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.”
Hunter worked at swallowing as he looked at me.
“It doesn’t matter.” I shook my head. “You holding me while I slept…I think that kept them at bay.”
A sexy smile spread over his face. “Then I should probably stay, so you can get a good night’s sleep. You look exhausted, Bella.”
I shrugged. “I don’t get a whole lot of sleep, to be honest.”
“Because of the nightmares?” he asked with a concerned expression.
When I didn’t answer, Hunter let it go. “Mind if I sit back down?”
“No, I don’t mind at all,” I said, moving so he could take his seat once again. He wrapped his arm around me, and I couldn’t help but flinch. But I hoped not enough for him to notice.
I settled against his side and focused on my breathing. Slow breaths in, slow breaths out. When I looked at Jack—who was nearly in my lap now—I relaxed even more. He turned and looked at me, tilted his head, and put his paw on my leg.
“I think your dog reads minds.”
Hunter laughed. “He’s pretty damn perceptive.”
I’d say.
“Do you want to watch a movie?” Hunter asked.
Nodding, I yawned. Goodness, being together like this felt so right. Like it had only been yesterday that we were sitting on the sofa together and watching movies. “Yes. What do you want to watch?”
Hunter flipped through my Amazon movies and stopped on one. I laughed.
He hit play, and the familiar sound of a bird singing and then a piano tune filled my small living room as Pride and Prejudice started.
“How many times have you seen this movie, Hunter?” I asked, pulling a blanket from behind me and putting it over the three of us.
“Not as many as Kyle, I can tell you that.”
Smiling, I let myself totally relax as the movie started. I was impressed my eyes didn’t start to close until we were about halfway through the movie.
Hunter ran his fingers lightly over my arm and whispered, “Go to sleep, sweetheart. I’m not leaving, I promise you.”
The soothing sound of his voice nearly lulled me right to sleep. A part of me thought for sure I was already dreaming. Hunter wasn’t really there with me. I didn’t really feel so happy or safe in his arms.
My eyes closed, and I drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Hunter kept his promise. I woke up on the sofa, still in his arms, with Jack on the floor looking up at us. One quick glance at the dark house told me it had to be past six in the evening.
I moved slightly, and Hunter let out a soft groan and wrapped his arms around me tighter. I thought it would cause me to panic, but it didn’t. This was Hunter. The man I had been in love with for as long as I could remember. The feel of him holding me didn’t cause my chest to tighten with anxiety; instead, it gave me the slightest bit of hope.
He was the light at the end of a very dark tunnel…one I might finally be emerging from.
Jack sat up and let out a soft bark.
I carefully slipped out of Hunter’s arms and stood. Jack jumped up and looked at the front door.
“Come on, boy,” I whispered, motioning for him to follow me through the small cabin and to the door out back. That way we wouldn’t wake up Hunter. I turned on the kitchen light and then the back lights. My father had put in a security system not long after I’d moved permanently into the small cabin. I swore the lights back here lit up the area at least a mile out.
I grabbed a shawl that was hanging on a hook and opened the door and stepped onto the small back porch. A light snow was falling, and Jack practically jumped the steps and ran out into the yard as I stood and waited for him.
He ran this way and that. Sniffed, turned in a circle, took off running in another direction, sniffed some more, then finally went to the bathroom. I giggled and watched as he pranced back to me like a puppy, and not a big bad police dog.
“Do you think I can talk Hunter into letting you move in with me?” I asked as Jack ran past me and into the kitchen. He turned and gave another soft bark, almost knowing he needed to be quiet or he’d wake up his dad. “Yeah, I don’t think he’d give you up either.”
I opened the refrigerator and stared into it. “Well, I don’t have a dog, so I don’t have dog food for your dinner. I could scramble you up some eggs.”
Turning, I looked down at Jack. He tilted his head and gave me the sweetest look. Those big brown eyes held so much love, I could see why Hunter cared so much for him. I was already madly in love.
“With bacon?”
He barked, and I laughed.
“Bacon and scrambled eggs it is. I’ll ask your dad what kind of dog food you eat so I can keep some here.”
I got to work making our breakfast dinner and moved around the kitchen feeling light on my feet. It was the first time in a very long time I’d felt such a sense of peace, and I knew it was because of the man sleeping on my sofa and the dog at my feet.
Jack sat right near where the bacon was cooking and kept sniffing the air. He certainly had a good nose for smell. Willa had mentioned Jack was a tracking dog—dogs and missing persons—so it was no wonder he was so focused on the bacon.