Built to Last (16 page)

“You should see the other guy,” Cade commented as he caught the look of horror on her face. “Hey there, beautiful.”

“Cade…” she choked back tears, trying to be strong for him, but still feeling like his condition was her fault.

“Oh, don’t do that. Not over me. Come here love, I’m fine. Just a little sore.” He tried to roll a little bit toward her and groaned.

“Mr. Harden, you need to keep still,” the nurse chastised him. “You may feel fine, but that is completely the pain meds talking.” She looked at Noelle, “I’m serious, he needs to rest.”

Noelle pulled a chair up to the side of the bed. “I’m so sorry Cade.”

“For what?” he asked settling back into the pillows and closing his eyes.

“For what Griffin did to you. If I hadn’t…”

“I’m glad you are here Elle,” he murmured and dozed off on her.

Noelle sat next to the bed and watched him sleep. She let her mind wonder over the possibility of a life with Cade. She began to wonder what their child would look like. Would she have Cade’s deep green eyes? Maybe her own curling hair? She hoped their child would have his smile. She closed her eyes and leaned back in the chair continuing to think about it. It wasn’t long until she was asleep as well.

When she woke again, it was morning and Cade’s bed was empty. In a panic, she rushed out to the nurse’s station to ask what had happened to him.

“He’s down getting a chest scan. He’ll be back in a little bit.” The nurse told her and relief flooding through her body. It was then, that she realized she loved him. The fear of losing him was something she could no longer bare. Whether she wanted it or not, Cade Harden was part of her heart and she needed to tell him.

***

Cade was doing his best not to move. The small pillow they gave him to hold against himself helped but there were parts of him that were itchy. Three days in a hospital bed was enough to drive any man nuts. They had removed the tube from his chest the prior evening to his relief and said that his body was healing quickly. The knife wound was going to take some time but the antibiotics he was on would keep infection at bay. He had been very lucky that Griffin’s aim had been off. He could live without his appendix and the nicked large intestine would heal completely in time as well. It did mean that he was on a diet of liquid food for a while longer but he hoped he could go home soon.

Noelle had stayed at his side the entire time he’d been here and that was the one great comfort he had. Something had changed between them, he wasn’t sure what it was exactly or why, but it was there. She watched him constantly when she thought he didn’t notice, as if she was waiting for him to change or say something that she didn’t want to hear. Frankly, the word fragile came to mind. Perhaps it was her experience with Griffin that had tamed her so. They didn’t talk about it. They talked about everything else under the sun, but not that.

Today she seemed interested in family matters, almost preoccupied with the topic. She’d asked him about his family, and how his life had changed when his own mother had died. In turn, she answered some of his questions about why she wanted to be a teacher. She talked more openly about her mother, and how losing her a little bit at a time had changed the way she looked at the world. Just now, she was talking about her nephews. He loved the way her face lit up when she spoke of them. It was obvious to him, that she would do anything for those two little boys.

Enough was enough and he couldn’t tiptoe around the facts anymore. She was here and every minute with her beside him was torture knowing that the moment he went home, she would get on with her life without him. He needed more of a commitment from her or nothing at all. He felt selfish giving her such an ultimatum but there it was. Nearly dying at the hands of a deranged stalker who is obsessed with the woman you love kind of had a way of showing you what was important in your life.

“Noelle, we need to talk.”

“I thought that’s what we were doing,” she answered evasively.

“You know what I mean.”

Noelle turned to look into those wonderful deep green eyes afraid of what he might say next. She had already decided, short of him telling her that he never wanted to see her again; she wasn’t going to run anymore. “Okay.”

“I think you are funny and brilliant not to mention gorgeous,” he began. She dropped her eyes and blushed. He reached for her chin and tilted her head until she was looking him in the eyes again. “Lord knows that even as I am stuck in this bed, my body tells me how much I want you. I have come to imagine what I want out of the rest of my life. I want family like the one we have been talking about today. I want children to fill my home with joyous sound and my heart with pride. I want a woman by my side that knows her mind and wants to be my partner through all life throws at us. I want you.”

Noelle felt like the world had been spinning out of control and suddenly snapped back into place leaving her breathless and dizzy.

When she didn’t speak, Cade continued. “I love you Noelle, I have for some time. I came to realize it when you went missing. I can’t imagine my life without you. I know you said you want your space to figure out who you are, but I am afraid that if I let you go without telling you how I feel, I might lose my only shot at happiness.”

Tears began to streak down Noelle cheeks. Her hand flew to her mouth stifling back the sob that threatened to tear from her throat not wanting to miss a word of what he was saying.

“Tell me you will stay with me, and give us a chance?” he begged.

Noelle launched herself into his arms, the one place she truly felt at home. He groaned, gritting his teeth against the jarring of his injuries, so that he could hold her. He kissed the top of her head, and waited for her to answer him with baited breath. Finally, she lifted her head to look at him. A brilliant smile illuminated her face.

“Yes,” she stated simply, “if after what I tell you, you will still have me.”

Griffin’s heart danced in his chest. He loved her and no matter what she said, nothing could change that for him.

“I have been running away from my life instead of toward it. I didn’t want to let anyone in because that meant I might lose them like I did with Mom, and I just can’t stand to lose any one else from my life. So when you opened your life and your heart to me I got scared. I wanted to be with you from the very first, but every time we’d get close, doubt and fear would cloud my eyes so that I couldn’t see anything in front of me. Cade, you are the man I want. You make me feel things I’m afraid of but crave anyway. When I am with you, I can’t imagine there is any other definition for the word Home. I love you too. I want to give you all the things you want and more.”

She touched his face with her hand cupping his cheek and looking into his eyes for a long time. Unshed tears made the world soft around the edges.

“Then marry me Noelle. Be my wife, my lover, my partner, and make me the happiness man on Earth.”

She wanted to scream yes at the top of her lungs. She knew he wanted children and she knew he loved her. She had heard enough to make her happy. He wanted to marry her before knowing she was carrying his child. She smiled and gently bent her head to kiss his lips.

“On two conditions,” she began softly, nuzzling her head under his chin to rest her head upon his chest.

“Anything.” He whispered breathlessly, mentally cursing his inability to take her in his arms and make love to her on the spot.

“We have to get married before the baby is born,” She replied softly stilling in his arms and waiting for his reaction. “And we name her after my mother.”

He grabbed both of her shoulders and gently pushed her away from his chest so he could look in her beautiful mahogany eyes. He thought his heart was already full with his love for her but now he was sure it had just grown a full size larger. “Really?”

She nodded, still waiting, though the slow smile spreading across his face gave her the answer she most desired.

“How does June sound?” he grinned pulling her back into his arms and ignoring the physical pain it caused. He was too happy to care.

“Perfect.”

EPILOGUE

The summer sky was a brilliant blue with only a few wisps of bright white clouds to break it up. The mountains stood out like cardboard cutouts in the background as Noelle lay in the soft grass of her backyard. She smiled at the thought; her backyard of her house. Cade was just starting a new addition. They had decided that with the baby, they needed more room and the house he had originally thought too big, was now starting to feel small.

She was off teaching for summer vacation. After graduating, she found a job in West Valley as a high school English teacher. She was also teaching theater, which when she told Del earned the comment, ‘You’re good at drama.’ She would not get to go back this fall because the baby was due, but it would give her the opportunity to work on her thesis for her Master’s program.

Everything that mattered to her was right here in this house and yard. Her hand rested upon the small bulge of her stomach and she smiled as she felt the baby kick.

“He’s a busy one,” Cade noted turning his head to rest a cheek on his wife’s stomach.

“A go-getter just like his daddy,” Noelle replied poking her husband lightly in the ribs.

He laughed and rolled away sitting up next to her. He looked so content. His handsome features were at ease as he stared up into the sky. Her heart wanted to burst with the love she held for him there. She sat up next to him, a feat that was growing more difficult by the day, and reached for him. He caressed her face brushing her hair from her eyes and touching the stiff white scar that ran the length of her hairline above her right eye. A constant reminder of how close they had both come to losing each other. He had been so patient and protective of her after everything that her love for him had grown to such depths she’d never imagined possible.

He kissed her lips softly, lazily teasing her. She felt a familiar tightness curling in her body. “Margie won’t be up from her nap for another hour…”

Cade scooped up his wife, “Then we shouldn’t be wasting any time.” He growled and carried off into their bedroom. He laid her on the bed and smiled down at her with desire burning in his eyes. “Are you happy?” he asked.

She reached up, pulled him down on top of her, and began showing him just how much.

.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jean Page was born in Utah, grew up in Wyoming and now lives in Montana. She studied Music at the University of Wyoming. She is the mother of three handsome young men. She loves cats, scifi/fantasy, romantic comedies, and all forms of music.
In her free time, she likes to crochet, play video games with her kids and decorate cakes.