Page 70 of Summer Affair

“Cuts and bruises. That’s all,” he assured her.

“Still, let’s go get you checked out,” she said quietly, her voice trembling slightly.

Dean nodded, but he didn’t let go of her hand. He wasn’t ready to let go, not after everything they had just been through.

As they made their way back to the main building, the weight of the events finally began to settle in. He felt Andrea shiver as they rode in a golf cart. He wrapped his arm around her and tried to stop his own body from shaking.

It had been close. Too close. He could have lost her. This time, for good.

When they reached the main building, they were informed that both Corey and Kyle were alive—for now. Both of them had been taken away in ambulances.

Dean looked at Andrea, her hand still firmly in his.

“Kyle saved my life,” he said, lacing his fingers with hers. “When I can, I want to go see him at the hospital.”

She nodded and lifted her hand up to touch his cheek. “Then I owe him”—she leaned over and brushed her lips against his—“everything.”

They had faced the unthinkable together, and she’d admitted that she loved him. At that moment, he was flying high. Higher than he’d ever been. Even as the adrenaline from the ordeal faded, his mind and heart soared. He felt like he was floating on air, despite the exhaustion that tugged at his muscles.

Back at the main camp, the chaos from earlier had been replaced with a somber calm. The authorities were swarming the grounds, their voices and the crackle of radios filling the air. Dean was pushed into a chair, handed a glass of water, and bombarded with a million questions, seemingly all at once. His cuts were doused with some sort of goo that stung.

“How did you know the shooter was Jake?”

“How many shots were fired?”

“Were you injured?”

Dean answered each question as best he could, but his mind was elsewhere. Every time he glanced over at Andrea, he felt a surge of emotion that he couldn’t quite put into words.

The fear of losing her had been more intense than anything he’d ever felt, and hearing her say those three words had ignited something in him that he couldn’t ignore.

Eventually, the questioning subsided, and the paramedics finished checking him over. He was sore, cut, bruised, and his throat still ached from where Jake had choked him, but he was otherwise okay. Alive.

He declined the offer to go to the hospital—there were others who needed the attention more than he did. What he needed now was to be with Andrea.

It seemed to take forever. After the police left, everyone chipped in to finish the dinner meal. They had decided to cancel that evening’s full dinner services and offer guests free dinners if they agreed to eat in their own cabins.

Every employee not affected by the night’s events shuffled back and forth delivering meals to the guests.

Issac sat two plates down in front of him and Andrea. They had decided to stick around and wait to hear about their two coworkers, the only ones who had been shot.

Corey had already been released from the hospital with minor wounds and had chatted with everyone on a video call while he lay in bed at home.

Kyle, however, had to have surgery and would need to spend a few nights in the hospital to recover. He’d gotten two bullets, one to his upper hip area that had just grazed his thigh, and the other straight through his foot on the same leg.

“He got shot as we tried to wrestle the gun from Jake after he pointed it directly in my face,” he told everyone.

Still, instead of guilt, Dean felt warmth spread through him, knowing he’d do the same for anyone else here. Kyle loved his job. Loved working with his friends. He was one of the good guys. A Wildflower, like the rest of them.

Hours later, the giant dining room had grown quiet, and Dean realized just how tired he was. He suggested that they head home.

Andrea drove his truck back to her house. The drive was quiet, both of them lost in their thoughts.

The sun was just beginning to set, casting a warm, golden glow over the trees as they pulled into her driveway. He’d believed it was far later than it was. They still had half an hour before full dark. Had this really all taken place in daylight?

It seemed like hours ago, days ago, years ago. God, he was tired.

Andrea shut off the engine and sat there for a moment, staring at the house before she finally turned to him, her expression soft and a little uncertain.