Oh, how she loved him, this incredible man, so much more of a man than Kurt could have ever hoped to be. Please, please, please, let Bo be all right so she would have the chance to reassure him she wouldn't leave him as so many had done before.
Blood trickled down his arm. "Are you okay?"
Gasping, she choked back a mix of laughter and sobs. "I'm fine. Kirstie's fine. I love you.
But ohmigod, are you all right? I love you so much. You need to sit down."
He swayed under her hands. "I think maybe you're right about sitting down. And hold that other thought for later because we have some talking to do, lady."
She totally agreed.
Sirens wailed in the distance finally. Bo's cell phone apparently having done its work even though it now melted in flames. He settled back, Kirstie held close. Paige kept her gun steady while she stood firmly planted by Bo's side.
Exactly where she intended to stay.
How long would he have to stay stuck on this damn gurney with a breeze blowing up his hospital gown that left nothing to the imagination?
Bo shifted, winced, paper crackling under him. Son of a bitch, the stitches and IV for antibiotics in his arm hurt.
Once the cops had arrived at Anderson's place, EMS had sped him to a downtown civilian hospital, where a military flight surgeon from the base waited. The bullet had passed through so Doc had only needed to stitch him up with a local anesthetic. He would be transferred to a room soon for observation.
Meanwhile, they could stuff their painkillers until he spoke to Paige.
The battle-ax of a nurse checking his IV antibiotics had sworn Paige was fine. She was next door in another exam room with her daughter—who was also fine, the nurse had rushed to assure him while shoving him back down onto the gurney before he could go find them.
The cop cars—five of North Dakota's finest, had arrested and hauled away Rusty and Eddie. Anderson had made his trip out in an ambulance, but all three were alive to spill their guts. Eddie seemed especially eager to cut a deal—fast—before he met his old friend Kurt Haugen's fate in prison. Authorities in Charleston were no doubt already beginning to work their way through the legalities of digging up some poor homeowner's azalea bush.
Bo had already been on the phone with his commander who'd been remarkably restrained in chewing him out for making him send another pilot to baby-sit the plane with Mako.
Now, nothing more held him in North Dakota.
Except two very special people.
A tap sounded on the door before Paige tucked her head around as if his thoughts had called her. "Bo? Are you awake?"
"Totally. Just waiting for you."
And wasn't that the truth? He'd been waiting for this woman for longer than he could remember. He'd certainly waited through dreams of her for a whole year before he'd finally come to claim her, the only woman he would ever want to be Mrs. Rokowsky.
He couldn't wait to hear her repeat the words she'd blurted seconds before the cops arrived.
I love you. A sentiment he returned.
The nurse glanced from one to the other, bustling across the room. "Don't let him walk,"
she ordered before slipping out into the hall.
Paige leaned back against the closed door. "Kirstie's asleep with three cops watching over her. Gotta love the extra attention from the police department around here."
Exhaustion was stamped across her face, his blood still staining her 4-H T-shirt along with a hefty coating of soot from the burning Cessna. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth as if struggling for words.
Let her keep thinking, because he had two words that needed saying, no more waiting.
"Marry me."
Paige's bottom lip slid free from between her teeth, her eyes wide with shock behind her glasses. She blinked fast, then arched away from the door. She tapped his IV pole. "Those must be some incredible drugs you're on there, Captain."
"I'm not on any pain meds. Those are just antibiotics. I told those needle-happy nurses to hold off on the rest until we spoke."