Free Loving You Always by Kennedy Ryan

older than Walsh, was ambitious and hungry. He looked for any chance to prove to Martin that he was just as capable and more deserving than Walsh. The thought of Miller cozying up to the sheikh, taking credit at the last minute for the relationship Walsh had spent the last six months cultivating…
    “Sounds good,” Walsh forced himself to say. “I’ll call Trisha so she can get Miller up to speed.”
    “Hey, son,” Martin said. “She’s an exceptional girl. Kerris, I mean.”
    Walsh couldn’t speak. Had he ever heard his father apply the word “exceptional” to a person? Steaks were exceptional. Opportunities were exceptional. The coffee he had flown in from Colombia was exceptional. But a woman his father barely knew?
    “I know I’ve always wanted you to marry Sofie,” Martin said into the silence Walsh couldn’t find a way to break. “But if you married a girl like Kerris, I’d be pleased.”
    Walsh swallowed the emotion burning and pressing against the inside of his throat.
    “Bye, Dad.”
    “Bye, son.”

Chapter Seven
    S he’s breathing on her own,” Meredith said into her phone, lowering her voice. She sat down in one of the waiting room’s now-too-familiar plastic chairs.
    It had been a week since the accident, and the doctors had been justifiably concerned that Kerris still wasn’t consistently breathing on her own. The punctured and collapsed lung had definitely complicated things, but this morning she had drawn clear breaths on her own ever since they took her off the ventilator. The doctors seemed to be leveling with them when they said Kerris should be waking up any day now. They couldn’t be sure how severe the head injury was until she was awake and they could assess her speech, lucidity, memory, and functionality.
    Meredith waited for Walsh’s response on the other line. He had stayed away. She knew what it had cost him, but since Mama Jess’s rebuke in the room last week, Walsh had not darkened the hospital door again. In exchange, he demanded daily updates.
    “That’s incredible.” Meredith could hear Walsh’s voice, nearly devoid of breath and loaded with relief. “That’s my girl. She’ll wake up soon.”
    “That’s what we’re hoping for.” Meredith noticed Cam getting off the elevator and walking toward her. “Look, I gotta go.”
    “Cam?” It sounded like Walsh had tightened a belt around the name.
    “Um, yeah. I’ll let you know if there’re any changes.”
    “You do that,” Walsh said. “And when that happens, I won’t stay away. I’ll have to see her for myself, awake and responsive, at least once before I go back to New York.”
    “Gotta go.”
    Meredith didn’t acknowledge his assertion before hanging up. The next time she was lonely on a Saturday night and feeling sorry for herself, she’d remember that having two men in love with you might be worse than having no one at all.
    “Hey, Cam. How goes it?”
    “Tough.” He pressed his lips together and ran a hand over his haggard features. “It’s been hard balancing work and being here. They’re understanding about it, but I had accounts I was handling. I went ahead and resigned. Just seemed easier for everyone.”
    “You resigned?”
    “Yeah, we have private insurance, and it’s pretty good.” Cam coupled his assurance with a frown. “So if you’re worried about the hospital bill…”
    “No, that wasn’t it. I just…it’s your job. I wasn’t expecting you to quit.”
    Meredith couldn’t help but feel she wasn’t getting the full story, but the stiff mask of Cam’s face warned her not to press.
    “Like I said, it’s been tough,” Cam said. “Thanks for the text, by the way. Breathing on her own, huh? She’ll be home before you know it.”
    Meredith touched his arm to stop him before he entered Kerris’s room.
    “Cam, are you okay about…about the baby?”
    For a moment, Cam’s face, the torture in his eyes, broke Meredith’s heart. Kerris hadn’t revealed many secrets,