Chapter 49

49

Chantal looked into Hiller hazel eyes and knew this was the way her world was supposed to be. Everything finally made sense now. Funny, that it would be with the one Hiller brother who had unnerved her the most.

But maybe it was because it was him . Something indefinable was between them. Something… more.

Something she wanted to hold close and cherish for the rest of her life.

She pressed her face against his broad chest. “You need to go to the hospital.”

Paramedics were there, speaking with Charlie. Charlie was calling them by name. Charlie was almost relaxed right now. Not worried.

He was watching though, in that particular alert tiger way her big brother always had. A rush of love for him and for Chad, for Chantal and Rory and Charlie’s babies flooded her. Her family. Her world.

But Gene was a part of her world now, too. And she wanted forever. “I won’t settle for less than everything,” she warned.

She and Genny had discussed this Hiller man more in the last few weeks than they had in the six years she and Gene had barely been speaking to each other. She thought she understood some of what drove him.

Some part of him was kept hidden, protected. From the potential heartbreak of loss. Well, she couldn’t live like that. There would always be risks in this world.

That was a fact she lived with every single day. “If we are going to be together, we are going to share a life , Gene Matteo Hiller. And I do mean share. If that isn’t something you are ready for just yet… I’ll wait.”

She couldn’t give him up, not fully. But she would fight for what mattered. And she wanted all of him. She would give him all of her in return. That was the way it was supposed to be.

She waited, breath held. Her eyes met her niece’s, then her sister-in-law’s, then Ronnie’s. They were waiting, too. Everyone was waiting, it seemed. There under the parking lot lights.

As she waited for the most important words of her life.

Finally, after an eternity, it seemed like, they came.

“I promise all of me, Chantal. All of me.”

“No more holding back?”

“No more holding back.”

Then she was being kissed as if her life depended on it.

She didn’t pull back until Charlie pulled her away. “Okay, enough. There is only so much a big brother can take. Get him to the hospital and then take him home. I swear, you have been nothing but trouble from the day you were born.”

“You wouldn’t have me any other way.” Chantal hugged her brother. Then waited while he and George helped Gene into the ambulance. George was going to drive Gene’s truck to the ranch and tell them what had happened.

She was going to get her Hiller taken care of, and then take him home.

Tomorrow, they were going to start forever.

Then again… maybe they’d start forever tonight.

There wasn’t any reason to wait. Forever was so fleeting after all.

KEEP READING FOR A SNEAK PEEK AT GENNY & CHAD’S STORY, COMING DEC. 2024!