Then he scowled at me.

“That’s it?” he asked.

“Nick, I allowed you to fake my death,” I repeated with emphasis.

In normal people world, that would be a big thing.

In our world, it was lame.

Totally lame.

And he so totally knew it.

“Liv,” he growled.

I shifted my hands from his neck to his stubbled cheeks and rolled up on my toes.

When I got close, I pressed my fingers in and whispered fiercely, “I love you, Nicky. You’ve made me safe. You’ve made me free. You’ve made me happy. But I don’t love you because you did all that. I love you because you’re Nicky.”

I might have said more.

I didn’t get the chance because Nick was kissing me.

He was also done with the cold mountain evening and I knew this because he picked me up and took us inside. Right through the big living room with its stone fireplace, the picture I gave him hanging over the mantel. Right down the narrow hall. Right to our warm bed.

And there I was safe.

There I was free, complete, happy.

Because I was with Nicky.

* * * * *

Nick

Late that night, he held Liv’s naked body close to his under the warm covers in the dark.

She was restful, her weight pressing in to him, and he thought she was asleep.

He would find she wasn’t when she whispered, “Tell me about her.”

Nick felt his body get tight.

She slid a hand up his chest to his neck where she used her thumb to stroke his jaw soothingly. Otherwise, she didn’t move.

“You’ve let her go,” she noted softly. “In that way, you’ve let her go. I know you have with the way you are with me. But now it’s done, sweetheart. It’s time to get her back. She was a part of your life. You’re all of my life. If you want to do it, I want you to know you can give her to me.”

In the drama they’d had, he often forgot how fucking wise she was.

And she was wise because, that day, when he could finally lay Hettie to rest, he needed to give her to somebody. Keep her alive. Even in the dark in the mountains in Tennessee, Nick with the woman he found who was not Hettie, but who was beyond a dream.

He turned into Olivia’s arms.

She tucked herself closer.

Safe in her hold in the dark in their bed, Nick Sebring gave his Livvie the last thing of his he had to give.

He gave her Hettie.

“Her name was Hettie and she couldn’t fry an egg to save her life.”

She relaxed against him and rubbed her nose along his throat.

Nick kept talking.

Liv kept listening.

He ended with, “She’d like you for me.”

Liv emitted a dubious sound before she said, “That’s sweet, honey, but it’s hard to believe.”

“She would.”

“Right.”

She didn’t believe him.

“She would, Liv,” he asserted on a squeeze of his arms.

“Okay, Nick.”

She totally didn’t believe him.

He lifted a hand and hooked a finger under her chin, forcing it up.

He caught her eyes in the moonlight.

“She would, Livvie, because you make me happy.”

She melted into him.

“Now that,” she said in that voice of hers, “I can believe.”

He bent his head and kissed her soft.

When he released her mouth, she snuggled close.

He was nearly asleep when her drowsy voice came again to him.

“You’re good at what you do.”

He had no clue where that came from.

“What?” he asked, sounding just as drowsy because he was.

“Taking care of us, the women you love, making us free in all the ways we can be.”

Suddenly, Nick was wide awake.

Just as suddenly, Liv was sleeping.

Nick held her close and turned his eyes to the paned window where moonlight shone in.

“I hope you’re free, Hettie,” he murmured to the quiet night.

Hettie did not reply.

For Hettie had long since been free.

* * * * *

Two Days Later

She was in the kitchen making dinner, an alarming prospect, when the commotion that was him and what he’d picked up in town came through the door to the garage.

She whirled and stared down at the floor in horror as the commotion swept through the room, headed straight her way, taking the braided rugs strewn around with it.

But Nick stared at her face.

Fuck.

He thought she’d freak at his surprise, but in a good way.

“You don’t like dogs?” he asked.

With visible effort, she tore her eyes away from the puppy now attempting to climb up her leg. Her hands were held up in the air, covered in something that looked slimy, a quick glance at the counter telling him she was doing something with hamburger.

If she had the time, she could use hamburger to wipe out an entire army in a way they did not mind dying.

Fuck again.

“What’s that?” she asked, unmoving, her eyes didn’t even drop down to the dog.

He walked into the room. Crouching close to her, he swept up the puppy.

It started licking his jaw at the same time trying to chew his ear and climb on his shoulders.

“Pet store next to the hardware store. It’s adoption day. I went in,” he explained, watching her closely. “I couldn’t leave without taking him with me.”

“What’s that?” she repeated.

Nick didn’t reply as he tried to read her.