Page 150 of Master of My Heart

After they settled into their seats and ordered drinks, Chase studied Sabrina as she looked over the menu. She had a slight smile on her face and a glint of happiness shone in her eyes he’d not seen before.

She glanced up at him and blushed. “Why are you staring at me?”

“Why wouldn’t I want to look at the prettiest girl in the room?”

Her cheeks darkened and she looked at the menu for a moment, then back at him, eyes lit up. “Really?”

He nodded, eyebrows raised. “Of course.” She gave him that shy smile he was growing so fond of. He grinned. “You look happy. Happier than last week.”

She gave a small shrug. “I’m trying.”

“Trying to be happy?”

She bit her lip and looked out the window. “I’m tired of being scared,” she said softly. “I want...” She sighed and looked back at him. “Have you ever read The Last Unicorn?”

Chase tilted his head at the apparent change of subject. Had he pushed too hard? “I think I saw the movie when I was a kid. My mom loved it.”

She smiled. “My mom would read it to me about once a year. It’s a wonderful story. But there’s a line in it that always stuck in my heart. It says, ‘The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.’” She looked out the window again. “There’s also something about heroes needing to have their burdens and sorrows or there is no fairy tale.” She shrugged. “I guess I’m trying to find perspective on everything that has happened.” She looked at him again. “Like you said, good things can come out of the bad.”

Chase stared at her until she blushed and looked away again. He was the luckiest guy in the world. “You are so amazing,” he said softly.

“Why do you say that?”

“To find the wisdom in a childhood book and apply it to your life...” He smiled. “With everything you’ve gone through, many people would just collapse and be unable to cope. But you? You take a memory of your mom and a book and find strength in it.” He shook his head. “It’s wonderful.”

She ducked her head, but he saw her smiling, albeit with embarrassment.

“I wish I’d read the book now. I could have used that a few years ago.”

“When you got hurt?”

Chase nodded. “I had a hard time accepting that my life wasn’t turning out the way I had planned.” He took a sip of his wine and let the warmth soothe the ache that had opened at the remembrance of being told that he was going to be medically discharged. “I can see the good that came of it now, but back then, perspective was hard to find.”

“Ethan said you were, um, difficult to be around.” She bit her lip even as her eyes twinkled with amusement.

“Yeah.” He was quiet for a few minutes as he thought back to that time. “I was awful. It took me almost a year to accept what had happened, but I wasn’t a nice man during that time. I yelled at my mom and Richard all the time. I was angry at the world. Jayson even threatened to stop hanging out with me.”

“I can hardly imagine that,” she said, studying him.

“I lost all hope that anything good could happen again. My foot was crushed and I almost lost it. I had to have a bunch of surgeries in order to be able to walk again. For a long time, the doctors weren’t sure it would happen.” He sighed. “But my family and friends all stuck by me and helped me work through my grief.”

*****

Sabrina knew what it was like to lose hope, but she was weak. Chase was so strong and had his family and friends around him. How could he lose hope? She clung to a stupid childhood book and felt like she could lose hope at any moment. Her fingernails constantly dug into the ledge of sanity and she could barely hang on some days.

“I’m glad you had them,” she said softly.

“And now you have them, too. And me.”

Sabrina looked up. “What do you mean?”

“You’re not alone anymore, remember? They all care about you.” He reached for her hand. “I care about you. More than I could ever express fully.”

She shook her head. “It’s different.”

“Why?” he asked, his voice both urgent and soft. “What both of us went through wasn’t our fault. It happened to us.”

“They stole my innocence,” she exclaimed softly in a broken voice. “You’re still a good man. Your character isn’t changed. Mine is.”

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