Page 8 of Deserving Lara
When the silence got awkward, Lara regretted asking him. “Never mind,” she mumbled.
“I’ll be there,” he said quickly.
“Great. Now I’ve guilted you into agreeing,” she said, dropping her gaze.
“Look at me.”
It was the second time he’d ordered her to do that in the last hour. But she couldn’t ignore the concerned dominance in his tone. She lifted her gaze.
“I’m honored and overwhelmed by your trust in me, sweetheart. I would rather walk across a football field full of glass, in my bare feet, than do anything that might make you uncomfortable. There’s also nowhere I want to be than by your side as you start on your healing journey…but if you ever change your mind, don’t be afraid to tell me or Henley. I won’t be upset. I won’t take it personally. If there’s something you want to talk about with her that you don’t want me to hear, I can go take a walk or something. Okay?”
Lara couldn’t think of anything she might want to talk about that she wouldn’t want Owl to hear. But a niggling voice in the back of her mind called her a liar.
She couldn’t talk about her deepening feelings for this man. Not in front of him.
Nothing could come of them. He was helping her out as a friend to Cora. As a friend to Pipe, since he and her best friend were going to get married one day. Besides, she was just feeling things for the man because he’d rescued her. Kept her safe.
“Okay,” she agreed quickly, not wanting him to change his mind.
The tender look in his eyes made her knees weak.
“Go on, get changed. I don’t want to miss the sunrise,” Owl told her, effectively breaking the intimate bubble that had formed around them.
It wasn’t until she was dressed, and she and Owl were outside walking on the trail toward Table Rock, that Lara realized she wasn’t scared.
She was outside. In the dark. And she wasn’t afraid. It felt like a miracle.
But she wasn’t stupid. She knew it was because of the man at her side. Owl had taken hold of her hand as soon as they’d left his cabin and hadn’t let go.
After feeling nothing for so long, for the second time this morning, Lara felt hope.
Hope that maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to climb out of the fog of despair she’d been in for months.
And all of a sudden, her plan to leave, to hide out somewhere far from her best friend and The Refuge, didn’t seem like such a great idea. She still hated that her presence put everyone in danger, because without a doubt, Carter would hurt anyone who got in the way of what he wanted.
Maybe it was stupid, but Lara could no longer deny that she didn’t want to live the rest of her life alone. And she definitely didn’t want to live in fear. And if she was living somewhere by herself, she had a feeling that’s what would happen.
With Owl’s help, and Henley’s, and Cora’s, Lara wanted to believe that spark of hope meant the possibility of living a normal life again was within reach.
CHAPTERTHREE
Owl held onto Lara’s gloved hand and stared out at the rising sun. He was exhausted, which was nothing new, but somehow the coming of this new day felt different. More positive. As if the rising sun signified a shift in the status quo.
He was as relieved as he could be that Lara had agreed to talk to Henley, but he wasn’t so sure about being with her when she did. For one, he wasn’t convinced he wouldn’t react the same way she’d claimed Cora might, if he heard every gory detail about what Carter Grant had done. The little he knew already made him want to tear Grant limb from limb. Hearing more about the horrific abuse might push him over the edge. The thought of anyone hurting Lara made his heart ache. He wanted to put her in a protective bubble to make sure nothing and no one ever harmed a hair on her head ever again.
But that wasn’t how the world worked. He knew that better than anyone. She’d be much better off learning how to deal with the shit life dealt out. But that didn’t mean he still didn’t want to keep the worst of that shit from raining down on her.
Lara had made some strides since the day he’d carried her out of that house in Arizona. She still didn’t sleep great, had issues being alone, was paranoid of every strange sound, and was a long way toward trusting anyone. But given the improvements he’d seen, he knew she’d get there.
This woman…she was everything he’d ever wanted in his life. Kind, gentle, smart. And much stronger than she thought. It wasn’t that he had issues with Cora or the other women his friends had ended up with. Each of them were exactly what the other men needed. But it was Lara who made the anxiety he’d always lived with settle.
What they were doing now was a great example. They’d arrived at Table Rock, and he’d spread out the blanket he’d brought for them to sit on. Neither of them said a word as the sun slowly rose above the horizon. Most women would feel the need to fill the silence with chatter. But not Lara. She sat beside him, her hand in his, and simply absorbed the wonder of the moment.
Maybe it was their shared trauma. They’d each been so close to never seeing this kind of thing ever again. So the fact that they could enjoy it now meant…everything.
When the bright orange and pinks faded from the sky, Owl heard Lara sigh. He turned to look at her.
She had a small smile on her face as she glanced at him. “Beautiful,” she said quietly.
