“You said in your note that you wouldn’t have chosen Julian, and that I would know why,” he said as he carefully spaced out his words so as not to get ahead of himself. “Do you remember that part?”

“Yes,” I answered. “I remember.”

“I want to know why.”

I looked up at him, with our faces so close together that our noses nearly touched. My lips parted and I tried to breathe as our chests heaved with the burden of holding in too many emotions. We stared into each other’s eyes as the moment hung in the air with pregnant anticipation.

“You already know,” I said in a volume that was just barely above a whisper.

His eyes danced between mine. “Tell me.”

The slow breath behind Michael’s two words brushed against my lips. My heart was beating wildly out of control.

“Because I choose you,” I whispered.

There, the words were out. I’d said it and I’d made my choice. I think that we both already knew it; it had always been there since the beginning. It had been there since the moment on the rooftop where Michael grabbed me in a movement that I thought was hate but was quickly revealed to be something else. It had been there since the night in the greenhouse. It had been there since the minute we saw each other when Adam brought me into their apartment at Lineage. It was always going to end up being me and Michael. Even though we both knew it, there was something powerful behind saying it aloud.

“I choose you too,” Michael whispered back as his mouth hovered just above mine. “I know that might not mean the same thing, but I want you to know that even if you were just one star in a sky of thousands, that I would always only choose you.”

It did mean something that he said that; it meant everything.

I tilted my head up to kiss him and he gently pushed his tongue between my lips as he reached his hand to hold the side of my face. That kiss, whether it was in a hospital bed or on vast mountainside beneath a starry sky, was everything that I could ever want. Everything I could have ever needed from someone. And the next set of words dripped effortlessly from my lips, like morning dew off a blade of grass.

“I love you,” I said when our lips slowly pulled apart.

Michael tilted his head downward so that our foreheads rested against each other.

“I love you too,” he said. “Lisette, please don’t ever leave like that again. No matter what happens. Promise me.”

“I won’t,” I said. “I promise.”

We snuggled up against the extremely uncomfortable hard plastic headboard of the hospital bed. Our twobodies barely fit on the narrow mattress, but it didn’t matter; we would have been squeezed together regardless, simply because we didn’t want to let each other go. Our shoulders pressed together, and our hands were clasped between us. Even our heads were tilted to touch as we talked about what kind of plan we should have in place for when we arrived in Maine.

“What was the condition for the inheritance money?” Michael asked.

“It’s kind of cryptic,” I said. “Which is why I’m hoping my uncle will be able to explain it more. It has something to do with fulfilling my mother’s legacy in order to lay claim to the inheritance, which is probably why Naomi was so hell-bent on me being headmistress. I’m assuming that this mysterious legacy is the condition being referred to, so Naomi knew that the money wouldn’t be released unless I fulfilled that obligation.”

“But the money would be yours, not hers,” he said.

“Yes, but I’m sure that Naomi thought once I had the money that she could just come and steal it from me. She knows my weaknesses and she would know that money isn’t what matters most to me.”

Michael nodded. “Of course,” he said. “She would bribe you by threatening us in exchange for you handing the money over to her. That’s why you were trying to keep the three of us out of it.”

“Yeah,” I said. “But it doesn’t matter now. You’re here and that’s all that matters. As soon as I can get out of this hospital, you and I can go see Mark and figure out the rest of this mess. And if Naomi is already there, then we’ll deal with her too. I’m sure my uncle has some insight about how to handle her. She is his crazy younger sister after all.”

“It won’t just be us,” Michael reminded me. “Rob and Adam will be here in a few hours. Then we’ll all go together.”

“Even better,” I said. “Five of us against my Aunt Naomi should even the odds out a bit this time. Besides, she’ll be out of her element, so I doubt she’ll be quite as dangerous.”

“You’re not going to be ready to face anyone for a while,” he said. “Even when we get you discharged from here, we’ll likely need to find a place to stay and take care of you until you’re fully recovered.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said stubbornly.

Michael tenderly lifted my arm up from where it had been resting on his lap. There was an IV stuck into the vein that ran down the inside of my elbow.

“See this?” he asked as he pointed at the thin tube running from my arm to a bag of liquid that hung on a hook next to the bed. “This is the reason you think you’re fine. Your veins are being pumped full of pain killers right now and I’m honestly surprised you’re as lucid as you are. When we get out of here, you’re probably going to feel like shit.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said as I laid my head back down on his shoulder to rest. “Because you’re here now.”

2

In the morning, it wasn’t the nurse who was the first one in the room. When I opened my eyes, I felt groggy (probably from all those pain meds Michael had been talking about) and I tried to rub my eyes but had too many tubes still poking out of my veins to do it comfortably. I didn’t need to be able to see clearly to hear that Rob and Adam were here.

When I finally got my eyes open, I leaned up against Michael’s shoulder in the bed and saw the two of them, standing eagerly at the bedside and looking exceedingly worried. Adam reached right over and gave me a hug.

“Careful,” Michael scolded him. “She’s got IV’s and things poking out and attached to her all over.”

“I am being careful,” Adam said to Michael before he turned his face back to me and gave me a small kiss on the forehead.

I could feel Michael’s shoulder muscles tighten behind my head. I don’t think he liked the fact that Adam was trying to hold onto me, too. Rob walked up and gave me a kiss on the top of my head but didn’t try to hug me since I looked like a mess of tangled cords.

“How are you feeling?” Rob asked.

“Okay,” I said, but the head nod that I gave caused me to wince, and I knew they all saw it.

Still, it was an honest answer. Kind of, at least.

Last night I was feeling great; high on pain meds and high on the proclamations of love between Michael and me. Today I simply felt okay. Michael was right; I wasn’t quite as “healed” as I thought I was. Regardless, though, I still wanted to get the hell out of here, and we needed to get going so that I could get back on track to Maine.

As if he could read my mind, Michael carefully slid his arm out from under me. “I’m going to go find the nurse and see when we can get you out of here,” he said.

I smiled at him, and our eyes lingered on each other longer than usual. I wasn’t ready to tell Adam and Rob about making my choice yet. For now, I just wanted things to stay the way they were so that we could focus on taking care of the inheritance and Naomi. Once things settled down, I would talk to the guys about Michael and me.

Besides, I chose Michael as the man I wanted to be with forever, but that didn’t mean that I still couldn’t be with them all for right now.

“You really scared us,” Adam said as he sat down in a chair next to the bed.

He looked exhausted like he hadn’t slept in days. Actually, they both looked like that. And it made me sick to my stomach.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have left the way that I did. It was stupid and I won’t do it again.”

Rob laughed and I wondered what was so funny.

“It looks like Michael already gave you a lecture about it, huh?” he asked.

I giggled, but even the hopping of my shoulders along with those giggles ached my body.