“Hey.” He smiled at her, then leaned over and kissed her. “You’re finally awake, you scared me to death.”
“How long?” she tried to ask. It came out as a barely discernible rasp.
“Here, drink this.” He lifted a cup from the table beside her bed and held a straw to her lips. “Just a sip,” he warned.
The icy liquid felt like heaven going down her raw throat. “How long have I been here?” she asked again.
“Four days.”
Four days? No wonder Sam looked like hell.
“The worst ninety-six hours of my life,” he said softly. “When I walked into that hotel room and saw you lying there drenched in blood, I thought I'd lost you already. Then you made it through surgery, but you just lay here for four long days. I begged you so many times to wake up and you didn’t. I was so scared, Naomi.” His hand tenderly stroked her hair.
“I'm sorry,” she whispered.
Sam smiled. “Don’t be sorry. I'm just glad you're awake and that you're going to be okay.”
“Ruth?” Naomi anxiously searched Sam’s face to make sure he was going to tell her the truth and not try and coddle her because she had almost died.
“She’s fine, your stepfather barely hurt her, just scared her,” he assured her.
Naomi relaxed when she sensed Sam was being honest with her.
“Gene?”
“He’s dead,” he assured her. “He can’t hurt you ever again.”
Hecouldn’thurt her ever again but that didn’t erase everything he had done. Everything he had done because ofher. Three people dead. Plus the attack on her sister. What weighed on her the heaviest was what her stepfather had told her about the fire twenty years ago. To know that she was the cause of her baby brothers’ deaths was devastating.
“Naomi?” Sam’s hand had ceased stroking her hair and was now cupping her cheeks. “Where did you just go?”
Tears swelled in her eyes and began to roll down her cheeks. “It’s my fault David and Eli died,” she cried.
“No.” Sam instantly snapped from the soft and gentle guy she was just getting used to, to the tough and brisk guy she knew so well. “Absolutely not. And I don’t ever want to hear you say that again,” he ordered roughly. “I mean it, Naomi. That’s nonsense. He told you that to hurt you.”
“But it’s true,” she wept. “Andrewdidstart the fire to punish me.”
“Which isnoton you. You were an eight-year-old little girl, it was not your fault that Aggie’s mother died in a car accident. It was not your fault Andrew decided to blame you and started that fire. If you can't believe that then I’ll keep telling you until it sinks in. And you can discuss it with your therapist when you’re strong enough to get out of here and start seeing one.”
Apparently, he was really stuck on the therapist thing. She loved him so much, both sides of him, this new one that was emerging and the old one. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” His hand on her face tightened, and his dark eyes became bottomless pits of fear. “I thought I was never going to hear you say that again.”
“I didn’t want to leave you, I fought as hard as I could,” she assured him.
“I know you did, sweetheart. All right, where is my brain, I gotta go get a doctor to check you out and call your sisters to let them know you finally woke up.”
Sam went to stand but she grabbed at him. “Don’t go yet, stay here with me.” She was getting tired, her eyes needed to close, she needed to sleep, but she didn’t want to fall asleep alone. She didn’t want to ever be alone again. She had Sam and she wanted to keep him by her side forever.
Content, she drifted off.
February 7th
10:23 A.M.
“You look so beautiful,” Aggie gushed as she buttoned the last button in the back of Clara’s wedding dress’ bodice. Her sister looked amazing. The dress was gorgeous, simple, and stunning. The satin sweetheart ballgown suited her perfectly, and with her blonde hair swept up in a fancy bun, and her green eyes sparkling with joy, she had never seen her beautiful sister look quite so beautiful.
“Thank you.” Clara grinned. “I can't believe that one year ago today I met Jonathon for the first time and now we’re getting married and expecting a baby.” Clara pressed her hand to her stomach.