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.”Adra stared at him.“I got hit by a car?”“You got hit by a goddamned car.”“How am I not dead?”Ford frowned, his thumb rubbing the back of her hand.Then he leaned forward, brushed her cheek, and held himself high above her aching ribs while he kissed her.“Because I’m the luckiest man alive, that’s why,” he said.Adra swallowed.Her throat still hurt, and the seriousness of what happened, or what might have happened, and where she was, all of it started to seep in past the heavy fog of painkillers.“Am I…?”Ford smoothed her hair with his big hand, and shook his head.“They’ll do neurological tests because you were knocked out,” he said.“But they think you’re probably fine.You have some banged-up ribs, bruising, contusions, but other than that you’re ok.You’re incredibly lucky.We’re both incredibly lucky.It was a damn miracle.”“They told you all that?” Adra asked.She smiled a little, in spite of herself.“Isn’t that, like, a massive violation of…something?”She couldn’t remember the word.Freaking painkillers.Ford just shrugged.“I didn’t give the doctor much of a choice,” he said.Then he smiled at her, and it lit her up from the inside.“I regret nothing.”She almost let it win.She almost let that joy he kindled inside her win out.But she remembered.She remembered all that pain, she remembered Nicole’s house.She remembered her family.Don’t cry.“Nothing’s changed, Ford,” she said.And that’s when he stood up, one hundred percent fierce, implacable Dom.“Everything’s changed,” he said.That.Voice.It was an order, or a declaration.An order to the universe, maybe.It was the voice he used when he wasn’t fucking around.“Adra, look at me,” he said.He still held her hand, and he brushed her cheek again, gentle and light as a feather, but his face was firm.“Everything has changed.I’m going to take you home as soon as they clear you, and I’m going to take care of you.And then we’ll talk about whatever you want to talk about.But this is non-negotiable.I can’t live if you—”The sudden silence felt heavy.The words he didn’t say felt heaviest of all.He put his hand on her cheek again, and angled her face up, pinning her eyes with his own.“The only time my life needed fixing was when I thought something had happened to you,” he said.“I’m so sorry about what I said,” she whispered.“But it doesn’t change what I am.”“Can you tell me to go away?” he asked.“Can you do that?”She couldn’t look away if she’d wanted to.“No,” she said.She’d never be that strong.“Then I’m not going anywhere,” he said.“I’m going to bring you home as soon as they let me.”He bent down to kiss her forehead again.“But first, there’s someone you have to meet,” he said, and his smile came back.It actually took Adra a second to figure it out.She blamed the painkillers still, but on the plus side, Lola actually got to see Adra’s surprised face when Roman wheeled her into the room.Well, Lola and the baby got to see Adra’s surprised face, but probably only Lola appreciated it.“Oh my God,” Adra said.“Right back at you,” Lola said.She looked tired but happy, and had this tiny little pink bundle in her arms, and Adra just couldn’t stop staring.“You know you’re not allowed to jump out into traffic until Emma has gotten a chance to meet you, right?”Adra tried to laugh, and winced.Screw it.“Emma?” she said.“Emma,” Roman said.The man was beaming like a lighthouse.“She’s actually never allowed to jump out into traffic,” Ford said.“Again, anyway.”“Can I?” Adra asked.There was that moment of hesitation, when Lola was reminding herself that babies didn’t break, and Adra felt, for a second, kind of bad—she hadn’t thought, she’d just spoken up.Painkillers again.But that baby…“Of course,” Lola said softly.She was smiling.She was beyond smiling.Adra had never seen anyone look as happy as Lola and Roman did, and it made her heart swell to the point of aching.And then as Roman wheeled her up to the bed, Ford intercepted.“I want to get in on that, too,” he said.Which was how Adra got to watch Ford for with the baby.She watched him pick her up, so carefully, in those huge hands, and then just…hold her.This giant man holding this tiny little life, his whole being focused on just that little light in his arms.And then he looked at Adra.Adra tried to breathe.She couldn’t.And not just because of her ribs.She saw about a million things, there.She saw the life Ford almost had, the life he wanted.The life she wanted.She saw this person that Ford hadn’t had a chance to be yet, this amazing father.She saw promise.And she wished, more than anything, that she was able to live up to it.And then Ford tucked little Emma into her blanket just a little bit better, and gently, so gently, placed her in Adra’s arms, and that was it.Adra was in love.“You’re going to have to give her back eventually,” Lola said.“Hush,” Adra said.chapter 27“I’m pretty sure I can walk, you know,” Adra said.Ford shook his head and wheeled her around a corner, toward the big bay doors of the hospital entrance where his car was waiting.“Bull,” he said.“I saw your face when you put weight on that leg.”“That doesn’t mean I can’t walk!”“I can pop a wheelie for you,” he said.“But that’s the best I can do.You are not getting out of this chair until we get home.That’s an order.”Adra tried to look over her shoulder, and Ford tried not to laugh at the expression on her face.Pretty much everything made him smile now that he knew she was ok.In comparison to those first few hours when he couldn’t find her, and couldn’t get any information? When he thought the worst was possible? Fucking everything made him happy now.“Wheelchairs only have two wheels,” she said accusingly.He shrugged.“I didn’t say it would be a good wheelie.”Man, he was glad to see her joking around, considering the circumstances.Adra sighed and leaned back in the chair, content, for the moment, to let him wheel her around, but Ford could see the uneasiness building inside her.And he got it.This was weird.This was uncharted.Ford knew where he was, what he wanted, and what he was doing, but he knew she didn’t have all that quite figured out yet.He’d help.In the meantime…He’d do whatever he had to to make sure she was taken care of, including, but not limited to, carrying her to and from cars.When they got back to his house, he didn’t even have to look to know her hand was already reaching for the door handle.“Nope,” he said.“There’s no chair! We left it at the hospital!”“Sit,” he said.This was just a proxy argument.She was testing him, and testing herself, trying to figure out what it actually meant to let him take care of her while she was injured.Adra was ambulatory, even if it hurt, and she was a grown woman; she could take care of herself if she wanted.But she didn’t want that.She wanted Ford, just as badly as he wanted her.She just didn’t think she deserved it.That, that more than anything else…Jesus, when he’d seen that accident, the bottom of everything had fallen out.Like the earth below his feet had disintegrated and he’d fallen to his own special kind of hell [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]