The doors finally opened. George, the security guard, was standing there with his arm resting on his gun. Will was beside him.
George asked, “Everything okay, Doc?”
Sara could only nod.
Will stepped off the elevator, a sheepish look on his face. “I forgot that Betty’s at your place.” He gave that familiar, awkward smile. “At the risk of sounding like a country music singer, you can take my heart, but I can’t let you take my dog.”
Sara was bumped by an EMT passing behind her. She braced her palms against Will’s chest to keep from falling. He just stood there with his hands in his pockets, smiling down at her with a curious look on his face. Who had ever taken up for this man? Not his family, who’d abandoned him to state care. Not the foster parents who’d thought he was expendable. Not the doctors who’d experimented on his busted lip. Not the teachers and social workers who’d taken his dyslexia for stupidity. And especially not Angie, who had so easily gambled with his life. His precious life.
“Sara?” Will looked concerned. “Are you okay?”
She slid her hands up to his shoulders. Sara could feel the familiar hard muscle beneath his shirt, the heat from his skin. She had kissed his eyelids this morning. He had delicate lashes, blond and soft. She had teased him, kissing his eyebrows, his nose, his chin, letting her hair drape across his face and chest. How many hours had Sara spent over the last year wondering how the scar above his mouth would feel against her lips? How many nights had she dreamt about waking up in his arms?
So many hours. So many nights.
Sara stood on her toes to look him in the eye. “Do you want to be with me?”
“Yes.”
She relished the sound of his certainty. “I want to be with you, too.”
Will shook his head. He looked like he was waiting for the punch line to a very bad joke. “I don’t understand.”
“It worked.”
“What worked?”
“Your astounding charm.”
His eyes narrowed. “What charm?”
“I changed my mind.”
He still didn’t seem to believe her.
“Kiss me,” she told him. “I changed my mind.”