“Oh my God,” she said.

“Just take the few things you need, ma’am,” the officer said. “I’ll give you some time in the bedroom.” He went to the living room.

I thought quickly. “Just grab a change of clothes. You’re coming home with me.”

“No, I can’t. I don’t want to impose.”

“For God’s sake, Melanie. You’ve seen the size of my house. I live alone. You’re not imposing.”

She gave me that soft smile. “Are you insisting?”

“I am.”

“Oh, good. I know I can’t stay here tonight, and I’m not sure…”

“What?”

“I’m not sure I’ll ever feel safe here again.”

“You don’t have to worry about that for now.” Forever, if I had anything to say about it. But she wouldn’t feel the same way once I told her the truth, that I’d neglected to take her phone call on purpose.

“I need to call my insurance company.”

“We’ll take care of that when we get to my house.”

“I’ll need to be here when they come…” She sat down on her bed with a sigh. “My God, Jonah, how do people function after something like this? I’ve helped people recover from much worse. Why am I nearly paralyzed with fear?”

I sat down next to her and took one of her bandaged hands in mine. “You know that what you’re feeling is completely normal. You will get through this, Melanie. You will.”

“Yes, all I need to do is want to do the work.” She let out a tiny laugh. “How many times have I said those words to others? Others who have been through so much more than I’ve been through. And you know what? They don’t mean anything.”

“That’s not true, and you know it.”

“I don’t know, Jonah. I just don’t know how to get through this.”

“The same way you tell your patients how to get through things, Melanie. One day at a time. One hour at a time. Whatever it takes.”

Tears misted in her eyes, and I pulled her into an embrace.

My God, I wanted her. I wanted to take all the pain away. I wanted to find who had done this to her and pummel him into tomorrow. Why did the universe want to punish the people I loved most in the world?

Chapter Twelve

Melanie

We arrived at Joe’s house in the early afternoon. He set me up in one of his guest rooms. I had been hoping he would put me in his room with him, but I didn’t dare ask for it. Perhaps he didn’t feel the same way I did.

He yawned. The poor thing probably hadn’t slept very well in a chair.

“Do you have work you need to do?” I asked.

“Nothing that can’t wait.”

“You run this huge ranch. I know you have work to do.”

“This is more important,” he said. “What can I get you? What do you need?”

You. I need you, Jonah.

But I didn’t voice the thought. “A shower,” I said. “I haven’t had one since…”

Since the night.

My heart sped up. I would have to deal with this one way or another.

Day by day, just as Jonah had said, and just as I’d told my patients on many occasions. Day by day.

I would start with a shower. I’d have to take off my bandages. I wanted to get a good look at how they were healing anyway. Some of the cuts had been deep enough to require stitches, but most of them were pretty shallow.

I went into my “room.” The shower wasn’t as decadent as the one in Jonah’s master suite, but it was wonderful. I turned it on and began to unbandage my hands when a knock sounded on the door.

Jonah stood there. “I thought you might want this.” He handed me a small bottle of lavender essential oil.

I couldn’t help myself. One hand still bandaged, I launched into him and slammed my lips onto his.

He opened quickly and kissed me back.

How I’d missed this. Had it really been only three days? I felt like a lifetime had passed.

If only I could thread my fingers through his beautiful hair, but some of the cuts on my unbandaged hand were still oozing a bit.

But as ravenous as he had been on my mouth mere seconds ago, Jonah unclamped his lips from mine and pulled back. “No, you need your rest. As much as I want you, I’m not going to start something with you now.”

“Why would I not want you to start something? You stayed with me all night. You brought me to your home to protect me. I want you too. Now.”

He backed away from me until he ran into the chest of drawers against the wall. “You need your rest. We shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Jonah, please. I need to do this now. I need to feel the good in the world.”

He shook his head. “I’m far from the good in the world, Melanie.”

His full lips tightened, and he closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. The muscles in his shoulders tensed. Even under his western shirt, I could tell. My God he was beautiful. Truly beautiful, just as he had always been. The streaks of silver at his temples and throughout his several days’ stubble drew me. I wanted to feel that stubble against my most intimate places. I wanted to feel alive. Alive with him. The man I loved.

“You are everything good in the world, Jonah.” I cupped his cheek with my one unbandaged hand.

He took my hand away from his cheek and kissed it. Then he opened it and looked at my wrist and my palm. “This is what happened because I wasn’t there for you.”

“What are you talking about?”

He stared straight into my eyes and cupped both of my cheeks. “Do you have any idea how strong you are, Melanie? Most people would have just accepted their fate, let themselves go to sleep and die in peace. But not you. You figured a way out.”

Strong? I wasn’t strong.

I cleared my throat. “The survival instinct is amazing in a human being. I’ve seen it in my patients, including your brother, and that’s all that was going on with me. It had nothing to do with strength.”

“How can you say that?” He shook his head, his mass of dark hair swaying. “You’re so strong, so intelligent, and so…cunning. You figured a way out of an unwinnable situation. You’re incredible.”