“You don’t have to—”

“I know,” he snapped. “I don’t have to do anything, but I want to, okay? And I’m not letting you go through whatever it is you have to go through with your dad alone. I’ll be there.”

She was already out of the bed, reaching for her clothes when she stopped short. “Jay—”

“I love you, Kris.”

She turned and saw that he was smiling. “You do?”

“Uh-huh. Just like you love me,” he said confidently.

“I love you?”

“That’s what you kept saying over and over while you were out of it.”

“Liar!” she charged, but couldn’t help but nod. “So, yeah, okay, I love you,” she tossed back at him. “So what’re you going to do about it, McKnight?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well…like maybe ask me to marry you?”

“Mmmm. Maybe.”

She laughed. “You’re bad, McKnight,” she said, and reached for her jeans.

“Perfect for you, then, right?”

“Humph.”

“Come on, let’s go see your dad and on the way, you can try to convince me to marry you.”

“Yeah, right!”

EPILOGUE

“…he’s holding his own….”

Rick Bentz heard the words but couldn’t open his eyes, couldn’t move a muscle to indicate to those around him that he was waking up. He’d heard them, of course, the doctors and nurses with their hushed voices, and his daughter, Kristi, who must have recovered, thank God, because she’d been around often…talking to him, insisting that he was going to get better, that he had to walk her down the aisle because she was going to marry Jay McKnight and write some damned book and…

Dear God, how long had he been here? A day? Two? A week?

He tried to open an eye. Montoya and Abby had been by and Olivia, of course, who’d been ever vigilant. He’d heard her soft voice, known she’d been reading to him, noticed every once in a while her words had faltered or her voice, that sweet dulcet voice, had quavered a bit.

Jay McKnight had been by as well, and he, like Kristi, had talked about marriage, asking for Bentz’s blessing or something like that. Or had he dreamed it?

It was about time his daughter settled down, stayed out of trouble….

The doctor left on squeaky shoes and he was alone again. He heard a steady noise, a soft beep, beep, beep, as if he were hooked to a heart monitor, and he wanted to move, God, he wanted to stretch his muscles.

His mouth tasted like crap and he was vaguely aware of footsteps in an outer hallway, a cart rattling, people talking…he drifted for a minute…an hour? A day? Who knew? Time, for him, was suspended.