Harlequin Romantic Suspense April 2021 Karen Whiddon (best fiction books to read TXT) 📖

Bridget following at her heels. Bridget got settled in her dog bed, heaving a contented sigh that made Carly smile.

Grabbing her oldest, softest oversize T-shirt, she climbed into bed next to the man she loved. Moving carefully so she wouldn’t wake him, she debated on whether or not to spoon him. In the end, she decided just to let part of her arm rest against his back, touching him, yet not enough to disturb him.

“Come here,” Micha rasped, rolling onto his side to face her. “You know I can’t sleep unless I’m holding you.”

This made her happier than it should have. This, with him spooning her from behind, was how she wanted to sleep for the rest of her life. She’d tell Micha that in the morning.

CHAPTER 14

Micha awoke sometime in the morning with a curvy, soft woman in his arms and a raging hard-on. He also had a killer headache, which should have been enough to destroy any amorous thoughts.

But his body apparently had other ideas.

He tried to ease away, to roll over so Carly wouldn’t notice the proof of his desire pressed so heavily against her.

Instead, Carly tightened her arms around him and burrowed deeper into the covers. Her even breathing indicated she was still asleep.

Closing his eyes, Micha tried to clear his mind, to focus on something else, anything else but the aching need to bury himself inside her. The throbbing in his head finally outweighed everything else, and he slipped off to sleep.

When he woke again, he was alone in the bed and sunlight streamed through the window. His headache had gone. Stretching, he stood. He thought he almost felt normal. Though the clock on the nightstand showed it was after ten in the morning, he could hear Carly moving around in the other room, long after she should have been at work. A twinge of unease had him pushing to his feet.

“Carly?” he called out. “What’s going on?”

Carly appeared in the bedroom doorway, her expression troubled. “I’m glad you’re awake. You got a phone call while you were asleep. I probably shouldn’t have answered it, but I didn’t want to disturb you, so I did.” She took a deep breath. “It was your mother, Micha. Your father is in the hospital. She didn’t go into too many details. She asked for you to call her back. It sounds like she wants you to come home.”

Micha froze. He started to shake his head, but a jab of pain stopped him, reminding him of his head injury. He hadn’t spoken to his mother in person since his brother’s death, though he’d kept every letter she’d sent him. He’d supposed the military had notified her of his supposed death, the same way they’d told Carly.

Since his father had already declared Micha dead to him long before the helicopter crash, Micha hadn’t seen any need to inform his parents of his ultimate survival. He figured his actual death might have finally given them both peace.

“My mother called?” he repeated, still trying to process Carly’s words. “How is that even possible? Where would she get my number?”

“Since clearly she knows you’re alive, it seems likely someone in the military gave it to her.” Carly came closer, putting her arm around him gently. “And she wants you and your father to patch things up while there’s still a chance.”

Micha sat back down on the edge of the bed. Carly dropped down next to him. She silently handed him his phone. Feeling hollow, he accepted it, turning it over and over in his hand. “I’m not sure what to think,” he began.

“Don’t think, feel.” Carly laid her hand on his arm. “We’ve been given a second chance, you and I. Maybe your parents deserve one, too.”

Pushing to her feet, she left him there, alone with his thoughts and his phone.

Micha thought of the last time he’d seen his father, of the anguish that had darkened the older man’s brown eyes as he’d prepared to bury his firstborn. He’d been so proud of his two boys, serving their country. He’d already been struggling to keep the farm going, pinning everything on Brian’s promise to take over when he’d completed his military service.

All of that had been gone in a flash.

Micha had been just as stunned and hurt as his parents, maybe even more since he’d idolized his older brother. The ruin of his parents’ hopes and dreams had hit them hard, but after losing Brian, Micha had actually begun to question the wisdom of copying his brother’s life choices. At least as far as joining the military.

In the midst of all this grief and uncertainty, Micha’s parents had asked him to give up all his dreams and essentially become Brian.

The things his father had said to him when he refused were the kinds of words that could never be taken back. And to this day, so many years later, Micha had not forgotten them.

But there were other times Micha could remember. The county fair, prize calves and the carnival rides after. Every year without fail, his father had taken his boys and let them ride every ride, eat as much cotton candy and as many hot dogs as they wanted, until they’d gotten so tired they’d fallen asleep in the truck on the way back home to the farm.

When Micha had gone on his first date with pretty Sally Fromm from town, his father had sat Micha down and had the talk with him. He’d slung his work-roughened hand around Micha’s shoulders and they’d talked and laughed and Micha had gone away feeling good about what it meant to be a Harrison man.

Memories came rushing back, one after the other, and to his surprise Micha felt tears pricking at the back of his eyelids.

The events of the last two years—being captured, the helicopter crash, the burns, almost dying and the long slow climb back to recovery. He hadn’t dared to even hope for Carly’s forgiveness, or to once again have her love.