She's the One: COunting on Love, Book 1 (35 page)

She’d tried to be strong. She’d tried to trust that his feelings for her would pull him through his doubts. She’d been determined to show him what it looked like when someone made a commitment, for better or worse. But she could admit, to herself only, that she’d wondered if he could do it. Maybe he really didn’t have it in him. Maybe his feelings for her weren’t enough to break through the lifelong belief that everything, even love, had a season.

But as she’d driven to St. Anthony’s after her meeting with Jill, she found the worry turning to hope, then excitement, and then happiness.

He was there. Where she needed him.

He wasn’t running. He wasn’t avoiding. He wasn’t shying away.

He wasn’t letting her protect him.

He was right in the middle of things.

Ryan and Olivia sat on the edge of one of the exercise tables, facing the wider table where Emma was going through a series of exercises with one of the physical therapists. Amanda paused several yards away, without any of them noticing her, and just watched. Her sister was working hard and Amanda could tell it was painful and difficult. Emma had a look of concentration and determination on her face that Amanda hadn’t seen in a long time.

She’d heard from the therapists that Emma was pushing herself, and Amanda was proud of her, but damn… She took a deep breath. She saw patients in much worse shape work much on harder activities all the time. But those patients weren’t her little sister. Emma’s face was wet and only half of it was sweat. The other moisture was from tears.

Amanda looked at Ryan. Was he okay? She knew him and knew it had to be hard on him to see Em struggling after an accident he was a part of. She wanted to go to him, but wanted to compose herself a bit before she got any closer to Emma.

Finally Emma finished her reps and collapsed onto her back for a break.

Ryan lifted his head just then and noticed Amanda in the huge mirror that took up most of the wall across from where he sat. He leaned to say something to Olivia, who also looked and then raised her hand in greeting. Amanda smiled and waved back. Ryan got to his feet and headed straight for her.

“Hey,” he said drawing close.

Just that one little word and she felt better. “Hey.”

“She’s working hard.”

“I can tell.”

Before he could say anything more, Nate strode into the room, his long white lab coat billowing behind him like a cape. “Let’s go, Dixon,” he said as he approached Emma’s table. “This isn’t nap time.”

Emma propped herself up on her elbows and glared at him. “When the hell is nap time? This place is insane. This is my third therapy session today.”

“You can nap when you get home. Get moving. We need you out of here so we can give your room to someone who’s actually sick.”

Amanda frowned. Did Nate have to get Emma all riled up
now
? She was working her tail off. Couldn’t he see that she was tired and upset? She started forward, but Ryan stepped in front of her.

“No, Amanda.”

“Hey, he needs to lay off a little.”

“Just…watch. And trust.” Ryan moved in behind her but wrapped his arms around her, keeping her in place.

Which felt really good. She sighed and did what he asked—she just watched.

Emma pushed herself up to sitting. “You know what I think, Doc? I think you’re worried that I’ll lie around here and my butt will get big and mushy. I know how much you like looking at it. You just want to keep it in shape.”

Nate ran a hand over his back pants pocket. “Speaking of butts, I’m feeling a major pain in mine right now.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Emma told him. “I have your personal cell phone number now. Your nurse gave it to me. I have a feeling I’m going to have a lot of emergencies at about three a.m.”

“And by
emergencies
you mean the overwhelming urge to thank me over and over for doing such a great job putting you back together?” Nate asked, tucking his hands into the pockets in his lab coat.

“I mean the overwhelming urge to tell you all the ways your bedside manner sucks,” Emma informed him.

“Oh, so you’ll be calling me with more of your incurable and incessant whining and complaining then?”

Emma glared at him again, then pulled her T-shirt off and wiped her forehead with it before tossing it away. Clad in only a black sports bra, she added a two-pound weight to what she already had on her ankle and started moving again. “You better watch it, Doc. I might be a little slower on my feet right now, but I can, and do, keep grudges for a very long time.”

Nate shrugged and turned toward Olivia. “I’m not worried.”

“You should be,” Emma said. “I know it’s hard to believe but I can be a real bitch.”

Nate chuckled as he checked the bump on Olivia’s head and made her follow his finger with her eyes. “How you feeling?” he asked the youngest sister.

“Fine. The medication helps with the headaches. Otherwise I’m good.”

“Glad to hear it.” He gave her an affectionate smile, then turned back to Emma. “You wouldn’t be a bitch to the guy who controls when you’re getting out of here and how often you can refill your pain medication prescription, would you?”

“I’ll leave whenever I damned well want,” Emma told him.

“Or the guy who was with you in the recovery room,” Nate answered, turning back as he reached the door. “People say the craziest stuff when they’re coming out of anesthesia.” He hit the door with one hand and, with a big grin, walked out.

Amanda turned in Ryan’s arms. “Wow.”

“He’s good,” Ryan said with a nod.

“He handles Emma anyway.” She put her arms around Ryan and leaned into him, absorbing the feel of him—solid and strong.

She felt Ryan sigh, then one hand on top of her head, stroking down over her hair to the middle of her back. “I love that you’ll lean on me physically,” he said. “And I really hope we’re getting closer to you leaning on me in every other way too.”

“Olivia!” Emma called. “Tell someone I need some AC/DC.”

A male therapist and another patient—also male—both lunged for the stereo system.

Ryan chuckled and Amanda soaked in the sound and feel of it. God, she loved him.

“You sure you want to be fully entrenched in all this with me?” she asked him.

He pulled back and looked down. “I know I said that the people who are close to you shouldn’t be the ones that give you stress, but I realized something really important—walking away is the easy way to go. Unless you love someone. Then walking away is impossible.”

Her heart sped up and she blinked hard, fighting tears. “My life is crazy.”

“Well, your life has something in it that I’m very interested in.”

“The dill pickle chips, right?” she asked.

“Hell, no.” He gave a mock shudder.

“Ice cream sandwiches?”

He paused. “Well…”

She laughed and squeezed him.

“
You
,” he said sincerely. “It’s all you.”

Happiness raced through her at that one word. “Good answer.”

Just then Emma swore, ripped off the leg weight and threw it. She slumped back onto the mat, covering her eyes with her forearm.

Amanda instinctively started forward.

Ryan held on. “Breathe.”

“No.”

“She needs to do this. On her own. She’s okay.”

“She’s not okay, Ryan.” Amanda hated this. Her sister was hurting. For so long it had been Amanda’s job to keep that from happening or to at least to fix it when it did.

“Okay, but she will be,” Ryan insisted. “She will be fine. She needs to know she can do this.”

“Then I’m going to go talk to Nate. He doesn’t realize—”

Ryan sighed, then spun her, cupped her face and kissed her. And kissed her. And kissed her.

By the time he lifted his head, she could only vaguely recall where they were and was fuzzy about why.

She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “You’re trying to distract me.”

“Let’s go play spies in the other room,” he said.

Tempting. Very tempting.

“You think someone here is a spy too?”

“I think someone planted a bug on you.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Me?”

“Yes. I’ll need to frisk you. I’m sure you understand.”

She started to smile, then fought it. “I’ll cooperate fully. I have nothing to hide from you.”

He grabbed her hand and they made their way to the surgery consultation room two doors down. Ryan put her hands on the wall and started sweeping his hands over her. She loved the play, she tried to focus and forget about real life, but she couldn’t ignore what was really going on.

“Thanks for distracting me,” she said as his hand slid over her breast to her hip.

He pressed his lips to her neck. “I’m
protecting
you.”

“Protecting me from Nate?”

He laughed lightly. “No. Protecting you from fixing things for Emma and keeping her—and you—from seeing that she can do this.”

She froze for a moment, then turned to face him. “You’re protecting me from myself?”

He nodded. “And Conner and your sisters from you.”

Amanda narrowed her eyes. “How’s that work?”

The door behind Ryan opened, and then both looked to see Conner step into the room.

Her brother’s jaw tightened when he saw them standing so close. “Olivia said you were in here.”

Ryan straightened, but stayed right beside her. “I’m going to take Amanda home. Was thinking you could take care of Emma and Olivia.”

Conner looked back and forth between them. “Okay.”

Amanda shook her head. “No. That’s okay. I’ll stay.” Conner would
hate
seeing Emma struggling like this. “Olivia wanted to stop and get a new—”

“I’ll take her,” Conner interrupted.

“But I—”

“Amanda,” Ryan said quietly. “Let him do this.”

She looked up at him. “You don’t understand.”

“I do. You protect Conner from this stuff. But you both need to realize that not all of this is on you. Let him see Em working hard. Let him have that. You haven’t let him see how amazing they are because you keep him away from the bad stuff. But it’s in the bad stuff you realize who people really are.”

She stared at him. Wow. He was…something. And he was all hers.

“What?” Ryan finally asked.

“And I thought I was in love with you before.”

He gave her a huge, sexy, sweet grin. “And this is just the beginning.”

Conner cleared his throat and they both looked to him. “So, I’m going to be with the girls. What are you going to be doing?”

“Talking about the enemy’s plot to infiltrate the top levels of government by posing as costume shop owners and how we’re going to stop it.”

Conner frowned in clear confusion. “A costume shop?”

“Yeah. We’re going to have to go down there and see what we can find out in person.”

Conner’s frown deepened as Amanda worked on not laughing. Conner must have decided that it wasn’t worth delving into or that he didn’t really want the answer. “I’m going back to the gym. You’ll be here with Amanda?”

Ryan pulled her close. “In fact, I’m never leaving her.”

As the door shut behind Conner, Amanda looked up at Ryan. “You haven’t actually said that you love me, you know.”

He smiled and ran his hand up and down her back. “I prefer to show versus tell.”

Heat and excitement for what was to come coursed through her. “So, let’s get on with this showing thing already.”

“I’m ready. But we’re going to have to go back to my place.”

“Gee, what for?” she teased.

“To spend the night together. Finally.”

“You think we can finally make it a whole night?”

“Yes. And it will be the first of many.”

He said it with such intention that her heart squeezed with desire and love she’d never dreamed of experiencing.

“Oh, I’m counting on it,” she told him. “I am definitely counting on it.”

About the Author

Erin Nicholas is the author of sexy contemporary romances. Her stories have been described as toe-curling, enchanting, steamy and fun. She loves to write about reluctant heroes, imperfect heroines and happily ever afters. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, who only wants to read the sex scenes in her books; her kids, who will never read the sex scenes in her books; and family and friends, who say they’re shocked by the sex scenes in her books (yeah, right!).

You can find Erin on the Web at
www.ErinNicholas.com
,
ninenaughtynovelists.blogspot.com
, on Twitter (
www.twitter.com/ErinNicholas
) and even on Facebook (
www.facebook.com/erin.nicholas.90
).

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