Page 115 of Safe With Me

I cleared my throat, trying to swallow past the lump in my throat.

“That means a lot, Dad. Thank you.”

“Youmean a lot to me.” Dad grabbed my shoulder, his eyes glossy as they held mine. “Never, ever forget that.”

Right after everyone left, Lila and I ordered takeout and got into bed. I slid a gentle arm around her waist as I buried my head into the pillow.

“You could come closer,” she whispered. “The injury is just to my head.”

I scooted closer to her and kissed her shoulder. “How’s this?”

“Better,” she said, reaching behind to grab my hand and tuck it under her cheek.

“Doing okay?”

“The pain is more dull than sharp, but I guess that means I’m healing. Other than that, I’m fine. I’m sure it’s going to hit me later, so I’ll call the therapist next week.”

She rolled over, smiling as her hazy gaze met mine.

“I’ve been so afraid for so long. Now I feel like I can finally live. Appreciate my life, not be afraid to go out after dark, sleep with my sexy cop boyfriend.”

“I support all those things.” I brushed her lips. “Because your cop boyfriend is crazy.” I kissed her again. “And hopelessly in love with you.”

“Can we never get out of this bed?”

“One of us is going to have to go to work eventually. But sure, why not? Although—” I glanced up at the iron headboard “—judging by what we did to my futon, we need something padded. Or else Kathy and Terry are going to get pissed at all the banging.”

She laughed and clutched her head. “Ow. Easy, babe. It hurts to laugh.”

“Sorry.” I drifted my hand down her throat and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I’ll go easy. You’re safe with me.”

EPILOGUE

LILA

Six months later

I hated settingan alarm on a Saturday morning.

I rolled over and buried my head into Mike’s pillow. He’d gone to work early this morning, but I could still smell him enough on my sheets to not want to get up.

I had no idea why he still wasted money on an apartment he only used to get mail at this point. Keely had even started staying here one Saturday a month instead of at her brother’s apartment.

She’d told me during her last sleepover that she didn’t understand why Mike didn’t just move in here since everything was so much better and bigger at my apartment.

I’d smiled and nodded, not knowing what else to say.

We hadn’t even been together for a year, but life without Mike was a fuzzy and unpleasant memory.

There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind that he loved me, but whenever I dreamed about a future, it would dawn on me how much younger Mike was than me.

He might have been wise beyond his years, but he was still a man in his midtwenties. Marriage and babies were probably far enough into a distant future for him not to be on his radar now.

I understood and tried to have patience. Although asking Mike to just move in with me had been on the tip of my tongue for weeks.

All the bad that had happened to us had become rearview, as Mike had once promised. Amber had been deemed sane enough to be tried and convicted, and she had been sentenced to the maximum allowed by law.

I still believed she needed help, but a judge had ruled she was more cruel than troubled, and if that kept her away from us for longer, I didn’t care about semantics.

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