The Rescuer's MC Bk 6

Chapter 3 - Dot's memories of her sister

Ace walked back down the hall slowly. He secretly hoped that Dot would change her mind and call him back before he went upstairs to bed but when he hit the living room, he knew it wasn't going to happen.

He wasn't really ready for bed but it was too cold to go outside so he walked into the dining room and looked out the french doors. He just didn't feel like socializing with his brothers tonight. He knew they would tease him for coming back to the bar alone.......again. He feared that one of his brothers might get it into his head that Dot had turned him down and that they might now have a chance with her.

There was enough moonlight tonight for the reflection on the snow that blanketed the ground to make it look like there were lights on outside. It looked so pristine and peaceful while inside of him it felt like someone had set a washing machine in his stomach and turned it on the spin cycle. He was afraid that when Dot gave him her decision that the cycle was going to change and drain the life right out of him.

When Wolf said "What did you do, Ace?" Ace jumped a full six inches off the ground.

"Damn dude. Now I see what Doc means about us walking up on him so quietly. You just scared the piss out of me." Ace said, holding his hand over his heart.

"Sorry. So what has you standing in the dark looking out at the moonlight? Let me guess. You asked Dot to be your ole' lady and she told you she needs time to think before she hands you her heart?" Wolf guessed correctly.

Ace nodded and then asked "Wolf, when you met Hope, how did you know she was the one for you?"

"Well, my situation is a bit different than yours. Hope was on the run from some hunters that she thought had killed her brother. When I first saw her standing on the ground at the end of my porch, all I could see of her was from the waist up. Her hair was a mess with little twigs and bits of leaves sticking out of it from sleeping in hollow logs and running through the bushes. She had dark circles under her eyes and dirt on her face along with a look that told me she was terrified but I don't think I've ever even seen such a beautiful woman in all of my life.

I felt like I had been running in the dark for a long time because my heart was racing and seeing her felt like I had just caught a solid branch about chest high or had stepped in front of a speeding train but it didn't hurt. Anyway, I just knew she was innocent and a few years younger than me but somehow the age difference didn't matter to me but her innocence did. I wanted so badly to take her to my bed but I wasn't sure how she felt about me.

When it was time for bed, it was all I could do to keep my hands to myself and let her go sleep in my old room while I went to sleep in my parents room. A couple of hours later, she woke me up with night terrors and I nearly broke my ankle trying to get to her thinking that there might have been a fourth hunter she hadn't seen that had managed to get in the cabin.

I found her sitting in the middle of the bed with her face soaked with tears. I sat down and she climbed into my lap and just cried until there were no tears left. We ended up staying up all night, talking until the sun came up.

The next morning, my friend Nate came and told us that they had found out her brother was alive and in the hospital. We raced down there and it turned out some other hikers had found him right after he had been shot and took him to the hospital.

Long story short, we talked a lot and told each other how we were feeling before I took her to bed. We both knew that we wanted the lifetime commitment that this lifestyle demands. I held nothing back, answered all of her questions as best I could and then prayed like a priest that she was going to tell me she felt the same as I did and wanted to be mine.