I was scared. There wasn't any other word for how I felt, and it was pissing me off.

It was nearly noon, and I was standing in the crisp fall air outside the entrance to St. Francis. Bobby was inside, springing Casey from her mandatory stay. Since I'm a representative of Rangeman, I probably could have gone inside with him, but I was too chicken shit to go in with him.

"What's wrong with you?" he'd asked, his brow furrowed with concern.

I shook my head. "I don't know. I'm feeling anxious and antsy."

He glanced at the building then back to me. "Why don't you stay out here and get your shit together?"

I was nodding in agreement before he'd finished his question. "That's a good idea."

He turned to go into the building, stopped, then turned back and placed a hand on my shoulder. "I know how important this is to you. How important she is to you. It's all going to work out."

My stomach lurched and I fought back a wave of nausea. "I hope so."

For a moment he held my gaze, then gave my shoulder a pat before turning and heading into the building.

That was twenty minutes ago, and my stomach still hadn't settled.

I'm not sure why I'm so nervous about seeing Casey again. It doesn't make any sense. Three days ago, I didn't want to let her go. Two mornings ago, it was everything I could do not to wake Bobby up and make him call the hospital for me. Now, when I'm about to get what I want, I'm feeling jittery and anxious.

Maybe it's the guilt at having to leave her here that's driving my wayward emotions. I'm not sure I could take seeing the disappointment in her eyes from me breaking my promise to her.

Maybe it's the sting of embarrassment from how over the top my behavior has been since finding her on that bridge. The moment I laid eyes on her, it was as if all my military instilled discipline and training went right out the window.

Knowing how ridiculous I'd been acting I'd even braced for the teasing and jokes the guys would aim my way. After all, if it had been one of them, I would have busted their balls in a heartbeat. Amazingly, the razzing never happened. Some of the men said nothing, choosing instead to ignore what happened. Others openly voiced their support for my actions on the bridge, my need to protect Casey and help her get better.

While I'd like to blame my wayward emotions on the high stress of the situation, I knew that was only part of it.

I'm pretty sure that there was only one word which accurately described my feelings for Casey. That word scared the hell out of me. It also made absolutely no sense, considering I barely knew her. I mean, I did learn a lot about her from her letters, but the truth was I still know very little about her to already be this attached.

There's only one person I can think of that would be qualified to give me any solid advice about how I'm feeling. Unfortunately, my cousin wasn't due back from his honeymoon for a few more days.

Forcing myself to stop pacing, I leaned against the bumper of the Escalade and folded my arms over my chest. Just as I managed to settle myself, the front doors slid open, and Bobby appeared with Casey next to him. All the emotions I'd been battling to control came flooding back at the sight of her.

She still appeared a bit gaunt, and dark circles still ringed her eyes. Yet none of that detracted from how beautiful she looked in the long sleeve black and yellow, floral maxi dress Ella purchased for her. Instead of wearing the white jacket I'd bought her, she was wearing my Rangeman jacket I'd wrapped around her back on the bridge. Bobby carried her battered backpack and the coat I'd bought her.

Her steps slowed as she spotted me. "Hi," she said as she stopped in front of me.

"Hi," I replied. In this moment, I felt very much like the awkward and gangly pre-teen I was in middle school. Back then I'd developed a healthy appreciation for girls but had no idea how to talk to them. "I'm so sorry I couldn't visit," I finally managed to say. "Hospital rules forbade it."

She gave an almost imperceptible shrug. "That's okay. I probably wouldn't have been good company anyway."

"I doubt that," I argued.

"Let's get her back to Haywood and settled in," Bobby said. He opened the back door to the Escalade and helped Casey inside, then closed the door and turned back to me with his hand out. "Keys."

Being my best friend, he could read me better than just about anyone else. He knew my thoughts were scattered right now. Which meant I had no business behind the wheel.

I handed the keys over without argument. Fighting the need to crawl into the back with her, I opened the passenger door and slid into the seat. What she needed right now was some space to get acclimated to this change.

Bobby started the vehicle and we pulled away from the hospital. I shifted in my seat and looked over my shoulder at her. "Are you hungry?"

She shook her head. "They fed me lunch before I left but thank you for asking."

The balance of the short drive back to Haywood was completed in an awkward silence. There were so many things I wanted to say to her, so many feelings I wanted to share, but it was all too soon. She was still in such a fragile state, the last thing I wanted to do was put any pressure on her.

Bobby pulled into the garage and parked. A few seconds later I helped Casey from the back of the Escalade. She paused and looked up at the building. "You live here?" she asked as she glanced from me to Bobby and back.

I grinned at her confused expression. "We live and work here. We're part owners in the business."

"Oh. Wow. Okay," she said as she stared at the building. "I guess I shouldn't have assumed it closed," she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper.

I frowned at her statement. What exactly did that mean? Before I could ask her, she pressed on with another question. "So, does that mean that there are a lot of people here?"

Well shit. I'm not sure any of us considered her reaction to being inside a building mostly filled with men. "The short answer is yes," I said. "The longer answer is most of them are men, but you'll be staying in my apartment on a floor separate from most of the men who work here."

She visibly stiffened at my yes, then slowly relaxed as I continued to talk. "Does Stephanie live here?" She asked and my grin returned. Having Steph here would certainly be a big help in making Casey feel more comfortable.

"She does. She lives on the top floor with her husband, Ranger. Right now, they're away celebrating their delayed honeymoon."

"They got married?" she asked, even as her eyes brightened with excitement. In an instant, my entire body warmed at the sight of her happiness, and I relaxed a little myself. Oh, how I wanted to see that look on her face all the time. "I remember her introducing him as her fiancé when she saved me," she said.

"They got married just a couple of weeks later, but Steph was in a really bad car accident not long after."

"We almost lost her," Bobby added. "It was touch and go for a bit."

"Oh my. That's terrible," Casey said as I punched in the code on the keypad and opened the door for her.

"She's still kinda recovering, but she was finally well enough that last month Ranger took her away for their honeymoon," I said.

"When are they due back?" she asked.

"Toward the end of next week," Bobby replied. "I'm sure she'll be thrilled to see you."

Casey nodded as I ushered her into the elevator. "I'm excited to see her too. She'd given me her business card. When I returned to Trenton, I tried to call her, but her number wasn't in service anymore. There wasn't an address on the card. Just her phone number. So, I assumed the business had closed and she'd moved on."

Well, that answered one of my questions and pissed me off at the same time. I remember the discussion with Ranger about having the building's address printed on the cards. He'd insisted that for safety reasons it was a bad idea. Since he holds controlling shares in the company and he had Tank's support, I'd been outvoted. That decision could have cost Casey her life. All because she couldn't find the building.

"There was an issue that came up which required us to change Stephanie's phone number," I said even as I fought to push down my anger. It was done and over. I couldn't change what happened. I could only fix the future.

I paused as another question popped into my head. "Casey. When you got back to Trenton, why didn't you try to contact me again?"

"The return address on your letters was a PO Box," she replied. "Plus, with all the moving around I did, I lost a couple of your letters. I didn't realize they were gone until I went back through them to try and find the phone number I knew you'd given me."

I'd explained in one of my early letters to her how the PO Box was a Rangeman mandate. While the cost of the apartment and utilities was covered by Rangeman, the core team decided it would be best to keep personal correspondence from entering the building. Thus, the need for PO Boxes.

"I probably never actually gave you the address for Rangeman either, did I?"

She shook her head making me feel like a total piece of shit. Was it possible some of her suffering could have been avoided if I'd only thought to give her Rangeman's address or phone number as a backup in case she needed to get ahold of me? Guilt welled inside. Part of what happened to her was my fault.

"Honey, I'm so sorry," I said. "Maybe if I had, you could have sought me out before you reached the point of desperation."

She reached out to take my hand in hers. "Don't blame yourself, Lester. Even if you had, it's entirely possible I might have ended up losing that letter too."

Before I could think of a reply, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. We stepped onto Six and walked down the hall to my apartment.

Bobby placed a hand on Casey's shoulder. "I'm going to leave you in Lester's capable hands." He motioned with his other hand to the door on down the hall. "That's my apartment. If you need anything, I'm just down the hall."

"Thank you, Bobby," she replied.

We waited until he continued on to his apartment. Then, I punched in the entrance code for my apartment and pushed open the door. "Welcome home," I said as she passed by me into the apartment.

Her attention shifted from the foyer to the kitchen. Thanks to the open floor plan I'd chosen, she was able to see directly into the living room. "You have a very nice place," she said. She turned to look back at me. "Are you sure I won't be a burden?"

"Absolutely not," I replied, then motioned for her to follow me as I opened her bedroom door. "My place has two bedrooms. This one is for you."

She stepped through the open door and gasped. "Lester, this room is beautiful."

"Thank you," I replied, and the tight fist of worry eased just a little more. "I picked out everything myself. Though I did have a little help with the decorating."

She took a small step into the room as her attention drifted from one item to another. "This all looks new." She turned to look at me. "Please tell me you didn't do this just for me."

"Fine, I won't tell you that I did it just for you," I said while I tried to fight the smile working across my face.

Her eyes widened and she shook her head. "Oh no, Lester. This is so much. Too much. Why did you do this?"

I crossed to her and gently took her hands in mine. "Because you deserve to have a real bed to sleep in at night. You deserve to be safe and happy."

She held my gaze for a moment before slowly scanning the room again. "But it's so much."

"You deserve so much more than just this, Precious. You deserve to be happy and have a family who loves you. I hope, that with time, you'll find those things here. With me, in this building."

Her attention shifted back to me and held there. "Thank you for doing this for me, Lester. It's been a long time since I've felt like anyone cared about me."

Her admission caused a new lump to form in my throat. I just didn't understand how anyone could willingly abandon someone so sweet and innocent. "You're welcome," I managed to reply, but my voice cracked with emotion. Damn, I needed to change the subject before I became a blubbering idiot. I motioned to the far door. "Um…that door leads into a small walk-in closet. I asked Ella, to do some shopping for you, so you'd have clothes. They're hanging in the closet. The dresser has your undergarments and pajamas."

She let go of my hand and slowly crossed to where I pointed. Then she opened the closet and looked inside. Her eyes were wide as small plates when she turned to look back at me. "You bought me clothes?"

"As a matter of speaking, yes. I mean I paid for them, but Ella purchased them. If there's anything you don't like or doesn't fit, we can take back and exchange for something else."

"Why would you spend money like that on me?" she asked, and my heart broke just a little more at the confused expression on her face.

"You needed clothes and I wanted to help," I said as a matter of fact.

"I don't know exactly how," she said as she shook her head. "But I'll figure out a way to pay you back for them."

"No, honey." I crossed to her and lifted my hands to cup her face in my palms. "I don't want anything from you, except for you to get better. Okay?"

Her deep emerald gaze bore through me as she held my stare. For several long, tense seconds, the room remained silent until she finally gave a slow nod. "Okay," she said. "Thank you, Lester."

Not able to stop myself I leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "You're welcome, Precious." Then I pulled her into a hug. God, it felt so good to hold her again. Even more so since we were no longer in a life-and-death situation. After a moment, I pulled back and motioned back toward the hallway. "Let me show you the bathroom."