Page 26 of Beneath the Mountain Sky

Before that day…

I clear my throat, needing to break the tension that starts to feel suffocating. “Raven will be here soon.”

She peers over her shoulder at me but doesn’t say anything.

“Liam brought over the bag of clothes and other things she dropped off. They’re in the bathroom.”

Willow finally seems to snap out of whatever haze she’s in. “Oh. Tell him thank you.”

I give her a tight smile. “I will. You need to rest, but I thought maybe you might like to take a bath first.”

Her eyes brighten, her lips curling slightly into the first genuine joy I’ve seen on her face since she woke up. “You remembered…”

I can’t fight the grin that pulls at my own mouth. “How could I forget?”

Almost every single night for five damn years, she sank into that tub with bubbles practically overflowing. And the nights that I would climb in with her are some of my favorite memories, and the most painful ones because they were when we were at our happiest.

Before I fucked everything up beyond repair.

The look Willow is giving me tells me she’s remembering exactly the same thing I am—without the pain of the year-long absence of it.

I tear my eyes from hers and glance toward the bathroom. “I checked with the doctor and confirmed it’s fine, as long as we don’t get your stitches wet, and I still have some of your bubble baths under the sink. I’ll go run it for you.”

Then get the fuck out of here as soon as Raven arrives.

Not only will imagining Willow in there be far too much for me to bear, but I need to be boots on the ground looking for any explanation for the madness we’ve found ourselves in the center of.

There are still enough hours of daylight to meet Tony and hike up to the river where I found her, to search more than he was able to himself with the minimal resources of our tiny sheriff’s department.

I start to walk past her, but she reaches out and grabs my wrist, stopping my advance.

Her small, warm fingers curl tightly around me, and every fucking nerve in my body flares to life at the simple contact. “Thank you.”

My gut twists. “Please stop doing that.”

Her brow furrows, pulling at the cut above her eye. “Doing what?”

Looking at me like I’m a man who deserves to be looked at that way.

Looking at me like I’m a man who didn’t destroy you.

Looking at me like I’m the only one you want.

“Thanking me.”

Her lips part slightly, and a surprised half-breath floats from them. “You saved my life?—”

That familiar anger I’ve felt since I found her flares in my blood again. “I didn’t. Not really. Because if you hadn’t left, you wouldn’t be in this position. Whatever got you back here, whatever put you in that river, it never would have happened if I hadn’t destroyed everything we had.”

Her gaze softens. “What did happen, Killian? I’ve tried, but I just…” Her hand tightens on my wrist, and that same little electrical charge that I’ve always felt when our bodies connect surges through me. “I can’t remember.”

“Maybe it’s because you don’t want to. I sure as hell wish I could forget it.”

An agony far worse than anything she’s suffered physically flashes across her steely gaze. “You want to forget me?”

Fuck.

“God no…” I tug out of her hold, rubbing my hands over my beard. “That’s the last thing I want.” Holding her gaze while I say this feels like falling down a hole I won’t ever be able to claw my way out of. “I’ve spent every day since you’ve been gone thinking about you and wishing I could take it back.”