Page 148 of False Start

I’d hug him, I’d curl right into him where I belonged and tell him I love him.

And then I’d make it damn clear he would never walk out on me again, so I hope he’d pulled his head out of his ass while he was gone.

She never made another sound, just lay in my arms with her eyes closed until the ambulance pulled up and the EMTs took over.

In a matter of minutes they had her strapped to the gurney with an oxygen mask settled over her face as they wheeled her out the door and loaded her in the back of the ambulance.

And all I could wonder is if I’d just seen her for the last time.

I never got my last time with my mother, but if this is what it was, maybe that was a good thing.

Because this felt like an ax right in my already shredded heart and forcing myself through every motion filled me with frozen despair.

A crowd had gathered outside and watched her go. No doubt in a matter of hours everyone in Galloway Bay would be flooding Banked Track with calls.

I grabbed my phone and dialed Rory’s number, but when she answered, all I could manage was, “Patti collapsed,” my voice breaking on even those two words.

“Wait, what?” Rory said, her voice breathless and thin.

“She collapsed here at the bar,” I said again, choking back tears. “Can you come down and take over?”

“I’m just down the street. Five minutes. I’ll be there in five minutes,” Rory said before hanging up.

Wasit really only a month ago when I walked into this waiting room and wrapped my arms around Priest while he waited for word about his sister?

Before I could even get used to one change, another would hit me, and the last two, they were biggins.

The biggest.

And all I wanted as I stared out into the darkness was for Priest to show up and return the favor.

Was that really too much to ask?

I missed him so damn much that even now, after two weeks, his scent haunted me and a new stream of tears spilled down my cheeks.

Was this how Abel haunted him? Or was that even worse?

Achingly familiar arms slid around me and a sob shuddered from my lungs. I couldn’t turn to him, not yet, but oh, how I wanted to. “Are you only here because you think I need somebody?”

He buried his face in my neck, his lips brushing over my skin as he breathed me in, his hand flexing where it rested on my belly. “I’m here because I need us.”

“She told me I should go get you. Before she collapsed,” I said, choking on the clog of tears. “She told me I needed to bring you home where you belonged.”

He cleared his throat. “I’m glad you didn’t,” he said, his voice thick, his breath warm over my skin.

I turned in his arms and searched his face. The exhaustion around his eyes the same as mine. The lines etched into his skin around his mouth telling the story of the torment he’d been facing while he’d been gone. “Why?”

“Because you’d always wonder if I was only here because you did,” he said, his thumb grazing over my damp cheek. “I don’t want you to have a single doubt about why I came back—why I came to stay.”

“The farm is your home—”

“No, it’s not,” he said, settling his lips on my forehead, setting off a shuddering breath inside me. “You, Maisy. You’re my home. Wherever that is, even if it’s in a tiny apartment over Banked Track.”

His arms swallowed me whole and I burrowed in, my eyes drifting shut, the first real full breath filling my heavy lungs.

He turned his face into mine and burrowed close. “I love you so damn much,” he murmured, that rumble of his voice vibrating clear through me and cradling my heart the same way he cradled his nephew.

Slow and smooth, he found my mouth, his taste sliding through me, his kiss promising me everything I’d ever longed for. “You don’t have to fight to hold on anymore, Mayhem,” he whispered over my mouth. “Because I’m holding on to you.”

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