Slowly, warning herself that what happened in a dream couldn’t be counted on in real life, she lifted his hand and entwined her fingers with his. Suddenly, with her hand enveloped in his warmth, she felt safe and secure, just as she had in those wild, unlikely dreams.
At her touch, Riley awoke with a start, his gaze immediately fastening on her face.
“You’re back,” he said, a smile spreading slowly across his face.
“You’re here,” she said.
Both spoke with an air of wonder.
“How long have I been unconscious?” she asked, aware with every fiber of her being that he continued to hold her hand as if it were the most natural gesture in the world, almost as if he were afraid to let her go.
“Nearly two weeks. The worst two weeks of my life,” he said.
Abby was startled by the depth of emotion in his voice. In the past, Riley had always been so careful to avoid showing any hint of his real feelings. Only she, because she knew him so well, because she loved him, had ever guessed how deeply he was affected by things.
“What happened?” she asked.
“You don’t remember?”
“Not everything. In fact, very little. I had all of these dreams. I’m not sure I can sort them out from what actually happened.”
He told her quite bluntly what he knew about the events from the time she had walked off and left their camp with only Manuel for protection. Though he didn’t say as much, she could tell from his tone he was still angry that she had run off as she had. Yet underlying that fury, she sensed a level of fear and despair that was only just now beginning to dissipate.
“I’m sorry I frightened you,” she said quietly.
“Frightened doesn’t begin to cover it,” he said, his voice tight. “You took ten years off my life. When I realized you had left camp, I thought I’d go crazy.”
“But you said I took Manuel.”
“Was that supposed to reassure me?”
An image suddenly formed in her head. She remembered exactly how hard Manuel had fought to protect her from the three men who had attacked them. “He was very brave.”
“I’m sure he was. That didn’t keep you from nearly getting yourself killed.”
“How did you find me?”
“Jared and I searched for two days. We finally came across Manuel. He told us the guerrillas had brought you here.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t go on looking for the temple once you knew I was in the hospital,” she said, watching his face closely. “I know you were under a deadline.”
He stared at her angrily. “How the hell was I supposed to go on with the search until I knew whether you were going to live? What kind of man do you take me for, Abby?”
“A few years ago that’s what you would have done,” she reminded him. “You would have called and turned me over to my parents. You would have let them sit here and worry about me, while you got on with the job you were being paid to do.”
To her surprise, after an instant’s indignation, he grinned ruefully. “I tried that,” he admitted. “Your mother wouldn’t let me get away with it. She said there was no need for them to fly down. She said I was all the family you needed.”
Abby tightened her grip on his hand. “You always have been,” she said softly. “I still can’t quite believe you stayed all this time. Why did you?”
He shrugged. “Because you needed me. They said you seemed more at peace when I talked to you.”
Abigail thought of the times in her dreams when Riley’s presence had saved her, of the times when she’d been reassured, and knew then that it was his presence here, by her bedside, that had really been the comfort. Even though he claimed he’d made the choice only after gentle coercion by her parents, the fact that he had put his work aside to be with her told her a lot.
“Riley, I—”
“Abby, I—” He grinned, then gestured for her to speak first.
“Why did you stay all this time? The whole truth this time, okay?”
He looked uneasy, as if she were cutting too close to a truth he would have preferred to keep hidden.
“You’ve already asked me that once and I answered you. I stayed because you needed me,” he said stiffly.
She kept her gaze pinned on him and waited.
Finally he sighed. “And because I couldn’t bear it if anything had happened to you and I hadn’t been here.” He leveled a look straight at her then. “There’s something we need to talk about.”
“My going home,” she said with an air of resignation. He still wasn’t willing to admit to his real feelings for her, after all. He would only confess to a sense of responsibility for her well-being. She knew exactly where that sort of commitment led. She prepared herself for being ordered back to Phoenix once again.
“We’ll get to that,” he said. “First I want you to tell me about your engagement.”
She stared at him in astonishment. This was the last topic she would ever have expected him to bring up. In all of the weeks after he’d learned of her engagement, he’d mentioned Martin only when absolutely necessary. “You want to talk about Martin? Now?”
He nodded. “Talk, Abby. What’s the deal between you two?”
She looked away for a minute, then turned to face him. It was time to go for broke here, time to lay all of her cards on the table and see if Riley would ever become a part of her future.
“It’s over between Martin and me,” she said candidly. “There never should have been an engagement. I knew that even before I came on this trip with you.”
“Which explains why you left your engagement ring behind,” he said.
“You noticed?”
“Frankly I’m not that observant,” he admitted. “I didn’t notice until he demanded that you send it back and I realized I hadn’t seen
