Page 14 of Wicked Healing

That night her mother called.

“I wanted to confirm when you’d be getting back. I have someone I want you to meet.”

Erin rolled her eyes. “Mom, I told you when I’m getting back. And I would appreciate it if you would quit trying to set me up with weird men.”

“This one isn’t weird, I swear,” Linda told her. “I met him through my hair stylist.”

“Is he gay like the last one you introduced me to? Did you explain that it was Erin with an E and not A?”

She harrumphed on the other end of the line, then giggled. “Okay, I’ll admit, that one didn’t go as planned. But I apologized for it.”

“I know you did, Mom, but here you are trying to set me up again. I will find someone in my own time. Quit meddling.”

She sighed and Erin could hear the acceptance in the sound. “I only want you to have what your dad and I had, honey.”

Erin’s heart softened. “I know, Mom, but this isn’t something you can force. Believe it or not, I date. You just don’t always hear about them because you blow everything up into a big relationship.”

“Maybe you can hook up with this soldier you’re going to see. I bet he would be up for some action since he’s been in the hospital so long.”

“Mom,” Erin gasped. “You are so bad! And he’s a sailor, not a soldier. He’s a former Navy SEAL. And he’s had more important things to worry about, like walking and coming back from the brink of death. And reconnecting with his dog.”

“Oh, men always think about sex. It’s in their nature. But okay, I’ll cancel the meetup with the guy.”

“I love you, Mom. I have to go.”

“Later, dear!”

Erin shook her head at her mother’s antics. The woman was incorrigible, but she understood her motivation. Linda and Erin’s father Mike had been truly in love, as the stories went. They’d met in college and had fallen hard, starting their family right after graduation. As they’d gotten older, though, they’d begun to grow apart in their beliefs. They’d divorced when Erin had been in college. When Dad had gotten sick Linda had gone to Tucson to be with him and the two of them had reconnected, but it had been too late then. By that time they knew the pancreatic cancer would eventually take his life. Erin thought that her mother regretted divorcing him, and she still professed to love him all these years later.

It was a sad story, but Erin had good memories of the three of them together. She knew what love looked like and she knew that she would find it someday.

* * *

By eleven o’clock Saturday morning,Luca was ready to jump out of his skin. Though his stump was sore from physical therapy, he paced back and forth in front of the hospital for almost half an hour before a gunmetal gray SUV with a Paws at Home magnetic sign on the door pulled up into the patient drop-off loop. A petite woman with thick, dark-brown hair up in a ponytail stepped down out of the vehicle, gave him an enthusiastic wave, then moved to the back passenger door. Luca hurried back toward the loop but he was a good ways away.

Wicked jumped down out of the vehicle, looking sleek and lean, healthy, like he’d never even been injured. He spotted Luca immediately and before Erin could prepare herself he launched away from her, leash snapping in the breeze as he pounded as fast as he could down the sidewalk.

“Oh, shit,” Luca murmured, but he braced, hoping he could take Boss’s weight. He dropped the cane because he knew he would need two hands. He would catch him.

Nope, he couldn’t. In seconds he was sprawled breathless on the grass, trying to fight off a Maligator intent on licking him to death. Wicked whined constantly, as if telling him everything that had gone on in the weeks they’d been apart, and Luca loved it. The two of them had been inseparable for years, then suddenly apart for almost two months, and they’d both suffered for it. Luca tried to wipe his eyes free of tears to greet Erin like a polite guy should, but she just smiled at them and waved, giving them time to reconnect as she left to park the car. That she trusted him enough to take care of the dog, even though he’d just gone sprawling, was the most precious thing anyone had given him since he’d been injured. And she allowed him time to get through the emotions he needed to. He was a damned Navy SEAL for God’s sake, he reminded himself as he wiped his face.

They were sitting together in the scratchy grass, playing, when Erin returned, so she sat down with them.

“It’s a true pleasure to meet you, Luca.”

Luca shook her hand when she held it out, and he was a little gobsmacked. She was one of those girls that probably thought they were plain, with the end of her ponytail hanging to her shoulders. Her eyes were the most amazing shade of amber, and they were smiling. She wore makeup, but not a lot, and she was dressed for a long drive. Faded blue jeans, tennis shoes and a decorative t-shirt with some kind of stylized dog logo on the left chest that really highlighted her breasts. Oh, that was her kennel logo. He felt a little stupid not recognizing it.

“I feel like I know you,” she said softly, leaning forward to wrap her arms around his neck.

Luca returned the hug, trying not to get too emotional. Whether she realized it or not, this woman had saved his life. She drew back and he dropped his gaze, hoping she didn’t see the vulnerability he was feeling.

Wicked took a second to nose her, as if in thanks, then he curled back up against Luca, making him groan a little. Now that he’d had a second to catch his breath he realized how much it hurt to catch his breath. Had he reinjured himself? Or was it just the way he’d landed on old injuries?

“You okay?” Erin asked, looking at him carefully.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, waving a hand. It was uncomfortable for him to be looked at like that. Before the injury he’d had the confidence to talk to a girl like this, but that seemed like eons ago. He was a scarred-up mess now. Most of it was covered under clothing, granted, but the stuff on his face couldn’t be hidden. Physically, he looked like Frankenstein’s little brother, with all the scarring on his cheek and neck, and part of his right eyebrow gone, but he forced himself to meet her gaze. His right bicep had had a chunk taken out of it as well, and it was visible beneath the sleeve of his T. The surgery to get the shrapnel out had left more of a mess than the piece itself, but he wasn’t going to bitch. It was still usable, though incredibly painful.

Erin was grinning at the two of them. “Do you mind?” she asked, pulling out her phone as if she wanted to take a picture. “My mother isn’t going to believe this if I don’t show her.”

---