Page 54 of Defend Her Heart

“Hey, you okay? Do you need to sit for a minute? How’s your heart rate?’

That isn’t freaking helping!

Taking a deep breath, I finally look at him.

“I’m fine. I think.”

His hazel eyes are full of concern as they bounce between mine. “Here, let’s just sit for a second.” He helps me into a chair near the wall and sits down next to me, placing a hand on my knee.

My eyes are focused on his hand, so I’m caught off guard when he grabs my arm with his other one, lifting my wrist, bringing my watch to his face.

“127. Avery, your heart rate is getting too high. What can I do to help?”

You could stop being so flipping perfect, for starters.

“Um…” I have no idea what to say because I’m not sure if it’s my mysterious medical condition causing my heart to do somersaults, or the man sitting next to me, ready to burn down the world to help me.

“Everything all right over there?” The judge’s voice is loud, but kind.

Connor turns to him. “We’re okay. She just needs a minute to catch her breath.”

The judge nods and looks down at something in front of him. I don’t miss the way he keeps one eye on us, though. He probably thinks I’m ready to bolt. Oh god, what if he’s on to us?

“Do you think he knows?” My question comes out in a rush and Connor chuckles softly to himself.

“No, Aves. I don’t think he has any idea. He probably just thinks you’re nervous because you’re about to get married. I think that’s normal.”

It probably should be normal, but when he says it I’m brought back to the obscenely large church with Bryan, even though neither of us were religious, surrounded by hundreds of people I didn’t know. The signs were there with my first marriage. No countdown or butterflies the day of my wedding. Not wanting to write my own vows. Heck, I didn’t even care about most of the details, not that Bryan gave memuch freedom. He and his parents hired a wedding planner, but that didn’t even bother me. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, but now that I’m thinking about it, I felt like a stranger on the outside looking in the day of my wedding. Like I wasn’t even there. Maybe mentally, I wasn’t.

Connor must take my silence as a bad sign because his hand finds my cheek, turning my head so I’m facing him again.

“Look at me, Aves.”

My eyes find his again and everything else around us disappears. It’s just me and Connor. Like I always thought it would be.

“Good, now can you name five things you can hear? Wait, shit. I think it’s name five things you can see. Damn it. Sadie taught me this once, but I think I’m fucking it up.”

A laugh bubbles out of me. He has no idea that what he’s doing is exactly what I need. Him, flustered. Taking care of me. I’ve been craving this type of attention.

“Laughing is good. Let’s try it together. Let’s find five things we can see.”

We both turn our attention to the room, and there’s not much to see unfortunately. We take turns identifying things we see until it’s my turn to find the fifth object.

“I see beautiful pink peonies in a vase near the judge.”

Connor turns his head to find them and I watch the corner of his mouth twitch. “That’s definitely better than daisies.”

For a second, I think I misheard him.

Better than daisies?

There were daisies covering damn near every surface at the church when Bryan and I got married. It was gaudy and over the top, and I hated everything about it. How would Connor know that?

The judge interrupts my thoughts. “I don’t mean to sound impatient, but there’s another couple scheduled to arrive soon.If you’re still planning on going through with this…” His voice trails off, and I feel Connor grab my hand. Instinctively, I thread my fingers with his. “Then we need to get this show on the road.”

We both look at each other at the same time, our fingers still laced together.

“What do you say, Aves? You ready to marry me?”