“I’ve never seen you like this, Dahlia.” He put his hand over hers to calm her. “Lily has waited and waited to meet you. She was going to come to us, and she would have, but you said you wanted to come back here, to see what you could remember.” He kept his voice very soothing.
“I know. I just never thought I’d feel this way.” She caught at his fingers and squeezed hard. “I can barely breathe.”
Dahlia looked around her at the lush grounds with rolling lawns and flowers of every color rioting for space. She had believed she would remember the house, the grounds, yet she didn’t remember any of it. She could only sit, trembling, waiting to see Lily. Waiting to believe Lily was real and not a figment of her childhood imagination, born out of desperation and need for one person to love her in her life. If Lily rejected her, turned away from her, Dahlia wasn’t certain she would survive it.
As the car moved up the long drive, she could see a woman standing on the steps of the huge, sprawling mansion. The house belonged in Europe with its enormous design and many wings. Dahlia watched as the woman shaded her eyes and clutched at the man standing close to her. He put his arm around her.
“That’s Lily, isn’t it?” Lily. She was beautiful and very real. Dahlia hardly recognized her own voice. She held Nicolas’s hand tighter.
“Yes, with her husband, Ryland.” Nicolas wanted to gather Dahlia in his arms and hold her to him. She was trembling with excitement, gripping his hand and he could see her pulse pounding frantically in her neck. She was very pale, her eyes enormous, almost too big for her face. “Dahlia, my love, she’ll love you. How could she not?” Dahlia still didn’t believe herself lovable. He could see the hesitation in her gaze every time she looked at him. Her confidence in their relationship had grown over the two weeks he’d kept her to himself at his home, but coming to Lily’s house had shaken her.
He stopped the car, barely getting it in park before Lily rushed down the stairs toward them.
“She’s limping,” Dahlia said.
“An accident, when she was a child,” Nicolas answered. “During an experiment.”
It was the right thing to say to propel Dahlia out of the car and into Lily’s arms. Nicolas slipped from the car and took Ryland’s outstretched hand. Ryland tugged and gave him a warrior’s embrace, releasing him abruptly.
“She’s been on pins and needles all morning,” Ryland reported. “I’ve never seen her like this. She even gave the staff orders left and right. That’s never done.”
“Dahlia’s the same. I didn’t think we’d make it here. She’s a bundle of nerves. She’s very afraid she might hurt someone or at the least, start a fire.”
“Believe me, Lily could care less. I think Dahlia’s like a long-lost sister to her.”
“Dahlia feels the same way,” Nicolas said. “Any news on Trevor Billings? Has the NCIS finished their investigation? The admiral came out a couple of weeks ago, but we haven’t heard since.”
Ryland shook his head. “Not completely. Billings has been arrested, and, of course, banned from Lombard Inc. Lombard is denying any knowledge of the things he was doing and they’re still investigating. Their lawyers dropped him like a hot potato. They want the company to come out of this squeaky-clean.”
“It’s possible they didn’t know anything at all about what he was doing,” Nicolas pointed out.
“Possible, but not probable that someone at the top didn’t have a clue,” Ryland said. “In any case, it isn’t our problem.” He put his arm around Lily, a signal for an introduction.
Lily pulled herself out of Dahlia’s arms, tears running down her face. “Dahlia, this is my husband, Ryland Miller. He’s a GhostWalker as well.”
Ryland ignored Dahlia’s outstretched hand and pulled her into his arms, giving her a hard, welcoming hug, completely ignoring her slight hesitation. “It’s great to finally meet the woman who conquered Nicolas.”
That made Dahlia laugh. “Is that what I’ve done?”
“He says so,” Ryland said, gently wiping the tears from Lily’s face and leaning in to kiss the corner of her mouth.