Page 76 of Hard Ride

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Aweek later, Van was thrilled to be collecting both Ollie and Kyra from the hospital.Ollie had taken a few trips through the hyperbaric oxygen chamber and they’d held Kyra because she kept Ollie calm and it tricked her into staying mostly still so her ribs had a chance to start healing.

Van hadn’t left their sides in that entire time.

Still, they hadn’t talked about what they would do after they’d recovered.

Now, as he rolled Kyra toward Ollie’s waiting campervan while she bitched non-stop about the wheelchair they’d forced her to use, Van wasn’t sure where they were headed next.

Well, okay, that wasn’t exactly true.He was driving the campervan to Hot Rides, where Ollie and Kyra were going to be babied by Quinn, Trevon, Devra, Wren, Jordan, Kason, Ms.Brown, Tom, and all the Hot Rods, he was sure.

They were going to be so well cared for they wouldn’t even notice if he disappeared, which he was thinking he might have to do.He’d failed.Both of his lovers had nearly died on his watch.

Kyra had been right not to trust him.

Van helped her into the campervan, where she gingerly took the bench seat next to Mr.Prickles.“Hey, little buddy.I missed you.”

The hedgehog head-butted her finger through the cage.

“Aw, he missed you too,” Ollie said with a laugh that morphed into another cough, followed by a groan.It was going to take a while for their bodies to recover.Van thought that was a hell of a lot faster than it would take for him to forget the things he’d seen and heard the day of the fire.

“You guys ready?I’ll drive really slow and carefully, I promise.We can stop whenever you need a break.”Van shut the door, then went around to the driver’s side, stifling a cough of his own.

When he glanced in the mirror, he saw both Ollie and Kyra staring at him.“What?Did I forget something?”

“When are you going to stop acting like this?”Kyra asked him point blank.

“Like what?”He spun the seat around so he could face her and Ollie.

He’d been waiting for this moment.The one when they called him out and told him they were glad things hadn’t worked out since he clearly wasn’t the man he’d led them to believe.

“Like you’re responsible for what happened to us and the pain we’re in.”Ollie finished Kyra’s thought and she nodded in agreement.

“Iamresponsible.It was literally my job to keep Kyra safe.I couldn’t.And you nearly died doing it for me.”Van felt his control slipping.The past week had been torture, watching the two people he loved most suffer because of his shortcomings.

“Shut the hell up.”Kyra rolled her eyes at him.“It’s your job to love us.”

“I do.”He looked her straight in the eyes, and then Ollie too.“I love you both.”

“And we love you, even when you’re being stupid.”She softened the sting of her barb with a dazzling smile.

“You can’t always keep bad things from happening to the people you love.”Ollie winced as he looked at Kyra.“That’s why loving someone takes courage.I’m willing to take that chance if you are.”

Kyra reached out and took one of Ollie’s hands in hers before extending the other to Van.

He couldn’t reject her.Never would again.

The fire had showed him how quickly everything could change.There was no time to waste in life.

So he intertwined their fingers.“I’m sorry I let you down.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you to react reasonably to that text message.”Kyra cleared her throat, then said, “If you want to blame someone for all this, it should be me.”

“In your defense,” Ollie joked.“He’s kind of proving you were right to be worried.He didn’t take it well.And it did freak me out.”

Van barked out a laugh.“You’re such an asshole.But you know what…I love you anyway.”

“Same,” Ollie said with a grin.“That’s why next time, we’ll all do better.”

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