Nova (51 page)

My hair?

I shook my good arm free of his hand and reached up to check it but he stopped me.

“Your hair’s fine, babe. You’ll just need a little trim.”

“A what?”

“Would you like me to even it up
for now
, Miss?” another paramedic asked. He held a pair of scissors in front of me just as Sam came up to us.

“Here, I’ll do it,” she said, and she took the scissors from him. I was apparently allowed to look at my shoulder at that point since no one said anything when I did. It was all wrapped up in wet bandages.

Sam knelt behind me and said, “About six inches got singed off on this side, Nova. I’ll just even the rest of it to match, okay? You’ll have a cute little shoulder length ‘do for now.”

I didn’t even care what she did but I was guessing it probably looked pretty hideous.
Heck yes, I wanted it fixed.

“It looks that bad, huh?” I teased Austin.

He looked at me and asked, “What?”

“My hair? It looks so horrible you’re that upset?”

He only stared at me for a few seconds and then he shook his head again. “Your hair will grow back, Nova. You don’t need to worry about it.” He gave me a smile and leaned his foreh
ead against mine. “I love you
,” he whispered.

“Hey, I’m
gonna
have to cut another inch off if you keep moving her,” Sam joked.

He pulled away but continued to hold my hand. When he ad
justed the way he was sitting
I
suddenly
remembered his injury
.

“Austin, your leg!” I turned to the paramedic and said, “His leg is broken.”

“What?” he asked, coming around to the front of
us.
He knelt down and looked over Austin’s leg and said, “And you’re just sitting here like a big boy, not making a peep?”

Austin barely laughed. “Doesn’t mean it’s not hurting like hell,” he grimaced.

“No kidding,” the guy said. He called someone over and they decided we were ready to haul to the hospital.
When
Austin insis
ted that he and I ride together,
no one objected.

Our perfectly wonderful night had been ruined, but I was so thankful that Austin was still by my side.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Well if you’d just let
me stay in here
, we wouldn’t have this problem, Nurse Patty,” I heard Austin’s voice say
.

I had been awake moments ago but had drifted off to sleep again. I opened my eyes to see Austin
crutching
himself into my hospital room, his leg in a cast.

“There’s my beautiful girl,” he smiled. He
parked his crutches against the wall
and
sat
himself
on
the edge
of my bed
. “Hey, there,” he said, taking my hand. “How you feeling today?”

I slightly nodded. “Fine. Tired, but fine.”

He leaned forward and kissed my head. “Your nurse is a pain in my ass,” he said quietly.

“I heard that,” Patty snapped playfully.

I was getting used to the two of them going back and forth with each other, but even though Patty was a stickler for rules, she’d taken care of me pretty well. I’d received
surgery
to reconstruct
the skin on
my sho
ulder and thankfully my doctors
thought that was going to be enough.
The damage wasn’t as bad as it first appeared and I was very grateful for that.

“How is everything going at the ranch?” I asked. “Did they find the rest of the horses yet?”

It had been
three
days since the fire and four horses were still missing.

Austin
frowned and shook his head. “Not all of them. The
neighbors down the road caught Rolls Royce. Still missing the other three.”

Miraculously not a single horse had died in the fire. Because the men had acted so quickly and got to them as fast as they did, every one of them was spared. A few had burns that were healing—like Need For Speed—and one other had injuries from running into a fence. But not a single one of them suffered something they couldn’t recover from.

“And what is the verdict? Do they really think it was arson?”

Austin nodded somberly. “Yeah, afraid so. We’re the third
ranch
that’s been hit in the past six months. It’s pretty sick if you ask me. Who would want to hurt innocent animals?”

I shook my head with disappointment. It really was sad and I hoped they caught the person before they hurt anyone else.

“On a brighter note, y
ou get to come home
tomorrow
,” Austin told me
with a smile
. “I just talked to Dr. Bennett and he said everything looks great. He also said that the scarring
will
be barely visible in a few years.”

I nodded. He’d told me the same thing, and although there were worse things that could have happened that night, I was thankful to only come out with a few scars on my shoulder. More than that, I was grateful that everyone else had come out okay and that all the animals were safe.

He took my hand and pressed it against his lips. “You and I need to have a little talk about what ‘stay in the house’ means.”

I barely smiled, even though I knew he was serious. “There’s no way I would have stayed in the house, Austin.”

“You could have at least stayed out of the barn.”

“Without knowing you were okay? Absolutely not.”

He seemed to think about that for a moment and slowly nodded his head. “Actually you probably saved my life. My dad thought I was with you, and Ben didn’t know we were still in the barn until he saw you.”

“I don’t want to think about that,” I said quietly, tears pricking my eyes. “I went in to make sure my horse was out and then I heard you. I knew you were still trying to get them all out.”

“There were only
six
more. I just couldn’t leave ‘
em
…”

“I know. I wouldn’t have been able to, either.”

He barely nodded and laid his head against me.
“What a crazy thing this is,” he sighed.

“What thing?” I smiled.

“Love.”

I lightly laughed but had to agree. “Yeah, it’s crazy. But I’m crazy about
you
.”

He sat up and shook his head. “Everything was perfect and in one night…”

“And in one night we learned a few things. Everything is still perfect as long as I have you, Austin. I never want that to change.”

“Exactly, and I agree. Which is why I was going to ask you to marry me, Nova. When I planned on taking you out to the property the next day, I was going to ask you to marry me.”

I could only stare at him. Did he actually say what I thought he said?

“And I know this is a really pathetic way to propose to a girl, so I’m not going to. Not here. But I want you to know that the property, and the house, and a ring… It’s all for you, Nova. I want to marry you and I want you to know that
now
. I don’t want you to wonder and I don’t want anything to… I don’t know, happen, I guess. Does that make sense?”

I nodded, still stuck on the
fact
that he wanted to marry me
.

“Sorry,” he smiled. “I know this is not the greatest scene for a memorable moment—”

“I don’t even care, Austin,” I finally said. “It’s the moment itself that’s memorable, not where we’re at. This was… This is all I’ve ever wanted. Honestly.”

“Me groveling for you like a pathetic fool?”

“You’re groveling?”

He smiled. “I will if I need to. If you need me to say how selfish I’ve been by not—”

“You haven’t been selfish. Austin, we’re living life. We’re making choices and doing the best we can. We’ve had ups and downs, but now that we know that all of
the ups and downs are
better when we’re together, that’s all that matters.
”

“
I hope I can always make you happy, and if I don’t, then I hope we can talk about whatever it is we need to fix.
I’ll try not to be stubborn. Can’t promise I won’t be, but I’ll try.”

“
Y
ou know what? I’ll let you have stubborn,” I nodded with a chuckle. “I can live with that. It’s part of who you are, and that determination is useful in other ways. But I know you love me and that we’ll both do what we can
to
appreciate each other’s personalities.”

He seemed pensive for a moment and then smiled as he
kissed my cheek.
“Time to live in the present and look forward to the future.”

A week later we were sitting together on our future home site. It was the middle of January and barely sixty degrees, but bundled up with Austin in a blanket was the warmest place on earth. We’d had a picnic lunch and decided on a home design together, and now we were discussing the possibilities while I continued to stare at the diamond ring on my finger.

“I can only imagine what our kids are going to do
with a double dose of willpower,
”
Austin said out of the blue.

I laughed out loud. “Wow, I’m not sure if I want to consider that.”

“Between my arrogance and stubbornness and your tenacity to go for what you want?”

“I’ve already gotten a glimpse from the stories your mom has told me. You were a little hellion.”

He chuckled. “Hey, I was a busy kid.”

“You were a daredevil and indomitable. You still are.”

“I’m confident and ambitious.”

“That too,” I smiled.

“I’m toning it down a bit.”

“Oh?”

“Well if you can conquer my heart, I’m apparently not as unbreakable as I thought.”

That made me smile.

“And I’m shifting my priorities. I’m more interested in you and whatever family we have. My endeavors will always include you, no matter what.”

“Well then I see us going anywhere we want to go. The sky’s the limit.”

“Or…maybe just the racetrack,” he smiled
slyly
. He laid me on my back and kissed me. “I love you, Nova. Even more than racing.”

Most girls would scoff at such a comment, but my heart literally melted. The man had devoted his life to
two entirely different things, and if he ever had to choose between them, I knew with every fiber of my being which it would be.

He loved me more.

Epilogue

             
The thrill, the excitement, and the satisfaction of anticipating the next big event
in his life
…

Austin hoisted his bag over his shoulder and exited the terminal. Leaving North Carolina was easy this time because he was going home. He’d spent three
more
years in the racing circuit, living his professional dreams. Nova had been with him every step of the way during the season
,
but she’d left a week ahead of him while he
finished things up
before heading home for good.

Those three years had been a mix of ups and downs
,
but mostly ups. He worked hard to re-establish himself
as a full time driver for his team, even getting offers from other teams once news of his departure from the circuit was made public. But Austin was going home to his family, the family that had supported him the last few years and sacrificed many things just to let him ride out a dream a little bit longer.

It was worth it, and for that he was grateful.

Ben picked him up from the airport since he wanted to surprise his family. He’d come home a day early because he couldn’t wait any longer. When the Jeep came down the drive to Harmony Acres
,
his eyes caught sight of the most beautiful scene in the world.

“Looks like a fun moment to come home
to
,” Ben told him with a smile.

Austin couldn’t help grinning. Nova was out in the grass but she stood when she saw Ben turn onto the driveway. The last few bubbles she’d blown drifted a ways before each one popped, and then a little voice squealed, “Daddy!”

Austin stepped out of the Jeep to catch the three-year-old that jumped into his arms. He picked him up and held him tight. “
Ethan
, I’ve missed you this week, buddy. Are you guys blowing bubbles?”