Page 31 of A Very Grumpy Sheriff
I close my eyes.
There it is.Again.That damn fear.
I tilt her chin up.“What do you need from me?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you need time?”
“No.”Her answer is immediate.“No, I don’t want less of you.That’s the confusing part.I want all of this.I want you.I just keep waiting to find out I misunderstood somehow.”
“You didn’t.”
“I know you say that.”
“I can do better than say it.”
Her brows knit.“What do you mean?”
I stare at her for a second, debating.
Then I know.It’s time.
I kiss her forehead and climb out of bed.
“Devon?”
“Stay there.”
She sits up, tugging the sheet against her chest.“Where are you going?”
“To get proof.”
I pull on a pair of sweats and walk to the closet.On the top shelf, tucked behind my old deployment bag, is the box I’ve been carrying around since I left the hospital.
I take it down and stand there for a second with my hand on the lid.
My pulse kicks up.
I’ve been shot at without feeling this exposed, but Suri needs to understand.
She needs to know that while she was trying to say goodbye, I was doing everything I could to get back to her.
I carry the box back into the bedroom.
She’s sitting against the headboard now, the sheet wrapped around her, hair messy around her face.She looks worried and curious and so damn beautiful that I almost forget how to speak.
“What is that?”she asks.
I sit on the edge of the bed beside her and set the box in my lap.“After your last letter reached me, I was in the hospital.”
Her eyes widen.“What?”
“I got hit on my last deployment.Back and knee.I’m fine,” I add quickly when she goes pale.“Or mostly fine.But your letter got delayed.By the time it reached me, you were already gone.”
Her hand presses to her mouth.
“Yeah.”I open the box.“I didn’t have an address for you yet.Didn’t know where to send anything.But I’d spent years writing back to you.I wasn’t going to stop just because I couldn’t mail them.”
