Page 30 of I’ll Be There (Montana Fire #4)

Conner raised his chin, drew in a breath, and Liza just about walked over to him, put her arms around him.

“You’re not a selfish jerk.”

Conner looked away. “That’s not exactly what you said.”

“I know what I said. And what I’m saying now. You care more about others than you do yourself.”

The words resonated, curled inside Liza. See, this was why loving Conner hurt so much. So easy to fall for a man who would give his very breath for another person.

And so agonizingly painful to watch him do it.

“Which, I suppose, is why you have a team of friends willing to risk their lives to save yours.”

Liza took a breath. He did, didn’t he? She glanced at Pete, Jed, and even Darek, as they shifted uncomfortably, looked at the ground, glanced at each other.

Never mind the two in the ER who’d taken bullets for him.

She caught his eye then, and as if he could read her mind, his expression turned so brutal, so wretched it made her want to weep. He closed his eyes and looked away.

Oh, Conner.

Silence, long enough for the ER nurse to poke her head out. “Who is Conner?”

Conner raised his hand and she gestured him in.

He swallowed, a haunted hollowness washing over him. As he walked by, he reached out and took Liza’s hand. And what could she do? She followed him in.

Please, let Micah be alive.

Micah lay on a table, his clothing cut off, wearing a blanket, blood soaking the floor beneath him. A transfusion hung over his head, along with an IV bag, and a third, smaller bag, probably morphine. One hand gripped the rail of the bed.

He opened his eyes as Conner came in, and a tremor of relief cascaded right through Conner, radiating off him.

She put her hand on his arm.

“You’re getting rusty,” Conner said. “He got the drop on you.”

“You nearly killed me getting us here.” Micah’s voice emerged reed thin, but he tried a smile. Failed. He closed his eyes, one tightening, a low moan emerging from his chest.

“I’ll call Lacey,” Conner said.

“No. She’ll freak out if she hears it from you. I’m going to live. I’ll call her.”

Was he kidding? Liza couldn’t stop herself “No. Micah, that’s not right. She deserves to know that you’re lying here in pain. That you lost so much blood that you nearly died.”

His eyes opened, something of shock in his expression, but she wasn’t stopping.

“You’re a husband, and a dad—not a freakin’ superhero—and Lacey shouldn’t have to stand on the sidelines and wonder if you’re coming home to her.

” She let go of Conner’s hand and walked over to Micah’s pile of bloody clothing, fishing through the pockets.

“Liza—” Conner started.

She found the phone and rounded on him. Held it out to Micah. “Call her, or I will.”

Micah’s eyes widened.

“Right now.”

He cast Conner a look, then held out his hand.

She shot a look at Conner, so much fury in it, no wonder he stepped back. “I’m tired of being surrounded by men who think they need to spare their women from the dangers they run into . We’re in this with you—and we deserve to know.”

She pushed past Conner, but stopped at the door, her breath hard in her lungs. Turned. “Thanks for being here this weekend, Micah. Conner needed you, and I know you probably saved his life more than once. Get better and go home. Live happily ever after.”

Micah stared at her with such a grim, confused expression that she softened her voice. “Don’t worry. You won’t miss the wedding. Because there isn’t going to be one.”

Then she pushed out through the doors into the hallway.

Took a breath.

Reuben had been admitted and moved to a room while Conner had his great adventure in town. And Raina and Casper still huddled with Layla in the ER, holding oxygen to her face.

Never in her wildest dreams did Liza think her wedding disasters might be this epic.

Grace, Max, and Yulia had already left in Max’s truck, taking Ingrid with them back to the resort. Ivy and Joy, after being checked out, waited in the lobby for Darek. Tiger hung around in the hallway, hands shoved into his pockets.

Mona had headed back to town with Emma, looking for their husbands.

Now, Jed, Pete, and even Romeo looked up at her, as if she carried dire news. “He’s alive. They’re giving him a transfusion. He’s calling his wife.”

John came over to her, pressed his big hand onto her shoulder. “You need a place to stay tonight?”

She shook her head. “Nope. I’m fine. I’m just going to go home and figure out how I let it get this far.”

Then, because she only lived three blocks away, she headed toward the doors.

“Liza!”

The voice called out to her, raking at her heart, but she refused to turn.

“Liza!” Closer now, but she strode out into the parking lot into the cool whisper of the early summer evening, the stars swimming across the black vault of night.

She wiped her fingers across her cheekbones, then gave up and let the tears run.

Conner caught up to her, even as she kept walking.

“Please—let’s talk about this.”

She glanced at him, her heart in pieces, but clinging to the truth.

“Your life is too big for me, Conner. Too dangerous. I can barely sleep at night with just the memory of my trauma. But to live with a man who runs toward danger...” She stopped then, torn by the agony in his expression. Tears dragged down his tightened jaw.

“I love you so much I think it will break me in half, losing you. But I’m not as strong as you. I’m just a...a potter. I like quiet, and working with my hands, and creating things. You save lives. But you do it by living so large it destroys me.”

“Please, honey, I said I’d quit—”

“You’d just as easily stop breathing . And you can’t hold your breath for the rest of your life.”

He stared at her, shaking his head.

“And I won’t let you.”

“That’s not fair—”

“You will only resent me when you see your smoke jumping brothers leaving and you’re not with them.”

He swallowed, shook his head. “No I won’t.”

He carried so much on his shoulders—his friends’ lives, his brother’s death…at least he didn’t have to reckon with that anymore.

And he wouldn’t have to worry about her, either. “I know it wasn’t your fault, but your worry for me nearly got us all killed tonight.”

“Liza—”

She held up her hand. “If it weren’t for you worrying about me, you would have brought Blankenship to justice when he showed up at the jail.”

“He never would have been there if it weren’t for you! You— you put this into motion.”

She knew he didn’t mean it as an accusation, but the words still made her wince. “I know. And I feel sick.”

“I don’t. Liza. You did this. You brought my brother back into my life—and yeah, right now I’d like to kill him all over again, but—I’m so brutally relieved, too, and— you did this .

You fixed my life. You always fix my life.

” He caught her hands, brought them to his chest. “I love you. Please, let’s figure this out. ”

He stood there, stealing the moonlight, his eyes shiny, his face still tarred with soot, turning his beard dark, grizzled. Dangerous. Brutally handsome, especially with the sleeves torn off his shirt, the wind raking fingers through his freshly cut hair.

Standing there, giving her his heart.

And now she hated herself. Pressed her fingers to her eyes. “Conner—”

“I’m going to be at the church tomorrow. Eleven o’clock. Waiting for you at the altar. And I don’t care if anyone else shows up...anyone but you.” Then, he took her heart right out of her chest as he knelt before her, still holding her hand. “Please, Liza. Please marry me.”

She couldn’t see for the wash in her eyes. But she did manage to hold in her breath, the raw hiccup of her feelings as she tore her hand out of his grip. “It’s over, Conner. I was just lying to myself—to us. It’ll be better this way. You’ll see.”

He was shaking his head.

“Don’t follow me. It’ll just make it harder.”

He didn’t. She knew because as she left the parking lot and hit the sidewalk, she looked back.

Not sure, really, why she did.

He hadn’t moved. He remained, spotlighted in the middle of the parking lot, kneeling, his hands clasped against his forehead.

As if praying.