be. Is he dead? Was he standing closer to the grenade than us?
“Forrest, you okay?” My brother sits up from five feet away, his T-shirt a rag hanging off of him.
Crawling to him on my good arm, I throw myself at him. “Thank you. You saved my life.”
He really did. I am a fucking dumbass for coming alone, and to assume that Corey wasn’t as unhinged as he ended up being. I have so many questions, all of which I’m sure will be pieced together once I get my hands on his hard drive. Hopefully, it hadn’t been blown up.
“Finally, I can pay one of my brother’s back for saving mine,” he mumbles, hugging me back.
The effort I’m exerting is too much, and I collapse on the lawn. Fletcher follows suit, both of us on our backs, looking up at the night sky. “How did you know?”
Fletcher pants beside me, the air around us heavy with smoke and ash. “Could … feel … it. And then, Ryan called.”
Ryan must have given him the location I’d traced off of my computer … but the rest was pure twin instinct. I know what he means about feeling it, there were times I knew he was in danger and would race down to the Goat & Barrister to drive him home.
“Thank God for twinstinct,” I mumble, just as the sounds of sirens fill the air.
37
Penelope
“Forrest! Forrest.” I rush to him, the purple bruise forming on his neck scaring the living shit out of me.
“P, what …” The light in his ocean blue eyes is dimmed a little, and the question hangs from his lips.
“I’m the town rumor mill, remember? A nurse friend texted me that the Nash twins were in the ER after an attack.” I crouch down, surveying his injuries.
Bloody lip, black and blue throat, an eye that was swelling over, and I’m sure more internal scrapes and strains.
“Pssh, we won the attack, though.” He tries to boast, but the brag doesn’t make it to his eyes.
“What the hell happened? Corey?” My mind is racing with all the information I’ve been texted or told in just a short amount of time.
“Will you never wait one damn minute to ever find out what happened straight from the source? Jesus, woman,” Forrest complains. “Come here first.”
Tenderly, I move into his embrace. God, it’s been too long. I’ve missed the smell of him, that feeling he gives me. Safety, love, comfort … an underlying sense of wanting to jump his bones even if he is hospital-ridden.
“You didn’t cheat on me,” I say it, knowing in the deepest part of my heart that Keaton had been right.
“It’s a very long story, but no, I didn’t. I love you, P.” Forrest releases me far enough so that he can look into my eyes.
My tongue all but disappears from my mouth, I’m so shocked. I think the cat stole it, or maybe Forrest, or maybe my pathetic, melting heart. In the shortest amount of time possible, the rage and shame I’d felt in conjunction with Forrest Nash all but evaporates. When Lily called, telling me that there had been an explosion at Corey’s house, and Forrest had been there …
I had lived my worst nightmare all over again.
And the next second, a nurse friend told me that he was at the hospital. I’d only paused to call my mother in the middle of the night to come look after my sleeping children. She thought I was dying or something and began to panic on the other end. It took her hugging me for a minute straight when I opened my front door to make her see I wasn’t having a stroke.
Then I bolted for the hospital, putting every thought out of my head except for one.
I am in love with Forrest and needed to tell him that.
“I love you. God, I love you. You’re an idiot, but I love you,” I blurt it out, touching his face frantically before his lips come down over mine.
Our tongues do the intricate dance of lovers, and my heart, which I formerly thought was irreparable, beats anew.
“Mr. Nash, we have your bed ready.” The nurse addressing Forrest clears her throat, and we break off awkwardly.
Sheepishly, I smile at her as she wheels him to the room he’s been admitted to.
“How long will he need to stay? Is there something wrong with him?” I ask, wanting all the facts.
She shakes her head as she helps Forrest into the bed. “I’m sorry, I can