Saved by Love (Willow Valley Book 3)(34)

She pulled back and looked at him, her eyes wide. “I’m okay. What about you? I thought you were dead.”

He chuckled. “Not got much faith in me, do you? I’ve been doing this long enough to know how to handle an undertow.”

She turned paler than she already was, a haunted look coming over her face. Then she buried her head in his chest and started crying. One of the paramedics returned with a blanket and Ethan wrapped it around Abby’s shoulders.

After a minute, the paramedics grew impatient. “We need to check you both out and make sure you’re okay.”

“Check her first.”

There were two of them, so they each did a quick check of their vitals and shortly pronounced them both fine. Ethan told them he was an emergency professional and that he knew what to watch for, and before long the paramedics left them with a caution to stay out of the water here.

“Give us a minute, okay?” Ethan asked his friends, and they made their way up the beach back toward the resort, saying they’d send someone to give them a ride back. Finally, he was alone with Abby.

She looked up at, much calmer than she’d been and he tucked her into his side under his arm. “Abby, I’m okay, but I think we need to talk.”

She nodded. Good, she wasn’t going to argue about it.

“It wasn’t exactly dangerous conditions out there. I’m the first one to respect the power of the ocean and I recognize how bad a riptide can be, but it really wasn’t that bad.” He tried to remember what Braden had told him when he’d come up the shore to find Abby passed out, then what she’d said as she was waking up. “Abby, who is Derek? And what happened?”

She flinched as if she’d been slapped, and Ethan knew that whatever she was about to say—because after this, he needed to know what he was dealing with—it was big.

He continued to rub her back through the blanket and let her take her time with it. After a moment she took a tremulous breath and stared out at the sea as she quietly spoke.

“He was my husband.”

Ethan couldn’t have been more shocked if a giant sea monster had reared up out of the ocean right in front of them. Husband? But he didn’t say anything yet, not wanting her to stop now that she was finally opening up to him.

“We got married when we were really young. Too young. He was my first love.”

Ethan’s heart clenched, and he wasn’t sure if he was feeling jealousy over a man who obviously wasn’t in her life anymore or if he was hoping that there was another love in her life now—him.

When she didn’t say anything for a while, he gently prodded her. “What happened?”

“He died.” The tremor in her voice had him wrapping her in even tighter. She’d been married, and he’d died? It was almost too much to take in.

“We were out one afternoon on a boat…” She proceeded to tell him one of the most heartbreaking stories he’d ever heard, and he wanted nothing more than to take away the pain he knew she must be feeling. Then his heart sank as he realized how similar it was to what happened today, and why she would have had what seemed like an over-the-top reaction to it.

“Oh, Abby, baby,” he whispered against her hair. “I wish I’d known. I never would have pushed you to do this today.” Now all her hesitation about the trip, especially surfing, made sense. She’d been through a traumatic event, one he almost couldn’t imagine the pain of. Almost.

But she’d done it anyway. She’d faced her fears and went out in the water. And ultimately had what seemed like the time of her life.

She shook her head, almost imperceptibly if not for the brush of her hair against his chest. “Don’t say that, Ethan. I’m glad I did it. I’ve been hiding behind my fears for a long time. And the last couple days have taught me a lot about myself.”

She turned and met his gaze. “See, when I married Derek, he thought that I was too wild, that I needed to grow up and act like an adult. It was hard, but I pushed all my desires for adventure aside. For him. We weren’t right for each other. That doesn’t mean I didn’t love him, because I did. Deeply. But I’ve also rediscovered who I am over the last few weeks. And most of that is thanks to you. I never would have tried this if not for you. And I’m so grateful for that.”

She lowered her eyes. “But I can’t lie and say that what happened today doesn’t scare the hell out of me. Do you understand now? Why I’m so afraid of everything? I hate that about myself. I put the fun-loving daredevil that you say you see deep inside me to rest when I was married. Then when he died, it was all too easy to let my fears take over. I’d lost him. Then I lost my mother. I hid inside the walls I made, thinking I was safe.” She looked at him, and a small half-smile lifted her lips. “Then you came along and insisted on taking a hammer to them.”

Ethan brushed his knuckles along her cheek, trying to find the words to tell her how strong she really was. She’d been through more than he ever imagined. The fact that she was moving on with her life, was taking a chance on him, facing her fears…all of it was inspiring.

“Baby, you’re the strongest woman I know. You may have built those walls, but you would have torn them down yourself after a while. I just sped up the process. That woman I see inside? The one who craves adventure? That’s you. I don’t think she would have stayed in the box you put her in for too much longer anyway.”