Astrid's thumb moved once at the hollow of my collarbone, and I closed my eyes and went under.
CHAPTER 13
Easton
I woke up the next morning, and the breath was still down.
It had a place now.
I didn't move.
Astrid was on her side, facing me, her hand where it had been when I went under. The green dress was still on her. Her hair had come out of the knot at some point in the night. The light was coming in low through the east window, hitting a hole in the curtain where my grandmother had snagged it on a hanger a long time ago. The light came through the hole onto Astrid's hand on my chest.
She had freckles on the bridge of her nose. I'd seen them in daylight. I hadn't seen them like this. She had a small mark at the base of her throat I hadn't registered last night. Her mouth was slightly open. Her breathing was slow and even, going into me through the place where her hand was.
I let myself look at her until she opened her eyes.
She blinked at me, slowly.
The remembering happened in two beats.Where am I?Then.Oh.
She didn't decide on embarrassed.
"Hi."
"Hey."
Her voice came out rough at the edges, half-pillow. "Did you sleep?"
"Yeah."
"All night?"
"All night."
"Good." She closed her eyes and let her cheek go back onto the pillow. The freckles on her nose were the closest thing to me in the room.
I let my hand come up over hers on my chest. She turned her palm up and laced her fingers through mine without opening her eyes.
We lay there.
After a while, she said into the pillow, "I have to feed Moose."
"Yeah. Coffee first."
She made a small sound into the pillow that I took for agreement.
She sat up a minute later. The green dress was a wreck. She looked down at it and made a face.
"You got a shirt I can put on?"
"Top drawer."
She slid out of bed, padded across the floor barefoot, and came back with one of my Hartsdale Fire T-shirts. She pulled it on over the dress, unzipped the dress underneath, and stepped out of it. The dress went on the chair. The shirt hit her at the knees.
She caught me looking.
"What?"
