“Is that Daniel?” Ashlyn asked through a yawn. “Is that the person who saved my life?”
“Yes,” Clara introduced him.
“You can’t know how good it is to see you sitting up like this,” Daniel said to Ashlyn as he stood next to her bed.
“I owe you everything,” Ashlyn said in dramatic teenage fashion.
“I’ll settle for a year of good grades,” he said with a dry smile.
Ashlyn smiled back. He chanced a glance at Clara.
He missed her. He missed waking up to her. He missed her clean, floral scent when she first got out of the shower. The sex had blown his mind. He missed that too. But it was her mind that he missed the most. He missed talking to her.
Clara looked up at him and his heart stuttered. She didn’t give away what she was thinking, save for the worry lines etched in her forehead.
“It’s good to see you, Daniel.” She stood.
“You guys should, like, kiss or something,” Ashlyn said.
Daniel couldn’t help but laugh. And when Clara did too his heart sang. So, he kissed her. “I missed everything about you.”
Clara smiled in response. This time, it reached her eyes. “Do you have time to stay?”
“Until you kick me out,” he said.
“I feel so bad about Javel,” Ashlyn said and her voice hitched on his name. “We never should’ve gone out that night.”
“It’s not your fault,” Daniel said to her with the authority that came with being in the same boat. He’d blamed himself for something that had been outside his control.
“I never tried to run away. I would never do that.” She paused as though catching her breath. “I just wanted a true adventure on my last night.” She could barely talk about what had happened to Javel for sobbing so hard. Daniel gathered that their boat had capsized and she swam to shore in ten-foot waves. She credited her survival swimming lessons for saving her life. The girl must’ve apologized fifteen times in ten minutes for her part in what had happened.
It had taken three days for Javel’s body to wash ashore. After that, Ashlyn had been certain she wouldn’t last long enough to be rescued.
The kid had been through the ringer.
When her tears ebbed and she bit back the third yawn, Daniel squeezed Clara’s hand. “We should let her rest.”
“We’ll be in the hall, sweetie,” Clara said.
Before they could get out of the room Ashlyn’s eyes were closing.
Clara pointed to a pair of chairs in the hallway outside Ashlyn’s room. The two of them sat and he linked their fingers as she continued to fill him in.
“It’ll take some catching up since the school year already started, but Ashlyn’s returning to Brighton,” she said.
Stella rounded the corner, and then abruptly stopped.
“She’s sleeping now. She could use someone she loves to watch over her,” Daniel said to Stella, urging Clara to stand.
“If it’s okay with my sister.” Stella looked to Clara, who nodded as she followed Daniel’s lead.
“Want to get some fresh air?” Daniel asked.
“As long as we’re not gone too long,” Clara said and he understood her need to be by her daughter’s side.
Daniel walked Clara outside and to a nearby park. Music thrummed in the background. A drumbeat filled the night air. Daniel was uneasy but it had nothing to do with the melody playing out.
“Did the doctor say when she would be released?” he asked.
“A couple of days,” Clara said. “Tuesday if everything went well.”
Daniel looked at Clara. If they were going to have a relationship she needed to know that he was aware of her secret.
“I know that Ashlyn is your daughter,” he said.
Clara gasped and looked away from him. “How?” She paused a beat. “Never mind. Stella.”
She looked at him with tentative eyes. “Did she tell you…everything?”
“I can’t imagine what you’ve gone through. I’d like to kill the bastard who hurt you,” he said. “I can see how it would be hard to trust men, including me. But I want to be in your life, and in Ashlyn’s if you want the same thing. Tell me how.”
“Are you sure about this, Daniel? About us?” Clara’s eyes were so damn beautiful. She looked away like she was shielding herself from disappointment.
“I’ve never been surer about anything in my life,” he clarified, lifting her chin so that she looked him square in the eyes.
“It’s not too soon?” she asked. Those gorgeous blue eyes intense with emotion.
“Listen, I’ve spent far too damn much of my life as a spectator, always looking in from the outside but not getting in the game.” He took her hands in his, needing contact. “I know what I feel is right. I don’t need to overthink it and I don’t need to wait. I love you, Clara. But if you need time to make sure it’s right for you, take it. I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me to leave.”
A slow smile spread across Clara’s pink lips.
Daniel couldn’t help himself. He dipped his head down and claimed them.
“No one has ever made me feel like this before, Daniel. Like I’ve come home. I can’t imagine ever loving another person the way I love you.”
“Just so you know my intentions, I want to be a family with you and Ashlyn. I want you and me to make babies of our own with all the works, house, SUV. I want to be part of everyday life as a family. I want to be there for all of it. Ballet recitals. Piano recitals. Soccer games. Whatever our kids are into.”
“Well, that’s a good thing, Daniel because without you I’d be lost.” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I don’t know how or why I got so lucky when I found you but nothing would make me happier than to be with you. You’re my home.”
Daniel wrapped his arms around the woman he loved.
“I think I could spend forever with you,” Clara said.
“Forever’s a good place to start.”
Also by Barb Han
GUARDING
