Page 120 of Stormswept Colorado

But dreaming of Sergeant Carpenter, of that night… I hadn’t played out those details in a very long time. Either asleep or awake.

“Did you have one because of what we talked about last night?” Teller asked. “Is that what your nightmare was about?”

How did he understand me so well? Better than anyone else I’d ever known. “Yeah. Sergeant Carpenter was walking me home. It was the night he tried to kiss me, when my father threw me out. But the nightmare was different. The sergeant…”

I inhaled, sitting up as I remembered.

“What is it?”

“I dreamed that he gave me a red daisy. His wife grew them in the summer. I forgot about that.” My gaze found Teller’s in the dimness. “The flower arrangements from Biggest Fan had red daisies, too.”

Teller sat up, reaching for my hands. “Both of them? You’re sure?”

I nodded. “Do you think that means something?”

“Doyouthink it does? You would know better than me.”

“I don’t know what any of it means.” My breathing started to speed again. Like I might hyperventilate.

Could Sergeant Carpenter have something to do with Biggest Fan? But how?Why? After all these years?

“Come here.” Teller sat against the pillows and opened his arms. He pulled me so I was between his legs, lying back against his chest, and he held me tight. Just the way I liked. “We don’t have to figure it out right now. But we will.”

I turned my head to breathe in his scent from his bare skin. Letting him calm me again. This was much better than when I usually woke up from a nightmare alone.

I wasn’t alone anymore.

I kept repeating it to myself.You’re not alone.

Teller grabbed the blanket and pulled it around us. This feltso good. Being skin to skin with him, nothing between us. No more secrets.

I’d barely begun to process what Teller had said to me last night. That he loved me. I’d been overwhelmed by memories, by the need to confess my deepest secret to him. So he knew I wasn’t as perfect as he seemed to think.

I’d felt like a liar for so much of my life. Pretending to be somebody important who mattered when my own father didn’t want me around.

But that hadn’t made any difference to Teller. He’d said everything that I’d needed to hear, and I’d known it was the truth. At least, the truth from his perspective. Those old wounds were still raw. But Teller was healing them even now. It meant everything that he saw the real me, knew my past, and he still loved me.

I was falling for him too.

I’d been on my own for so long after leaving home. I’d trusted the wrong people. Gotten hurt. But all of that had led me to Silver Ridge. To Teller.

How could I stand being away from him again?

I pressed my face to his chest. “I don’t want you to go. I need you to stay with me.”

Teller’s grip on me tightened, his body tensing. Immediately, I regretted what I’d said. I hadn’t been thinking.

“I didn’t mean that,” I said. “Not literally. I wouldn’t ask you to?—”

“It’s okay. I want you to be honest with me.”

“I know you only have this weekend here. I’m grateful for that. I promise.”

He lay his palm over my cheek. “I could find a way to stay. Not permanently at first. But maybe I could arrange a leave of absence from work. Susan has years of experience in the department. She could?—”

I sat upright. “No. Don’t even say that. You’re not giving up what’s important in your life for me.”

“Youare important. That’s what I’ve been telling you. I love you.”

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