Free Blast From the Past by Nic Saint Page A

assent and left the room. Amy’s heart made a little leap as Brad crossed to her bed and stood gazing down at her, worry lacing his voice when he spoke. “You passed out on me, Amy. Second time in two days.”
    “I promise I won’t do it again,” she muttered, caught in his gaze. “When did you come back?”
    “Day before yesterday. Don’t you remember? We spoke in church?”
    She nodded, careful not to lift her head. “I do remember.”
    A relieved sigh escaped his lips. “You do, huh? That’s great. For a moment there we all thought you were going to be eighteen for the rest of your life.”
    “I’m not eighteen anymore, Brad.” She spoke seriously, willing him to pay attention to what she had to say. “And neither are you.” She reached out a hand and laid it atop his. Without hesitation, he laced his fingers through hers, the gesture stirring a memory she’d buried deep inside. “You told me you loved me. At the prom? Did you mean what you said?”
    He inclined his head and moved closer to her, taking her hand up to his lips and pressing a tender kiss on the tips of her fingers. “I did. With all my heart.”
    “What happened to us, Brad? Why did we lose all this time—ten years?”
    “Life happened, I guess. And my stupidity,” he added with a wry smile.
    She searched his face for any sign of the old Brad. She thought the wild boy was still in there, but had matured into the man she knew she loved—had never stopped loving, even while he was that idiot her mother liked to remind her of. “You have something of mine,” she murmured.
    His eyebrows rose questioningly. “Oh? What’s that?”
    She grinned up at him. “My heart.”
    He regarded her seriously, an emotion she’d never associated with him before but which became him well, she thought. “I’d like to keep it, if that’s all right with you?”
    “Only if I can have something of yours in return.”
    He smiled, and something welled up in her chest, something tender and sweet. “I think you already have, honey. In fact you always did.”
    He leaned in for a kiss, and she opened her lips to bid him entry, as she had opened her heart and her life for him before. “What happened yesterday?” she whispered.
    He had the good decency to blush. “Sorry about that. I guess I got carried away.”
    She slung her arms around his neck and pulled him in. “Could we… do it again?”
    A slow smile crept up his lips as he tenderly brushed against her lips. “Sure,” he whispered. “Only I think we better wait until you’re home this time. Unless you want to visit your future husband in jail.”
    Her heart skipped a beat. “Future husband?”
    “You don’t think that now I found you again I would ever let you go, did you?”
    “I…” Her eyes widened when he suddenly went down on one knee beside the bed and offered her a small black box that had engagement ring written all over it. “Brad, you didn’t…”
    Before she could complete the sentence, he’d opened the ring box and she found herself gazing at a sparkling band, her mind a blank. Then she transferred her astonished gaze to the deep brown eyes suspended over all that glitter, and when he spoke the eternal words, “Do you want to marry me?” she found herself saying yes before he’d even finished.
    They’d lost ten years, she wasn’t about to lose a second more when that second could be spent with Brad by her side.
    He kissed her deeply, then, and she opened her arms and her lips for the man she’d always loved. Daddy, she thought, you were right after all, and when she pulled her fiancé into the bed with her, she felt her father’s benevolence suffusing her. And his blessing.
    All was well, she knew.
    Finally, all was well.

Chapter 18

    “Come here, big boy,” she whispered. She’d finally been released from hospital with the promise she wouldn’t endanger her recovery as recklessly as she had before, and she’d signed the release papers with a happy