Page 136 of Against The Tide

“What is it with you Reynolds men ruining my fun?” Callie huffs while squeezing my shoulders from behind.

I’m frozen in awe and a mixture of feelings that completely take me by surprise, and everything goes out of the window. All the things I thought I would say. The things I thought I would do…

None of them matter as he holds me with those eyes I could swim in forever. I am lost to him irrevocably as Callie whispers, “What you waiting for? It all works out in the end.”

It’s only when she leaves, telling us she’s going to get the nurse, that I say, “That was really stupid. You could’ve died!” I’m not sure when my feet moved, but I’m standing beside him. My entire body is trembling with the fear and anger that were simmering beneath all the other emotions and feelings. “What were you thinking?”

It’s obvious he can’t answer, which only makes it easier to pour out all the worst scenarios that crossed my mind the last eighteen hours. My frustration blurts in a string of muted yells that get more and more teary as his eyes widen and he grasps my hand.

“Worth it,” Rhett rasps, and I cry, “No, stupid. Stupid, stupid, stu⁠—”

I’m crying so hard that I can barely see past my tear-clouded vision. The only thing I can do is hold on tighter and tighter to his hand. The nurse comes in the room, checking his stats while I watch, trying to get myself in check because this is not how I planned to react. I was meant to tell him how much I love him and how grateful I am that he’s alive. Instead, I’ve spewed curses and more “stupid” than a grown woman should to express themselves.

Once the nurse leaves, I sit on the edge of his bed. Stroking over one of his forearms with one hand, I hold on to his hand with my other.

“Losing you would be worse than dying,” I whisper as he covers our entwined hands with his other. “Don’t do that again, please. Okay?”

When he doesn’t reply, I meet his gaze, and all I can see is that one tear ghost from the corner of his eye down into his hair. That one lonely tear that crushed me in a way nothing else could.

“Promise me, Rhett. Promise you’ll never risk yourself like that again.”

He makes no sound as he shakes his head and draws in a deep breath that sounds almost more painful than my bruised heart.

“No,” he coughs and then adds, “I protect you. Always.”

“Not like that.”

“Always.” With a hiss, he tries to reach up to cup my face. I can’t bear the frustration pulling on his brow when he can’t, so I lean lower, closer, and bring our twined hands to my lips instead.

Peppering kisses over his knuckles, I tell him, “It’s over now.”

The news tugs a smile from his chapped lips, and while I lick mine, I lower myself so that I can press a kiss to them, the softest kiss I can muster so that I don’t hurt him. But it’s enough that the thought of pulling away cuts through me.

“I love you, honey,” I murmur over his mouth. “I love you so much.”

“So much,” he repeats raggedly as I bring his hand down to my chest and hold it over my heart.

“So, so much, Doc.”

When I pull away, he smiles. “More than⁠—”

“My last smudge of frosting,” I say before he can finish. “The truth is there’s nothing I love more than you.”

“Iris.”

“Nothing more than both of you.”

“More than myself,” he tells me with unshakeable certainty as he holds my stare with his own and the thrumming of my heart in his hand. “Always.”

I can’t argue with that because if it ever came to it, I would do the same. I would risk my very last heartbeat. Part with my only breath for him.

Not because of all he’s given me or all he risked for me, but because without him there is no me. All the hollow life I’ve lived is overflowing because of him. Maybe it was fate. Maybe we were always meant to find each other when there was nothing but darkness. Or perhaps Rhett Reynolds was always meant to be the buoy that led me to a shore I never knew existed. Whatever it is or was or will be, there’s one thing that will never change.

He’s mine.

Always.

Forever.