Free Healing Hearts (The Challenge Series) by Liz Crowe

patted her hand. “We’ll throw Janice a kick ass party, just like she’d want. Okay?” She sniffled into her tissue.
    Abby nodded, looking up at the ceiling and wishing Jay were there before realizing he never, ever would be. Not anymore.
     
    ***
     
    The small funeral drew most of the regular townies, and Abby had plenty of opportunity to hear how special her mother had been, once. She’d been so dependent on Abby’s dad, when he passed from fast-moving cancer, she never recovered, or even coped without the help of liquor. Abby sighed at one point, wishing the whole fucking ordeal was over. She’d spent the last several years missing her real mom. The skeletal creature whose remains she’d had cremated was not the strong, robust, opinionated woman who’d raised her. That woman had died five years ago. The rest of this remained a formality, inevitable and sad, but true.
    A hand settled on her shoulder. She didn’t look up. “What are you doing here?” she ground out. “I’ve already called the school and declined the placement. I won’t take your fucking charity, Jay Longmire. I don’t need it.” She’d spent the few days between the scene at the hospital and now convincing herself to let him go, chalking it up to one more thing to mourn at this point. She glared at him once, long enough to take in how amazing he appeared in a dark suit, then dropped her gaze to the floor.
    “You have got to be the most stubborn woman on the planet,” he whispered, settling into the empty seat next to her. His presence sent a bolt of longing and real pain to the center of her chest. She channeled it to fuel the pounding anger in her temples. “Luckily I cut my teeth on one a hair more mule-like than you.”
    “Don’t compare me to your wife.”
    “Fair enough,” he said, keeping his voice low. “But you will listen to me at least once more.”
    She allowed herself another look at his profile, ignoring the signals from her body that demanded that she hang onto him, let him soothe her. Fuck that six ways to Sunday. She’d learned her lesson and would never rely on a man for anything other than sex ever again. “Why should I?”
    He put a casual arm around her shoulders, making her tense, then calm, which pissed her off even more. His lips near her ear brought every inch of her skin to attention. She shut her eyes. “Because I …I think I love you, Abigail Elizabeth. And all I did on behalf of your desire to study nursing at U of M was make a call to the admissions office pretending to be your counselor at the community college checking on the status of your application. They said they’d had a screw up with the acceptance process and were Fed-Exing all the letters. I intercepted yours at your place and took it out of the delivery envelope so I could surprise you—I wanted to be the first to see the look on your face when you got the news. You were not given any special attention, nor did I politic my way into getting your application pulled ahead of anyone else’s. You made it in on your own, like you wanted. Now call them back before you lose your spot.” He kissed her cheek, brushed his lips across hers, and stood.
    “I have to get back to Ann Arbor,” he stated. “I’m going to be a real father to my daughter and let her go in peace like she deserved to do a year ago.”
    She stood, gripping his arm, her brain awash with words she couldn’t find. He took her hand and put it to his lips and spoke words that seared her very soul. “I love you, Abby, and that makes me terrified of losing you. So you should live your life now. Like you planned. Thank you for healing my heart.” He kissed her palm and pressed it to his chest. Then turned and left.
    She watched him go, speechless, until the door shut behind him. Then she sat, stunned, but realizing what she had to do.

 
     
    Chapter Twelve
     
     
    Jay sat, listening to the bereavement counselor who had to be present at all such life and death