Looking back over my shoulder, I said, “But my car is here.”
“I’ll have one of the guys drive it out to your place.”
I had no energy left to argue with Hunter, so I simply stayed quiet. I let him help me into his truck. He shut the door, and I dropped my head back against the headrest. He pulled out his phone and started to talk to someone as he rounded the front of the truck and got in.
“Thanks, Kyle. I appreciate it.” Turning, he looked at me while he ended the call. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to swing by and pick up Jack.”
“I don’t mind at all,” I said, feeling like it took every ounce of energy I had to speak. A part of me wanted to argue with him. Demand he let me go. I needed to think. To process everything…but at the same time, being with him made me feel so calm.
Knowing Hunter had never stopped loving me both thrilled me and…well…left me feeling exhausted. So tired. Like I could sleep for an entire year.
He started up his truck and pulled out onto Main. I closed my eyes and gave up the fight as the truck caused my body to slightly sway, and I drifted off to sleep.
All I could feel was warmth surrounding me. It was the first time I could remember feeling like this in a long time. Slowly, I opened my eyes to see I was on my sofa. Hunter was sitting at the end, and I was snuggled up next to him with my head on his lap. On the other end was Jack, his head laying on my leg. They were both sound asleep.
Smiling, I snuggled more into Hunter and closed my eyes. I was still so tired, and if I could just get a few more minutes of sleep, I knew I would feel so much better.
I must have drifted off into a deeper sleep…because the darkness quickly surrounded me as the memory came back.
An evil smile spread across his face as he leaned in and placed his mouth next to my ear. I could hardly hear what he said, I was crying so hard.
“What would your boyfriend say if he could see you now, princess?”
The sound of a dog barking pulled me back from the nightmare. I sat up and screamed, only to have Jack crawl into my lap and start licking my face like crazy.
“Bella, what’s wrong?”
I looked up to see Hunter standing in front of me, a look of worry on his face.
Glancing around, confused, I asked, “What…what happened?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I got up to use the bathroom, and the next thing I heard was Jack growling and then you screaming. Jack, off of her.”
Jack refused to move from my lap, so Hunter used a stronger voice.
“Jack. Off.”
He still didn’t move.
I wrapped my arms around the dog. “No, he didn’t do anything wrong. He…he woke me up from a bad dream.”
Hunter’s brows drew in ever so slightly. “What kind of bad dream?”
I looked down at the large dog on my lap and realized I was stroking him. He licked me again, and for the first time in nearly ten years, one of my nightmares didn’t leave me nearly paralyzed from fear.
I kissed Jack on the head. “It doesn’t matter. Jack stopped it. He woke me up.”
Hunter knelt down and gave Jack a good scratching and spoke in a higher-pitched voice. “Good boy, that’s a good boy. You watching out for our girl, huh?”
Jack’s tail thumped against the sofa as I looked at Hunter. My chest squeezed with the strange sensation of two very different mixed emotions.
Sadness and utter bliss.
Our girl.
God, how I wanted to be his girl. I just wasn’t sure if Hunter would still feel that way if he knew the truth. If I let him into the darkness that was such a huge part of me, would he stay or would he leave?
I desperately wanted him to make me feel like the old Arabella. The one who was carefree, happy, and so in love with life. So in love with him. The girl who once dreamed of marrying him and having a family. I longed for that life still. I simply wasn’t sure how to get there.
I glanced down at Jack and wondered if the dream had started when Hunter left to go to the bathroom. “The nightmare…I think it only came because you got up.”
Hunter looked from Jack to me. “What do you mean?”
I shook my head and let out a confused laugh. “I don’t think I was dreaming until you left the room. Normally, it feels like the moment I shut my eyes to sleep, the nightmares start.”
Hunter frowned deeply. “Normally? You get them often?”
I nodded. “All the time.”