Page 40 of Healing Home

Epilogue

BB maneuveredthe car into the pick-up lane and left it running to keep the air on. Frankie was in the backseat and seemed to sense that something big was going on, trying to peer over the window, but she was too short.

“Back in a minute, Frankie,” BB murmured.

Then she circled the hood of the car, watching the front doors anxiously. An orderly pushed Lincoln through. He was in a wheelchair and she knew it was pissing him off. There was a ball cap pulled low over his eyes and he was wearing lightweight clothing that wouldn’t bother the healing wounds on his back and thighs. It had been four days since he’d told her he loved her, and he’d gotten more and more strength every day. The stitches would have to stay in another week, at least, and he was ordered to seriously chill. No working out, no swimming, no sex.

The doctor’s eyes had twinkled when he’d said it so she thought he might have been messing with Link, but she was going to take it very easy with him.

When he saw her, Link’s expression lightened and he planted his hands like he was going to jump up out of the chair, but the orderly stopped him with a word. Then the man flipped the brakes on the chair and nodded that Link could move.

He still moved a little tentatively, BB noted, but he was doing so much better. Just the fact that he was walking out of the hospital intact was more than she ever would have expected. It was more than some of his teammates had done yet. They’d visited one of his teammates before they left. Luca Carmichael, the K9 handler, had lost a leg in the same firefight Link had been in, and they’d just woken him from a medically induced coma. Even more distressing to Luca was the fact that the dog was gone. As she’d looked into his vacant eyes, BB had worried about his actual physical safety. His mom and dad were there with him, but she had a feeling the hospital staff would be keeping a very sharp eye on him for the foreseeable future.

As Link climbed into the car, Frankie went nuts. Lincoln laughed, trying to calm her down without hurting himself.

Once settled into the car, with Frankie on his lap, he grinned at her. “Get us the fuck out of here, baby.”

“Gladly,” BB said, shifting into gear.

It took less than half an hour to get back to Lincoln’s beach house. She parked on the street and circled the car to open the door for him. Frankie jumped from his lap and went to the grass to use the bathroom, and BB held a hand down to him to help Link out. Again, he surprised her by taking it, but he pulled her to him for a kiss when he was vertical. “Thanks, baby.”

Inside the house he sat at the kitchen table.

Moving to the fridge, BB grabbed a couple of bottles of water, setting them on the table. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just a little woozy. They gave me pain pills right before I left.”

“Maybe you should go ahead and go to bed then?”

He shook his head. “I just want to feel normal for a bit. I’ll go to bed in a while. I am kinda hungry,” he said sheepishly.

Grinning, BB jumped back to her feet, glad to have something productive to do. “I have just the thing.”

She removed several plastic containers, popping the lid on one and putting it into the microwave to warm. “I know you like Mexican food.”

Lincoln grinned. “Oh, damn, girl. I already told you I loved you. What else do you want from me?”

BB stopped in front of him and leaned in for a kiss. “Your love is enough,” she told him softly. When she tried to pull away, Link tugged her down to his lap.

BB gasped, afraid she was going to hurt him, but he shook his head. “I’m good. I just wanted you closer. You look beautiful in your welcome home dress,” he said, fingering the blue fabric, “but I just wanted to touch you, feel you.”

He cupped her breast through the fabric. “When I first saw you on the tarmac, I didn’t know what to think. You were too beautiful to be believed, and you were there for me. I’m nobody, you know. But you wrapped your arms around me and I felt like I’d just been granted immortality or something by an angel. I didn’t want to let you go.”

She stroked a hand down his cheek, her throat tight with emotion. “I’ll tell you a secret. I didn’t want to let you go either. You wrapped your arms around me and I felt like I had found home.”

He leaned his head back to look at her. “Yes, that’s it exactly. It felt like I finally came home.” He glanced around the kitchen. “This house is nice, but you are my home.”

BB swiped away a tear and wrapped her arms very carefully around his neck, holding him as close to her as she could. If she could hold him here forever she would.

“I love you, Lincoln,” she whispered.

“I love you, BB. Thank you for being my home.”

She chuckled, leaning back to look into his electric eyes. “I will always be your home,” she promised. The microwave beeped. “Now, Home is going to feed you.”

They laughed and he let her up. “Maybe Home will cuddle with me later,” he murmured. “No,” he said, laughter lighting in his eyes, “maybe Home will cuddle with my Lincoln Log later.”

BB burst out laughing and gave him a saucy look. “Maybe. We’ll have to see. Eat your burrito, buster.”

They grinned at each other and BB shivered at the promise she could see in his eyes.

The End…