Wild Card (North Ridge #1)

“What?” Hank whispers.

“Good news?” Dick says loudly. “If you have good news then why on God’s green earth do you look so grim?”

The doctor looks at Dick and I didn’t think it was possible for his frown to get any deeper but it does. “Come again?”

Obviously this is just his face. You’d think they’d get a doctor with a better one.

“What’s the good news?” Fox asks impatiently.

“They’re both on the mend,” he says and everyone exhales one collected breath. “It was touch and go with Vernalee for a while. Her surgery and reduced lung capacity made the smoke inhalation that much worse. But they were able to revive her on the way over here.”

“And Shane?” I ask. “How is he?”

“He’s going to be okay. He’s got a lot of second degree and some third degree burns, mainly on his shoulders and legs. He’s going to be in a lot of pain for some time but he’ll have medicine to manage it.”

“Can we see them?” Hank asks.

“You can see Shane in a few hours. Vernalee needs a little more time but don’t worry, you’ll see her soon enough.”

So we go back to waiting again, though this time the atmosphere in the room has completely changed. Finally, after hours and hours, another nurse comes out, the one they call nosy Beth, and I’m shown toward his room.

I look back over my shoulder at Hank and everyone else. “Hank, Fox, aren’t you coming?”

“Take your time,” Fox says. “We’ll be right behind you.”

I give them a grateful look, knowing how many things are bubbling up inside my heart, wanting to come out. There was so much I wanted to tell Shane even before he went inside that burning house and this just made me realize the longer I keep it in, the more damage it will do. He has to know how I feel, he has to know everything.

But when the nurse opens the door to his room and I see him lying there in the hospital bed, I don’t even think I have any words at all.

Shane. My beautiful Shane.

He’s attached to an IV, his arms and legs sticking out of his hospital gown, rigid. His shoulder is red and blackened in some spots, his legs pink and white. The burns look painful and there’s a strange, unsettling smell in the air.

But he’s looking at me, head back, unable to lift it. And he smiles.

God, that smile. It’s everything good and pure and true in this world.

That smile is love.

“Shane,” I whisper, inching closer to him.

He licks his lips. “I don’t bite.” His voice is raspy, like his throat and lungs are singed.

“How are you feeling?” I ask him even though I’m sure it’s a stupid question.

“I feel fine now that you’re here.” He raises his hand and I slip mine inside. His arms aren’t too badly burned but even so, I don’t want him moving much.

“What have the doctors told you?” I ask him.

“That I’ll live,” he says, so soft that I have to lean in to hear him. His smile is crooked as he stares at me. “They said I’m lucky. Real lucky. Only my shoulder is pretty bad. Might have to get a skin graft on it. Might not. My legs will heal up. I’ll have scars but all the best cowboys have scars.”

I shake my head, biting down my grin. “Even after all this, you’re still optimistic.”

“Because you’re here.” He pauses. “I heard your mother is going to be fine.”

“Only because of you.”

“You tried to do the same. I couldn’t let that happen. I would have lost you both.”

I exhale steadily. “I wasn’t thinking, obviously.”

“You were beyond brave, Rachel.”

“She would have done the same for me. I know that now. I didn’t know that before, but I know that now.”

I give his hand a gentle squeeze, aware of the nurse lingering out in the hallway, talking to the rest of the group. “Listen,” I tell him. “I won’t keep you too long—”

“You don’t mean that,” he says, wheezing. “Please, keep me long. Keep me forever.”

God, I’m melting. How is he still able to bring me to my knees, time and time again?

“Shane,” I tell him. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying here in North Ridge. With you.”

“These pain meds are sure fucking good,” he says. “I could have sworn you said you were staying in North Ridge.”

“You might be high but I mean every word I say. I’m not leaving you.”

He frowns, looking at me with apprehension. “Don’t stay out of pity…”

“It’s not pity, Shane. It’s love. I love you. I never stopped. I only stopped believing that I deserved love, your love. I want to spend my days with you, I want to live my life here. I want to start over, fresh, from scratch, and get things right. I know now what really matters and that fear…well, fuck fear. I’ll use it, I won’t cower from it.”

He swallows hard, his gorgeous eyes growing misty. “I don’t even know what to say.”

“Say nothing. You’ve said so much and I’ve been nothing but lucky to hear it. It’s my turn now to give. I love you Shane Nelson and I love you wild. You’re my heart and my home and my whole damn life. I promise.”

I bend over and kiss his forehead, his nose, his lips. Softly, sweetly, but trying to tell him all that he is to me, all that he will be.

“I love you,” he whispers back.

“Are you two done having your heart-to-heart?” Dick’s voice booms from behind us. “You don’t want to get him too excited, Rachel, though I guess this is the hospital and if he has a heart attack he’s in pretty good hands.”

Shane and I smirk at each other before I turn around.

Dick is at the door with Hank and everyone else.

“He’s all yours,” I tell them, stepping back and making a flourishing gesture.

“And it sounds like you’re all ours too,” Hank says, giving my shoulder a squeeze. “I’m glad you decided to stay.”

I grin at him, my heart feeling so impossibly full at all of this, all of them.

My family.

Turns out you can go home again.





23





Shane





Two weeks.

It’s been two whole weeks since Rachel left me and went back to Toronto.

If it were any longer, I’m pretty sure my heart would call it quits on me. I know two weeks is nothing compared to six years but I swore to God she’d never be out of my sight again.

Thankfully, she is coming back.

Today.

I’m currently parking my Tacoma at Kelowna’s airport, counting down the minutes until her plane lands.

When Rachel told me she wanted to move back to North Ridge and live her life with me at the ranch, I thought I couldn’t be that lucky. And even though that’s all I ever wanted, I didn’t want to make her seem like she had to. I didn’t want her to feel pressured.

But she was adamant that it was what she wanted.

So I told her she was free to live with me in the guest house and then we’d figure out what to do next. I stood back and watched, wondering if she was really going to do this.

And she did. She stayed in North Ridge until I got better, until her mother got better, then she left.