She was silent for a moment and then she glanced up at her parents, love for them welling deep, so deep.

“Do you think it’s stupid of me to grieve the deaths of two people I never knew?” she whispered.

Ginger lowered the bedrail and carefully slid onto the edge of the bed so she faced Ari.

“You’ve always had such a huge heart, Ari. I’d be more shocked if you didn’t feel at least some sadness for the deaths of the people who gave you life. I owe them a debt I could never have hoped to repay. The only thing they asked in return for the blessing they gave us was for us to love you as our own daughter, and baby, that’s the easiest promise I’ve ever had to keep. No promise was required because we fell in love with you the minute we laid eyes on you.

“So, no, I don’t think it makes you stupid at all. It makes you human. It makes you the beautiful inside and out daughter we love with all our hearts.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Ari said, emotion thick in her voice. “I love you.”

Her mom leaned over and kissed the top of Ari’s head. “I love you, too, my baby. And you will always be my baby. I don’t care how old you are.”

“Same goes here,” her dad said in a gruff tone.

The door opened and a nurse came striding in, pushing a portable cart that held the computerized record keeping as well as meds and instruments for checking vitals. Ari’s mom and dad backed away from the bed to give the nurse access to Ari’s IV port.

After checking all her vitals, the nurse drew out a syringe already filled with medication, swabbed the port site and then injected the pain medicine into the IV line.

Ari felt the uncomfortable burn of the medication as soon as it hit her bloodstream and continued up her arm until it reached her shoulder, at which point the burn dissipated and a nice, warm, floaty feeling assailed her.

She vaguely remembered her last encounter with pain medication and she hadn’t lasted more than a few minutes before she’d sunk into oblivion. This time she wasn’t ready to float away. She’d only just gotten her parents back. She’d only, just hours before, experienced the euphoria of knowing Beau was alive. She didn’t want to give them up, even for a minute.

Blinking furiously, she fought the effects of the drug, frowning with concentration.

“Stop fighting it, honey,” Beau said in a tender voice.

“Don’t want you all to go,” she fretted.

He kissed her forehead, placing his palm on top of her head.

“We’ll be here. We’re not going anywhere.”

“Promise?”

He stroked his thumb down her cheek and then to the dimple in her chin.

“Promise.”

FORTY

BEAU sat in the darkness of Ari’s room, elbows propped on his knees, his hands wearily covering his face as he scrubbed his eyes to stay awake. He refused to go to sleep and miss the opportunity to speak to Ari—alone. Gavin had taken Ginger to a nearby hotel so Ginger could rest after her ordeal.

He couldn’t go another day, hour or minute without knowing if he had a future with Ari or not. Whether she felt for him all that he felt for her.

He couldn’t help but swell with pride, his male ego stroked that he’d been her first lover. And her last if he had anything to say on the matter.

His head shot up when he heard her stir and then emit a soft groan. Immediately sliding to the edge of the chair he’d positioned at the head of her bed, he lifted her hand and twined their fingers together.

“How are you feeling, honey?”

Another sigh.

“Hurts.”

“Let me call the nurse.”

“No,” Ari protested. “Not yet. It just knocks me out and so all I’ve done is sleep. Between the anesthesia taking forever to wear off and the pain meds, I feel like a zombie.”

Beau could understand, and if he were honest, he was glad she was refusing the medicine, at least until he got to have his say. Hopefully she’d put him out of his misery so he could start breathing again.

She’d been taken to surgery the morning after she’d been brought into the hospital and she’d been out of it that entire day and well into the next until dusk had descended, heralding the coming night.

For the next six weeks she’d wear an awkward cast that encased her hip and was completely inflexible. It was like wearing a block of cement. Or so she’d grumbled to him.

“I love you,” he said starkly.

Ari’s startled gaze found his and he groaned, lowering his head to smack his forehead repeatedly with his palm.

“Fuck,” he muttered. More slapping. “That was smooth.” More thudding his head against his palm. “Jesus, I’ve been waiting for this moment. I’ve wanted this moment. With you. I’ve imagined it in my head a million times. It’s all I’ve thought of. And when I finally get to the big event, the one where I tell you that you’re my entire fucking world and that I don’t want to live my life without you I freeze up, and all I can manage is three words with no preamble, no context, no buildup.”

He sighed, a mournful, disgusted sound.

“I’m so sorry, Ari. I completely fucked this up.”

She smiled, her eyes lighting up like he’d just laid the world at her feet. Was it possible she returned his love? That she had the same dreams and desires he did?

“It may not have been the most eloquent declaration in the world, but it was utterly perfect,” she said in a dreamy, satisfied voice. “I mean who can argue with phrases like ‘You’re my fucking world’ and ‘I don’t want to live my life without you’?”