The Lemon Sisters (Wildstone #3)(69)

Garrett came over the edge with his usual animal grace. He didn’t speak, just sat at her side, legs out in front of him, arms braced behind him, taking in the view. Letting her have her moment. She’d never felt more grateful to another human being in her entire life, and she felt tears sting her eyes. No shame in that, she told herself.

“There’s no shame here at all,” Garrett said quietly, making her realize she’d spoken out loud.

She drew in a deep breath. “My pulse is at stroke level,” she said, pressing a hand to her pounding heart. “I’m considering throwing up. Fair warning.”

He wrapped his hand around her wrist, and she realized he was checking her pulse.

“How bad is it?” she asked with an embarrassed laugh.

“Not bad considering you had two hot dogs, a gallon of tea, and a big adrenaline rush.”

Rolling her eyes, she reached out and grabbed his wrist. His pulse was slow and steady, the bastard. “What would it take to get your heart rate as high as mine?”

He turned his head and slid her a look. “You in those white shorts from the other day.”

That tugged a reluctant laugh from her, but she was actually feeling anything but amused. She was starting to realize how much more he’d anted up in this . . . whatever they were doing . . . so much more than she had. She’d kept things from the people who cared about her, and guilt was a heavy burden. Glancing over, she found Garrett looking out at the ocean, sprawled in all its glory for as far as the eye could see, which made it slightly easier to attempt to spill some hard-earned truth. Sitting up, she hugged her knees to her chest. “My feet haven’t left the ground since the helicopter crash,” she murmured.

He turned and looked at her, and if she’d thought her heart was beating fast before, that had nothing on what it was doing now, which was basically threatening to pound its way right out of her chest. She hadn’t been the only one impacted by the crash. Not that he’d say so. Not that he’d let his emotions be more important than hers, and at the thought, at how much he’d given her without her even realizing it, she felt her eyes well. Swallowing hard, she forced herself to go on before she lost her nerve. “I haven’t even flown—other than when I left the hospital in Peru to come back to the States, and they had to sedate me for that. It’s not heights, necessarily. It’s . . .” She grimaced. “This is going to sound really dumb . . . it’s a fear of the adrenaline rush. It’s . . . paralyzing.”

“That’s understandable. You nearly died. And several others did,” Garrett said, and paused for a long beat. “I got there just after your first surgery. You’d had some unexpected complications that demanded a second, more urgent surgery. I kissed you just before they rolled you away, do you remember?”

She nodded. It was the last thing she remembered before going under, the comfort of his solid, steady presence.

“It was so bad.” He swallowed hard and shook his head. “The doctors weren’t giving you great odds. I had no idea if I was going to get to see you again.” His voice cracked, and so did her heart.

“And in some ways,” he went on, “I didn’t. I never saw that Brooke again.”

She reached for him and he pulled her in, hugging her tight for a very long moment.

When she finally pulled back, her eyes were wet, and she thought his might have been, too. “Look at yourself now,” he said firmly. “Not only are you still here, you’re stronger than you’ve ever been. You’re not just conquering your demons, Bee, you’re stomping all over them.”

“It seems like so long ago,” she said quietly. “And yet sometimes it feels like it just happened. After, I couldn’t do my job. I had to shift to behind the scenes, in a studio.” She closed her eyes. “I still let it mess with me.”

“Anyone would,” he said quietly. “But you beat the fear today.”

The thought brought a curve to her lips as he brushed his fingers along her jaw and into her hair. “The smile looks good on you.” Their eyes met and held, and the moment extended as he slowly leaned in and brushed her mouth with his. She could feel his breath, warm on her face. She could feel the heat of his body, just barely touching hers, and she wrapped her hands around his wrists. “Thanks for today,” she whispered.

In answer, he kissed her again. Drawn to his heat, his easy strength, the allure of his touch and what she knew it could do to her, she crawled into his lap. He pulled her in tight, his hands caressing and warming her now chilled limbs. Wanting to surrender to their crazy chemistry, she whispered his name and he pulled her down with him to the wild grass, his hands sliding up her thighs. He was deliciously heavy, and she was already forgetting that they weren’t going to do this anymore and was a second away from tearing his clothes off when he pulled back.

His phone was ringing, which was a real blessing, because they were in public. Isolated, but still, anyone could have come upon them. Not that that would’ve stopped them in the old days.

Garrett answered his phone, and sitting as close to him as she was, she had no trouble hearing the person on the other end. It was an elderly female voice asking to speak to Garrett Montgomery.

“Speaking,” he said.

“Garrett, this is your aunt, Rita Montgomery.”

She felt the shock go through him at that.