Missing by Francine Pascal

Couldn’t he see the immensity of the situation?
    â€œEd,” she said. “You just said to me that if there was anything you could do, you’d do it.”
    â€œI know, but—”
    â€œDon’t you understand? There is something you can do.” Heather drew in her breath and forced a smile. “Besides, when did you turn into the world’s most upstanding citizen?” She was trying to joke with him, but her words ended up sounding stiff, tense. “When did you start caring about the New York court system, for God’s sake? Don’t you remember how you used to feel about the cops when they’d mess with you just because you had scruffy hair and a skateboard?”
    â€œWell, yeah,” Ed admitted with a fleeting smile.
    Good. A smile is good. Now just be honest with him.
    â€œEd,” Heather said gently, taking both of his hands. “You have the power to help my whole family. And besides, you
deserve
that money after what you’ve beenthrough, whether you ever walk again or not. And who in their right mind just waves bye-bye to a totally deserved twenty-six million dollars?”
    Ed shook his head, but now he was laughing. He bit his lip and looked very seriously into Heather’s eyes. Heather looked back with all the love that was in her heart. Maybe, just maybe, she was beginning to make sense to him.
    Â 
    I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M ACTUALLY EVEN
considering this.
    Too Much Chair Jumping
    Ed stared into Heather’s eyes. Those beautiful, wicked, anguished, sexy blue eyes. The eyes that had brought him so much joy and so much misery. The eyes that wiped the past clean. The eyes that promised a future of happiness.
    And she had a point. All he’d have to do was delay his recovery just a few weeks while they worked on securing that settlement. And in doing so, he’d be saving not only the woman he loved, but the entire family of the woman he loved. He’d be doing something good. Something positive.
    Besides, the family who had done this to him
did
deserve to pay for the damage they had wrought. Didn’t they?
    Deep down, he loved that Heather trusted him enough to expose such weakness to him. It proved that their relationship was stronger than ever. And he loved that he had something that could give her back her strength and bring her such instant happiness. But mostly Ed loved that he had the chance to be a hero. And how often did a guy really have the chance to be someone else’s hero? Especially a guy in a wheelchair? Certain friends of Ed’s could never see him as the hero— certain blond, beautiful, badass friends (who would remain nameless) were such heroes in their own right that they never gave Ed the
chance
to be truly heroic.
    But not Heather. She needed him. He was her savior. He placed his hands on Heather’s face and drew her to him. He brought his lips to hers. Heather dropped her shoulders and leaned back her head, surrendering to him.
    Finally he pulled away.
    â€œI’ll do it,” he said.
    Heather leaped up and threw her arms around him. He could feel her chest heaving. He could feel her wet tears against his cheek.
    â€œThank you,” she whispered. “I love you, Ed.”
    â€œI love you, too,” he said, his nose and lips nestled in her silky hair. As gently as he could, he maneuvered herback into her seat. Suddenly he realized he was exhausted. There had been far too much drama tonight, far too much chair jumping. It was time to chill.
    â€œHey—are you hungry?” he asked.
    She giggled. “Starving.”
    He breathed a sigh of relief and picked up the menu for the third time. Well. Now they could actually settle down and—
    â€œSo you can’t tell anyone, Ed,” Heather stated.
    Ed looked up. “Huh?”
    â€œNo matter how much feeling you might—I mean you do
—
gain in your legs, you can’t tell a soul. You and I are the only ones who