Lord Have Mercy (The Southern Gentleman #2)(56)

“Love you, too.”

I tugged on her shirt, looking down it at her breasts that were plumped up nicely with the bra she was wearing for the day.

“I like this top. It’s sexy as fuck.”

She leaned back up and smiled down at me.

“I got you something,” she said, her eyes lit with happiness.

“Another one of those when you get home at lunch?” I asked.

Was that hope in my voice?

She rolled her eyes. “No.”

I grinned. “Then what is it?”

“I left it on the bed.”

With that she left, stopping only long enough to allow the physical therapist that came by three times a week in before continuing on to my car.

I looked down at Dooley, who hadn’t left my side since I’d gotten home.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with her,” I told him. “But strangling her comes to mind.” I paused. “She goddamn knows how hard it is for me to get up and down those stairs, and she also knows that I’m not going to be able to resist going up them.” I watched his ears twitch as I waved at Kinsley, the therapist. “I have to go up the stairs. Would you mind making sure I don’t fall down them?”

Kinsley’s mouth rounded into a smile. “Excellent. Today I was going to suggest that anyway. I wasn’t sure you’d be willing.”

Normally I wasn’t.

But today I had an extra incentive.

***

“You bought me an engagement ring?” I grinned at the woman that came through the door on her lunch break.

Camryn’s smile was weak at best.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her, holding my hand out.

She practically fell onto the couch next to me.

“Long day,” she admitted. “I was hoping to hurry home and have the full hour of lunch with you, even stopped by to get some food.” She gestured toward the door where she’d dropped the bags containing food. “But then I saw the Chief there with Schultz, and we got to talking about the man that hit you…they still don’t have anything.”

I completely understood her tiredness now.

She’d been worried about that so much lately that she’d been making herself sick, throwing up in the bathroom or anything handy that wouldn’t ruin if she upchucked into it. Literally every time the accident was brought up, she’d puke.

I’d have been worried about other things—such as pregnancy—had she not told me a few days ago that she was on her period and not to even look at her.

When I’d tried to make it better by ordering pizza, she’d cried about the fact that she’d made dinner in the crockpot before she’d left for work—but had forgotten to turn it on. Not only had she ruined a twenty-dollar pork butt, but she’d also made herself feel stupid.

Her words, not mine.

“And what did the Chief and Schultz have to say?” I asked.

I knew what they had to say.

The same damn thing that they’d had to say the last time that Camryn had brought it up with them.

There was nothing to find.

The SUV that’d hit me had been recently sold to someone that had used a false name to purchase it. There were no cameras in the area, and there had been nothing identifiable in the vehicle to say who’d been responsible.

Pretty much, it was a dead fucking end.

Whereas I’d come to terms with the fact that we’d likely never find the person responsible for nearly killing me, Camryn wasn’t so accepting.

“That there were no new leads.” She slumped down in the couch and looked so cute and defeated that I couldn’t stop myself from reaching for her and bringing her into my arms.

“When do you have to leave?” I asked.

I knew when she had to leave.

I was just hoping for more time.

“I don’t,” she admitted tiredly. “Your sister offered to take over my class. I went and puked three times during three class periods, and Mrs. Sherpa decided that it might be a good thing for me to get some sleep. Oh, and stop worrying so much.”

I snorted and pressed her head against my chest.

“It’s a three-day weekend, isn’t it?”

She nodded, her hair brushing my chin. “Yes.”

“Bonus,” I said, snatching the blanket off the back of the couch and throwing it over her legs. “Sleep for a bit. The sandwiches will hold for another hour.”

She sighed and sank deeper into my arms. “Okay.”

“Ask me again,” I ordered.

She smiled sleepily. I could just barely make out the curve of her lips as she said it.

“Marry me?”

I sifted one of my hands through her hair.

“Ask me again when I can walk.”

She sighed. “You’re impossible.”

“I’m your impossible,” I teased.





Chapter 19


I only do butt stuff at the gym.

-T-shirt

Camryn

I wasn’t sure what I was doing was for the best, but I had to try.

Anything was better than sitting there, moping around like Flint was doing.

Pushing through the door to the office I’d been directed to, I smiled at the man behind the desk.