Page 122 of Just (Fake) Married
Seth: So, Cin has a kid?
I got home justpast two in the morning. Exhausted but confident that Cin would make a full recovery, I stepped into the house and was greeted by Bruce and Jenny, who, as if they knew the hour, quietly came to greet me.
Bruce rubbed her head against my leg, and Jenny, didn’t look in my direction, but she wasn’t barking.
“Hello, friends,” I whispered, giving them each scratches as I made my way toward the living room. Jenny sniffed me for liver treats and when she didn’t find any she walked away, straight into a wall, before Bruce rounded her up back towards the fire.
Harmony was asleep on the couch. Curled up on her side facing the fire. A half-empty bottle of wine and a bowl with just a few tater tots on the side table.
A deep satisfaction ran through me that she was home safe. Either Chuck brought her back to town or someone brought the animals home. A community effort most likely, to get to the right outcome.
Yes, that made me happy.
Her red hair was darker in the firelight, almost the color of blood. I shook my head, trying to dislodge the hospital filter. It had been months since I’d been in a hospital or involved in a medical emergency with life-or-death stakes.
Seeing the world through that filter again was jarring.
The adrenaline was powerful and familiar, and, I could admit it, exciting. It felt really fucking good to be reminded that I was good at my job. That I was a person who walked into a crisis and could make things right.
However, the crash from that was exhausting.
I slipped my hand over Harmony’s shoulder, giving her a squeeze. She woke up in a start and grabbed my wrist.
“You’re back,” she said, blinking her eyes. “How’d you get home?”
“Caught a ride with one of the paramedics who lives in the Gulch,” I said. “You should go on up to bed.”
“Is she okay?” she asked instead, sitting up and scooting over so I could sit next to her.
“She will be. They managed to find and stop a brain bleed before it got too bad and they’re keeping her for observation. She’s got the broken collarbone, two broken ribs and a sternum bruise that will be painful.”
“You were amazing,” she whispered, and I smiled at her. “I mean, what would have happened if you weren’t there?”
Those were games every surgeon tried not to play. I hated thinking about how scared that boy had been. How much worse it could have gotten without a hospital’s intervention.
“I was there,” I said. “And everything is going to be okay. Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
Harmony put her hands on my face, cupping my cheeks, her eyes searching mine.
“Harmony,” I laughed, suddenly uncomfortable with the scrutiny. I was a doctor, I was in the right place at the right time and Dr. Blackfeather was the one to summon the resources we needed. I wasn’t the hero she was making me out to be.
“You have to know something,” she said. “I have to say it. At least once. I love you.”
And then she kissed me.
It was like being in suspended animation. I lost touch with the world. With the night. My life. It was just us. Harmony’s lips against mine. I couldn’t even breathe. It was everything I’d wanted the last few weeks. Months, really.
Everything she’d held back from me.
I love you.
I could taste those words on her lips. Sweet and sharp all at once.
Her lips opened against mine and I eased in, careful and hungry. Her arms came around my shoulders and she held on to me like she would never let me go. She moaned against my mouth and I felt it in my chest. It reverberated in my brain and in my blood. I slid my hands up into her hair, holding her the way I wanted so I could taste more of her. All of her. I kissed her like she was the answer.
God. She was sweet. Perfect.
“Is it happening?” I asked, against her mouth.
