Holding You (Love Wanted in Texas 3)

Colt and the nurse both chuckled. “You really gave your family a scare.” Looking over her shoulder to Colt, she smiled. “And I must say, Miss Reynolds, you’re very lucky to have someone love you as much as this gentleman standing here does.” Glancing back at me, she looked into my eyes. “Not everyone gets a chance at a love like that. Don’t waste a second of it.”

Chewing on my lip, I thought of Colt’s proposal to me. Could I really run off and get married? Did I want a big wedding with the white dress and all the headaches that went along with it? I’d been through two of them already with Alex and Libby.

Smiling bigger, I said, “No ma’am, I don’t intend on wasting any time at all. Isn’t that right, Mr. Mathews?”

Colt’s smile grew bigger as he nodded his head. Yes. There was no wasting any more time. My goal was to get healthy and out of the hospital so I could marry the man whom I loved more than the air I breathed.

THE MOMENT I was wheeled out of the hospital, I insisted on standing up and walking. I felt alive. I’d spent another week in the hospital after I had woken up, and Colt never left my side. Most of the time was spent getting my strength back and that meant countless walks with Colt right there. Not once did he leave, only to get food. I wasn’t sure how Gunner felt about Colt missing so much school, and Colt didn’t mention anything about his conversation this morning with the head football coach at A&M.

Dropping my head back, I let the warm sun shine on my face. “Mmm . . . that feels so good,” I said as I smiled.

Placing his hand on my lower back, Colt kissed my neck and chuckled. “Damn you look sexy as hell right now.”

Grinning, I looked down at his lips. His soft plump lips that were begging for me to kiss them and suck on them. Oh, to have them kiss my body.

“Keep biting on your lip and looking at me like that, Lauren, and we won’t make it to my truck.”

Dropping my mouth open, I let out a moan. My body ached, but not because I had been lying in a hospital bed for over two weeks. I wanted to feel Colt’s skin up against me. His lips trailing soft kisses along my skin. Oh Lord. I was going to go into a full-blown orgasm just thinking about it.

“Lauren, darling are you okay? Your cheeks are so flushed.”

Colt winked as he turned and guided me down the sidewalk to his truck as my mother walked alongside of us. “I am. I feel won

derful, Mom. I guess it’s maybe from just moving about.” I had insisted on walking to Colt’s truck, even though the nurse had stood there and argued with me about it. I finally just stood up and walked a few steps away from the wheelchair. Figuring out I was not going to back down, she gave me a sweet smile and told me to take it easy and slowly build back to what I was doing before getting sick.

Feeling slightly light headed, I was regretting my stubbornness. “Colt?”

It was as if he knew what I was going to say. “Stay here with your mom and dad, I’ll go get my truck.”

Kissing me quickly on the lips, I watched Colt take off jogging toward the parking lot.

Feeling my father walk up next to me, I glanced up at him. Letting out a sigh, he said, “He loves you very much, Lauren.”

Smiling, I nodded my head. “I know he does. I don’t think he ever left the hospital once.”

Letting out a soft chuckle my mother said, “No. He didn’t. Gunner had to force him at one point to go eat.”

Worrying my bottom lip, I wasn’t sure how I wanted to say this without sounding crazy, so I just inhaled a deep breath and blew it out. “He saved my life.”

“What?” my father asked.

Turning to me, my mother asked, “Who did, Lauren?”

Still staring straight out to where Colt ran, I decided I was going to tell my parents what happened to me. “Colt did. I felt him pulling me back.”

My mother’s voice cracked. “Pulling you back? What do you mean?”

Turning to look at her, I felt such a sense of peace. Smiling I said, “I saw Grandpa.”

My mother’s face fell and the color all but drained from it. “What do you mean, Lauren?”

Looking straight ahead, I inhaled a deep breath once again. This time I could smell rain in the air. Glancing up, I smiled when I saw the rain clouds. Oh, how I hoped it would rain. I wanted to sit in the barn and listen to it hit the tin roof. “I think for a few minutes, I might have been . . . gone. I was standing in a really bright room and Grandpa was there. Except, it didn’t feel like I should go with him. I kept hearing Colt; he was calling out for me and his voice sounded so pained. Like he was in agony. Then . . . I felt his warmth and it was like he was calling me back to him and I couldn’t leave.” Letting out a soft chuckle, I turned to my mother. “Grandpa told me to open my eyes. That I needed to go back to Colt.”

With her chin trembling, my mother pulled me to her and cried as my father wrapped both of us up in his arms. “Lauren, I don’t know what we would have done if we had lost you.”

With my father holding us tightly, we cried softly together. I’d never felt so loved before in my life. It was as if I could feel my parents’ love pouring into me. I had to smile because I knew the moment they found out Colt and I were leaving to get married, they were not going to be so loving.

Hearing Colt clear his throat, my father dropped his hold on my mother and me. Kissing me gently on the cheek. “You ready to head home, sweetheart?”