When I was about to open my mouth, he gave me a shake and declared, “Babe, you’ve never said that to me.”

I stilled.

Hadn’t I?

Months in the mountains with my man and I hadn’t told him I loved him?

“I…well…” I stammered as it hit me.

I actually hadn’t.

How on earth had I not done that?

“Well, I allowed you to fake my death,” I pointed out lamely.

Nick stared at me yet again.

Then he scowled at me.

“That’s it?” he asked.

“Nick, I allowed you to fake my death,” I repeated with emphasis.

In normal people world, that would be a big thing.

In our world, it was lame.

Totally lame.

And he so totally knew it.

“Liv,” he growled.

I shifted my hands from his neck to his stubbled cheeks and rolled up on my toes.

When I got close, I pressed my fingers in and whispered fiercely, “I love you, Nicky. You’ve made me safe. You’ve made me free. You’ve made me happy. But I don’t love you because you did all that. I love you because you’re Nicky.”

I might have said more.

I didn’t get the chance because Nick was kissing me.

He was also done with the cold mountain evening and I knew this because he picked me up and took us inside. Right through the big living room with its stone fireplace, the picture I gave him hanging over the mantel. Right down the narrow hall. Right to our warm bed.

And there I was safe.

There I was free, complete, happy.

Because I was with Nicky.

* * * * *

Nick

Late that night, he held Liv’s naked body close to his under the warm covers in the dark.

She was restful, her weight pressing in to him, and he thought she was asleep.

He would find she wasn’t when she whispered, “Tell me about her.”

Nick felt his body get tight.

She slid a hand up his chest to his neck where she used her thumb to stroke his jaw soothingly. Otherwise, she didn’t move.

“You’ve let her go,” she noted softly. “In that way, you’ve let her go. I know you have with the way you are with me. But now it’s done, sweetheart. It’s time to get her back. She was a part of your life. You’re all of my life. If you want to do it, I want you to know you can give her to me.”

In the drama they’d had, he often forgot how fucking wise she was.

And she was wise because, that day, when he could finally lay Hettie to rest, he needed to give her to somebody. Keep her alive. Even in the dark in the mountains in Tennessee, Nick with the woman he found who was not Hettie, but who was beyond a dream.

He turned into Olivia’s arms.