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“D o you know where my phone is?” Opal asked as Renard walked in, carrying a tray of food.

Her stomach actually growled. Seemed she was getting her appetite back. But then, her man could make anything taste good.

“Yeah, I’ve got it.”

“Oh, good. Can I have it?” She hadn’t felt like using it until now. But she’d woken up feeling a lot more alert today.

“No.” He grimaced. “I mean, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why?” she asked.

He’d been tiptoeing around her since her explosion the day before yesterday. He kept trying to speak softly and he was barely swearing.

She knew he was doing it for her, but honestly, she wanted her old Renard back.

“You’re supposed to be resting.”

“I have been resting since I got here.”

Now, she wanted to see her friends. They’d visited her in the hospital, but she’d been kind of out of it. And then she’d been asleep when they’d brought her some stuff. She missed them.

“I just don’t think you’re ready to deal with the thousand text messages and calls from the people in this town.” He set the food down on the nightstand.

“Everyone has been texting and calling?”

He grunted.

Amazement filled her. “This really is the best place to live, isn’t it?”

Renard stood and eyed her. “Yeah, Gem. It is.”

She took a deep breath, trying to keep her emotions in check. “I’m getting up today.”

“No, you’re not.” He frowned. “I mean, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Yep. She wanted her old Renard back. Plus, he must be giving himself an ulcer trying to curb his bossy ways.

He sat, then picked up the tray and set it carefully over her lap. It had two bits at the side that came down on either side of her hips.

“Did you have this tray before?” she asked.

“Came with the apartment. Eat your eggs. Um, please.”

She glanced down at the scrambled eggs and potato hash. All things that were soft for her to eat.

“I don’t want to eat, though. And I want my phone.”

“You need to eat.” He picked up the fork.

“Renard, I know you’re not deaf.”

He held up a forkful of eggs. “Open up. Coming in.”

She glared at him. “When I called you Daddy, I didn’t mean that I wanted you to start treating me like a baby.”

“Not meaning to treat you like a baby,” he said. “Meaning to treat you like you’re someone precious who went through something horrendous and needs to be taken care of. That’s how I meant to treat you.”

“Damn,” she said, pointing at him. “You’re good.”

He raised his eyebrows. “I am?”

“Yes, I was gearing up for a fight and you took the wind out of my sails.”

“You wanted a fight?”

She shrugged. “Not saying I wanted it. Although maybe then I’d get my old Renard back.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“You can’t keep tiptoeing around me. Every time you boss me around, you then try to amend it so it doesn’t sound so bossy. And you’ve hardly sworn at all. Or gotten loud.”

“I just . . . you’re recovering. You need gentleness and quiet.”

“I love you.”

His eyes flared.

“But I fell in love with the guy who isn’t afraid to express himself. Who is blunt and grouchy and bossy. I want my gruff teddy bear back.”

He blinked, looking like he was thinking. Then his shoulders relaxed. “Well, thank fuck.”

“What?”

“That was exhausting.” He rubbed his stomach. “Think I gave myself an ulcer.”

She couldn’t help but giggle. “Good. Now, give me my phone. I want to text my girls and see why they haven’t been to visit me.”

“Ah. Well.” Renard cleared his throat.

That was a guilty look if ever she’d seen one.

“I asked them to give you some time to recover and that I’d text when you were ready for visitors. You needed some peace and quiet.”

She wanted to be mad. But he was right. She had needed a couple of days to get herself sorted.

“You were right.”

Surprise filled his face. “I was?”

“Yeah. You were. But . . . I want to see them. I need to see them and they need to see me.”

She knew that they had to be going nuts.

“Yeah, well, I’ve had increasingly grouchy messages from a number of unhappy Malones. Apparently, they need fucking proof of life.”

“Might help if you gave me my phone so I could speak to them,” she told him.

“Fine. I’ll get it for you. After you eat your breakfast.”

The man drove a hard bargain.

Luckily, it was no hardship to eat the food he made.

* * *

Opal knew that Ryleigh was holding back tears.

She was also shaking.

Lilac was holding herself together, but she’d seen Opal like this more times than either of them liked to admit.

“Feels like old times,” Opal joked.

“Don’t joke about it,” Lilac said in a raw voice.

Okay, maybe she wasn’t holding herself together as well as Opal had thought.

“When we saw you in the hospital, I thought it was bad,” Ryleigh said. “But now . . .”

“It’s worse?” Opal said dryly.

“Oh no! I didn’t mean it like that.”

Renard was scowling as he walked into the bedroom with two chairs which he set down by the bed. “What’s going on? Why are you all upset?”

“We’re fine,” she reassured him.

“None of you look fine.”

“Sorry, it’s just a shock,” Ryleigh whispered.

“We’re all good,” Lilac told him. “Well, other than the fact that you wouldn’t let us see her until now.”

“Lilac was ready to storm the castle,” Ryleigh told Opal. “She was prepared to break in if she had to so we could see you.”

“You were the one researching how to break a lock,” Lilac said.

Opal smiled at them both. She would have felt the same if one of them had been hurt.

Renard just grunted, shaking his head at her friends. “Opal, you sure you’re good?”

“I’m sure,” she told him. “We’re all good.”

He pointed at her. “You get upset; I won’t be happy. Two of you, sit. Don’t upset her. And you can’t stay long.”

He strode out of the room.

“He’s such a sweetheart,” she said on a sigh.

Both Lilac and Ryleigh gaped at her.

“Renard? That guy?” Lilac questioned. “A sweetheart?”

“Yeah. He just brought you both chairs so you’d be comfortable and got all worried because he thought we were upset. A sweetheart.”

“He seemed grouchy to me,” Ryleigh told her.

“Nah, that’s just his personality. He expresses his concern with scowls and grumbles. Trust me.”

“Are you sure you’re not on the good drugs?” Lilac asked her.

Opal grinned. “It’s not that.”

“Oh my God,” Ryleigh said, leaning forward. “You love him?”

“What?”

“You have to love him if you think that his grumbling is sweet. You love him,” Ryleigh said with a grin.

“Or she’s on the good drugs and totally delusional,” Lilac added.

“I love him,” Opal confirmed. “How can I not love a man like that? Who fusses over me when he thinks I’m not being safe or eating enough or that I’m cold? Who would patiently learn how to contour just to make me feel better? Who seems to realize what I need before I do and just gives it to me?”

“Wow,” Ryleigh said. “I hope I find that one day.”

She shared a look with Lilac. If Linc had his way, that day was going to be soon.

“We were so worried about you,” Lilac said.

Opal could see the shadows in her face. Stefan’s impact on them both had a long tail and no doubt this had raised a lot of issues for Lilac too.

Opal reached out and took her friend’s hand, squeezing it.

“I didn’t know what to do when we discovered that you were missing,” Ryleigh said. “I lost it, I was so worried. All of my brothers were ready to help look for you. The whole town was.”

That still shocked her. She hadn’t even lived here that long.

“I can’t believe it was Barney.” Lilac shook his head.

“Fucking Barney,” Ryleigh snarled, curling her hands into fists. “I’d like to punch him where it hurts. I actually asked Linc to leave me alone with him for ten minutes. But the jerk said no.”

Opal was very glad that Linc hadn’t let her. She didn’t want her friends anywhere near that bastard. Although she seemed to be the single object of his obsession.

Lucky her.

Although that seemed to be the way her life went.

She really did have the worst luck.

Well, she had. Hopefully, it was turning around.

“Such a fucking bastard,” Lilac said fiercely.

“He told me that he broke into my house to watch me while I slept. Can you believe that? That I could sleep through him staring at me? And then he put in a camera. God knows what he saw.”

She didn’t want to think about it.

Sick bastard.

“I’m just so glad that you’re all right,” Ryleigh said. “Well, not all right, I mean that you’re here and you’re alive.”

“I know what you mean,” Opal told her gently.

“You’re okay here with Renard?” Lilac asked. “You don’t want to leave?”

“Because we will get you out,” Ryleigh told her. “We’d do anything for you, Opal.”

“I know because I’d do anything for the two of you. But I’m good here. I promise. This is exactly where I’m meant to be.”