Page 114 of A Wolf's Wound
Tears spring into my eyes.“You do?”
“Yes.”He swallows and I swear he’s about to cry too.“I do.”
“Oh!”I cry, and then burst into tears.“Shit, Ryder, I’m sorry!”I manage to choke out through my sobs.
“Are you crying because you don’t want to love me?”he asks cautiously.
“No!”I weep, and then laugh.“Shit, I’m a mess.”
“You are,” he says, laughing too.
“I was just so worried for you,” I say, wiping my face with the backs of my hands.“That whole thing with Brian was so horrible, and I was so on edge.I kept expecting him to kill you—to kill both of us.”
“Hannah, I’m okay,” he says.“I mean, I will be once I can stand up again.”
“And once we make sure you don’t have a concussion,” I remind him, beginning to calm down.
“And that.”Ryder nods, looking amused.
He strokes the side of my face then, so gently that I almost begin crying again.“Hannah, I’ve been in love with you for a long time.I just didn’t know how to say it.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“When I was at the cottage, I think I began falling in love with you,” I confess.
“That might have been when I began to fall for you too,” Ryder says.“I just know that one day it hit me, how much I loved being around you and missed you when you were gone.And I knew then that I was falling in love.”
“Oh, Ryder,” I say, caressing his face lightly, careful not to disturb the stitches and bandages.
“Ryder!”Gavin calls, hurrying over to us.“How are you feeling?”
“Better,” Ryder says, still looking at me.
Gavin looks from his brother to me, and smirks.“Yeah, I’ll bet you are.”
“Shut up,” Ryder grunts, still smiling.
My mother and Mason come over too.“Hannah, the ambulances have started arriving,” Mason says.“Can you help us move the injured to the hospital?”
“Sure,” I say, looking at Ryder once more before standing up.I don’t know what expression is on my face, but when I look at my mother, she’s smiling.
“Fill me in later,” my mom says lightly.“I want all the details.”
“Maybe not all,” I say, blushing, and she laughs.
“Feel better soon, Ryder,” my mother tells him.“I’m sure I’ll be seeing a lot more of you.”
“You should be in one of these ambulances,” I tell Ryder.“Gavin, go with him to the hospital.”
“Okay.”Gavin nods.I look at Ryder once more, and he holds my gaze for several long seconds.I love you, he mouths, and I break into a grin.
A few hours later, all of the wounded have been treated at the hospital.I’ve been helping out where I can, and I’m just finishing up my last patient when Gavin comes into the room where I am.
“Gavin!How’s Ryder?”I ask.
“No concussion and no permanent damage,” he reports.“He’s asking for you.Are you done in here?”
