Page 41 of Jenny
She nodded once. “Not for a while. I’m…calming down now. I just thought…”
“What’s going on, Jenny?” Dare asked, his voice full of concern.
“I sometimes get anxious.” She sounded calmer than she felt, but she was relaxing more and more. Her pulse slowed. Tension eased from her muscles. “When you weren’t here and the bed was stripped, I, um, panicked.”
“Oh, babe. I’m sorry.” Dare rolled the wheelchair using his good arm and leg. He leaned forward and wrapped his right arm around her. “I’m moving to another room this morning. My phone is with the stuff the orderly took, so I was going to wait here for you, but my visit went longer than expected. I thought I’d beat you here.”
“Let’s stay here for a few minutes more,” the nurse said.
“That sounds like a plan.” Dare kept hold of her.
Jenny let him. She wished he would never let go.
Twenty minutes later, Dare was settled in his new room, and the nurse had left them alone.
Questions filled his eyes, yet he’d been quiet. He didn’t look tired from visiting Carlos, but Dare wasn’t relaxed, either. Lines creased his forehead and around his mouth.
“Are you going to tell me what happened?” he finally asked.
The same goes for you.
She’d asked him to talk to her. It was her turn. “Yes, I probably should.”
“Not probably.”
He was correct. Jenny looked away.
“My parents and my brother are dead.” There was no way to sugarcoat what needed to be said. “My parents were killed in a head-on collision. Rob, my little brother and Missy’s husband, was a marine. He was killed in Afghanistan six years ago. IED.”
Dare wrapped his arm around her, blanketing her in his warmth. “Oh, babe.”
“My mom was in the ICU, so I split time between her and my dad’s room. One afternoon, I went to see him and his room was empty like yours. There’d been some mix-up, but he was dead and had been moved out without anyone telling me. I had nightmares about it for a long time, but they stopped. After Rob’s death, they started up again. Anxiety attacks followed. Not many, but a few, and a couple of them happened in not the best places. I’ve been fine for over four years, but I freaked when you weren’t there this morning. Logically, I knew you were fine, but… I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. Fear isn’t logical. And based on what happened to your family…” Dare held her tight, providing a comfort and security she’d only dreamed of feeling someday. “I’m here, and I plan to be here. With you. If the grim reaper has other ideas, I won’t go without a fight. I’ll do my best to show him not to mess with a ranger.”
A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “You’d better.”
He gazed into her eyes. “Anything for you.”
Forget having a little crush on this man. She had a big one. She was falling hard for Dare.
He slipped his hand around her and pulled her closer. His mouth met hers in the gentlest of kisses. The tender touch made Jenny feel so special, and she leaned into him and his kiss.
“You mean so much to me.” He showered kisses up her jawline until he reached her earlobe. “I don’t want you to feel that kind of panic or anxiety. I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe, Jenny. Make you feel safe. I promise, but I am in the military, and I get deployed. A lot. Is that going to be a problem for you?”
“Honestly, I don’t know.” She wasn’t sure how to answer. “Everything has been happening in real time, but I have thought about the future. What you do worries me, and it might be easier if you had some other kind of job, but my parents are proof that you can just be going about your day and have something awful happen.”
“So being in the military isn’t a deal breaker like not believing in aliens and Bigfoot?” he joked.
“Well, when you put it that way…”
He kissed her again. “You need time to think about it. Not be pushed into a decision, okay?”
“Okay.” Jenny smiled at him. “But I’m pretty sure the military isn’t going to be a problem.”
Her affection for this man kept growing. Jenny couldn’t imagine what her life would be like without him. She didn’t want to. She’d rather talk about their future together, even if that was only visiting their hometowns right now. For the first time in a long time, she wanted a relationship.
She wanted Dare.
She just hoped he wanted Jenny.
