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He would always look for Powell Melissa Barratt.

That was probably the one absolute in Gunnar’s life.

When he opened his eyes in the hospital, she was who he looked for first.

And there she was, curled up in the chair beside the same damned bed she’d been in herself. In 403. She had her legs tucked up beneath her, she wore a green Eat at Flo’s Masterson Diner T-shirt and jeans just designed to get a healthy male’s blood pressure rising.

When he wasn’t hurting like hell and feeling as weak as a baby, his blood pressure would rise appropriately. Gunnar had no doubt about it.

There she was. Alive, whole, healthy. And sound asleep, one hand over where their baby grew.

Tears hit his eyes at what it meant.

She was safe.

He just stayed where he was and watched her sleep. Until those dark eyes he loved opened. And she looked at him. She smiled. “Gunnar, you’re awake.”

“I’m awake. How do you feel?”

“Me? I’m not the one with two bullet holes in my chest. How do you feel?”

“Like I’m the luckiest man in the world.” He reached a hand toward her.

“I wouldn’t call two bullets lucky.” She reached for him.

“I’m alive. And I am with the woman I love. Guy can’t get any luckier than that.” She wrapped her fingers around his. Gunnar tugged lightly. Lightly was all he was capable of at that moment. “Come here. In the bed.”

“I’ve heard it on the best authority that these beds aren’t meant for two.” But she was small. She climbed up gingerly. “Just for a moment, then you need to rest. I have big plans for you, now that I have caught you.”

He smirked at her. He wanted to touch her. To…hold her. He wrapped his hand—the one without tubes running out of it—around hers. “I caught you. You are mine now.”

She smiled. “You said that to me before. Several times. Now, it’s time for the truth. The big secret.”

“What?”

“I have always been yours. From the moment we met in Shelby’s driveway the day Jake was being an ass. It just took me a little too long to see that for myself. Sometimes, I can get focused on what I think I want. I miss what it is that might just matter the most. I’m going to work on that.”

“We can work on it together. I’m not ever letting you go, Powell Melissa Barratt. You can count on that.”

Gunnar meant it too.

He had waited for Powell Melissa Barratt long enough.