Page 171 of You Found Me
Lizzie rolled her eyes. “Piper, leave her alone. She’s having a very hard day.”
“You always take her side,” Piper said with an exaggerated whine.
“Delete those, please,” Della begged.
Piper flashed her a cheesy grin. “Never. I’m going to use them in my speech at your wedding. Because Ward and Della are sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S?—”
“Okay. Time to let her rest,” Lizzie said in a heads-will-roll-if-you-don’t-listen tone.
Mattie plucked a sunflower out of a nearby vase. “He’sreallyinto sunflowers. I think it’s super sweet. It reminds me of something Adam would do.”
“It is very,verysweet.” Piper tilted her head at Della. “It’s almost like he’s trying to make an impression.”
Lizzie wrinkled her nose, then sneezed. “Not trying…succeeding.”
“He knows sunflowers are my favorite flower.” Della took one from the bedside table.
“Since when, Little Miss Roses or There’s No Second Date?” Piper said.
“Since he took me to see them. They have these huge fields near Wires Crossing that are totally magical.”
She could see the future, and it was filled with sunflowers and apple festivals and family and Ward.
Because he was hers. Always.
It said so on the card.
Della stared at the sunflower in her hand, but she saw the man who’d sat in the corner of the bar to make sure she was safe. The one who’d taken her to see fields of flowers and to apple festivals. The one who’d stood in the path of a bullet to protect her.
“I love him.” She beamed at them. “I love him and he loves me and I can’t stay with any of you because I’m going home with him.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Ward hobbled through the front door of his house, wishing like hell Della were with him.
Somewhere in the past month, it had becometheirhouse. It didn’t feel right to be here without her.
He hated leaving her behind at that hospital. He didn’t care how big her security team was or how many people they’d surrounded her with.
Annie and Spencer followed him in, a little too close and a little too ready to catch him if he fell. They’d been hovering ever since he’d gotten out of surgery.
“You want help up the stairs?” Annie used the carefully bright voice she broke out with children or old people.
“No.” He waved the crutch they’d forced him to use. “I’m going to the office to check the security feeds.”
“I can do that,” Spencer offered a little too quickly. “They did say you should keep your leg elevated for the next forty-eight hours.”
Ward huffed out an annoyed sigh. “Don’t you two have somewhere else to be? The job’s done. You can both head back tothe city and take a few days. Our next job doesn’t start for three weeks.”
“Oh no.” Annie shook her head. “Rule five. No injured left behind. Remember?”
“You’re injured too.” He hated how defensive that sounded. Like he was back in high school. “You were in a car wreck two days ago.”
“Yes, but unlike you, I have been cleared for duty. I was Tased, not shot.” She looked smug. Now accept help like an emotionally intelligent person whose personal value is not tied up in society’s narrow view of what it is to be male.”
Ward sneered at her. “I never should have hired you.”
She walked with him toward the living room. “Think of it this way, you are the principal now due to your close proximity to our celebrity.”