Page 94 of Wrap Around

“What’s that?”

“This was in Gideon’s chest pocket. They think it might have saved him.”

Lily gasps and covers her mouth. Her eyes fill again.

Once she collects herself, she shakes her head. “It’s a shame our parents couldn’t recognize a real miracle.”

We sit in silence.

Then she clears her throat. “I spoke to Zac this morning.”

My spine tenses.

She goes on. “He understands we can’t stay in Tennessee. And he has to get back to Arkansas for school, too, but we’re going to keep talking. He was shocked about Addy. Still thought you couldn’t get pregnant the first time.” She snorts a derisive half-laugh. “But he told me, under no uncertain terms, that he understands Addy isyourdaughter, Silas. And he would never try to take that from you. He hopes to be a friend of the family, but he’d never come between you.”

The relief I feel is rivaled only by seeing Gideon’s eyes open this morning. Emotion clogs in my throat and I take a deep breath for the first time since my plane landed.

Gideon rasps, “So we’re leaving?”

Lily nods. “Yeah. I told Dad. He didn’t even fight me. I said I can’t raise my daughter here. I told him to hire a home health nurse to help Mom, but that if she isn’t going to follow the doctor’s orders, she won’t be alive much longer. She needs to understand that by ignoring her actual physician, she’s making a choice that she will not be able to come back from. Either way, we’re done here.”

I nod, impressed, and ask, “Will he be coming by?”

She shakes her head sadly. “No. But he gave me this.”

She pulls out a scrap of paper and hands it to Gideon. With a nod from him, I open it and read it aloud.

“Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” -James 2:13

It isn’t an apology, and it isn’t closure, but it’s something.

Something that says maybe, just maybe, he heard me.

Maybe he’ll change.

Maybe he won’t.

But either way, we’re moving forward.

CHAPTER 34

GIDEON

It’s been six weeks since the shooting.

After just over a week in the hospital, I was finally discharged. We had to wait another two weeks before I was cleared to fly, and I’ve been going to physical therapy appointments twice a week since we got home. I’m finally able to move without much pain, and today, I got cleared for something I’ve been bugging every doctor and nurse about for weeks.

Sex.

Fuck. Yes.

They couldn’t have gotten me out of that office any quicker if they’d lit a fire behind me. To say I’m eager is an understatement. I want Silas inside me, or my cock inside him, more than I want to play hockey next season.

Suffice to say, I’m down to fuck in the most desperate way. Granted, I’m supposed to be on my back, propped up with pillows, and go slow, but I don’t care. I’ll take what I can get. I can’t imagine that Silas is much better off, considering I’ve been at the receiving end of most of the hand and mouth action that’shappened between us in the past few weeks. He’s played it a lot more cool than I have, but I know he wants me just as bad. I’m not the only one that’s little more than a walking boner these days.

I’m practically vibrating with anticipation by the time Silas walks into the bedroom.

He stops in the doorway, eyes raking over my body. I’m naked and spread across the bed like I belong in a magazine shoot titled:Gideon Shepherd is Cleared for Impact.