Inside she was glowing, but he wasn’t getting off that easy. “Quite a gambit. Crushing me to bits in one move, thinking I would come back in the end.”
His jaw clenched. “I’m sorry. I hated doing it, but I couldn’t think of another way to protect you. After Peg…I couldn’t fucking risk you! I was willing to lose you if it meant keeping you safe.”
She had to take a moment to clear her throat. His raw emotion triggered her own. How could she have ever thought badly of him?
“You were willing to die to keep me safe.” She leaned closer, gripping the hand rails of his bed.
His scowl seemed more menacing under his thick stubble. God, he must have looked like a badass with a full beard.
“I was going to find a way to get out of it! I don’t have a fucking death wish, and it’s not that I don’t trust you.” The white straw toppled out of his styrofoam cup when he fiddled with it. “Besides, you’re one to talk.”
“So, we make a good pair.” She rested her chin on her hands. “I went to New York to show you that you can trust me—and that I can handle myself.”
His eyes fired. “I know you can.”
She snorted.
“I do. It’s just that I don’t want you to get hurt if I’m around to stop it. Call it the He-man gene, but I have it. Get over it.”
Her brows rose even as her heart soared. “You are surly.”
He pinned her in place with his gaze. “I was worried you weren’t coming back!” He looked away. Swallowed hard. “That you couldn’t…forgive me,” he whispered.
Her heart pounded in insistent thuds. It took a minute to answer. “I’ve decided my life is here. I told my grandpa and dad that I want to take over the paper.” She finally reached for his hand and threaded their scraped fingers together, careful of the IV. “Tanner.”
He met her gaze, his eyes pinched at the corners. God, he was so beautiful.
“I do forgive you. All the way.” She smiled softly. “I love you.”
His hand squeezed hers in a death grip. “Thank God. I wasn’t…I hoped…I love you too. I meant what I said on the mountain. Dammit, I’m not doing this right. These damn drugs.”
She scooted closer, wanting to crawl up next to him on the bed. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. I hurt you, and I want to make it better.” He snorted. “Shit, I sound like Keith. I have something for you.” When he leaned over to the side table, wincing, she leapt up.
“Let me get that, you macho ape.”
It was a pale cream box tied up in a moss green ribbon.
“There’s no way you tied this,” she commented drolly.
He sputtered out a laugh, holding a rib. “Maybe I have hidden ribbon-tying talents.”
“And pigs fly.” She undid it slowly, goosebumps dancing across her skin. “You also didn’t buy this present yourself, since you’ve been in the hospital.”
“Maybe I ordered it online?”
“Right.”
“Oh, shut up and open it. You’re driving me crazy.”
“Ditto.”
“Jill and Peg helped after I told them what I wanted. Then your grandpa threw in a hand. Could have blown me over if I hadn’t already been flat on my ass.”
When she parted the tissue, she pursed her mouth. A cotton tank in pale pink lay artfully folded, monogrammed with MW.
MW?
Jeez, he really was zonked out on drugs. She tucked her tongue in her cheek, wondering if Jill had told him she used to wear cotton. God knows Jill would have zero compunction about talking about her underwear.
He wiggled closer to the rail. “What’s the matter? Don’t you like it?”
“It’s lovely.”
“But…”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Since we’re all Truth or Dare now, I hate to tell you this, but you got my initials wrong.”
His scowl made his bruises shift. “Dammit, I told them to put it on top. Keep looking.”
When she lifted the tank, her mind went blank.
Her grandmother’s ring winked at her. She picked it up, remembering how she used to twist it and make a wish when she was a little girl. Her grandma had told her it was a special ring. It had brought her true love. She’d hoped to inherit it and wear it for her marriage with Richard, but her grandpa hadn’t said a word. His disapproval had been clear from the start.
Tears burned her eyes as she clutched the ring to her chest. “My grandpa gave you this?”
Tanner cleared his throat. “It was his way of showing me he wasn’t going to kick my ass…and letting me know your family approves of me sticking around and persuading you to marry me.”