couple.
“Hi, Summer, how are you feeling?” a pretty redhead asked.
Summer shrugged in response. “I want to know who was shooting at my house.”
“We’re working on it,” the man assured her.
“This is Detective Rylla Franklin, she’s Aggie’s sister Naomi’s best friend, and her partner, Detective Matthew Greer. They’re both friends,” Summer informed him.
Luke recognized both the redhead and the tall brunette from Aggie and Nick’s wedding pictures, but he didn’t care about how they were connected to his family, all he cared about was that they were detectives, and the cops were not his favorite people right now.