“Me too,” he said. “But don’t be sorry. Just sleep, love.”
Gratitude filled me then, driving out some of the awfulness of the night. For this boy who was here, and so effortlessly good, and more noble than I think even he knew.
I tried to tell him, but sleep pulled me under. But it was okay because I knew I was safe.
More importantly, I knew Dash was too.
***
I woke sometime in the night, no sense of time, only conscious that the storm had slunk away like a wounded beast. The night was finally quiet outside my window. I sat up slowly, my head feeling heavy and achy.
It was a bad dream, that’s all. Just a bad dream…
“Right?”
I winced. My throat was raw, and there was a mug of tea on my nightstand that Orion had made me, because it wasn’t a dream at all but a living nightmare. I groaned, wanting to sink back under the covers. Humiliation infested me like a fever. God, he’d seen it all. This shitty house, the leaky roof, me completely broken down…
More shame found me because I’d abandoned Dash to my own despair. Failed him when he needed me most. I tossed off the covers and hurried to his room and then sagged in the door. Dash was safe in his bed, fast asleep. Orion was on the floor beside him, his head pillowed on his tuxedo jacket.
He stayed.
He’d stayed with Dash. Stood guard like a knight in a fairy tale until the dragon had gone. My chest tightened with an ache so fierce and so strong, it stole my breath. And despite the outright shitty-ness of the night, my skin burned with heat, my stomach heavy with a different kind of ache.
I crept into the room and gently touched Orion on the shoulder. He stirred and woke. By the light of Dash’sFinding Nemonightlight,I put my finger to my mouth and motioned for him to follow me out.
In the hallway, I closed Dash’s door and led Orion to my room.
“Should I go?” he whispered. “Or I can sleep on the couch…?”
“God, no,” I whispered back. The couch was my mother’s bed. “It’s two in the morning. You can sleep here. If you want. Unless…you want to go?”
Of course he does. He probably can’t wait to get out of this leaky hellhole…
“I’d rather stay,” Orion said. “If you’re okay with that.”
“Oh. Yes. I’m okay with that.”
I led him back to my room, shut the door behind us, and turned on the desk lamp. It cast a small warm light. Orion cocked his head from side to side, stretching out a crick in his neck. His bow tie was long gone, the top buttons of his white dress shirt undone, and the shirt itself wrinkled. He slung his equally wrinkled jacket over his shoulder.
“So,” he said quietly. The air between us heavy and thick. “Do you mind if I get out of this suit?”
“No, of course not,” I said. “Go ahead. I’ll just…”
I climbed into bed on one far side of the full-size bed that was always plenty big enough for just me but now felt small. Narrow. Hardly any space at all. I kept my back to him as Orion stripped out of his tux, shut off the light, and climbed in. The bed shrunk again, his big, muscular frame swallowing up his side.
Once he was under the covers, I rolled onto my back. He did the same, and we both stared at the ceiling in silence. I was acutely conscious of his presence, my entire left side humming at the close proximity to his right. A tingling at the nearness, the almost-touching. His arm brushed mine when he shifted, sending little sparks up and down my skin.
“Sorry,” he said.
“No worries.”
A silence fell, heated and full of electricity. I thought I’d be emotionally wasted and wrung out, but my heart was pounding, andevery nerve ending in my body was wide awake and clamoring to be touched.
“I can’t thank you enough for tonight,” I said, my voice still rough. “For what you did for Dash, especially. He loves you.”
“It was nothing,” Orion said. His voice also rough, though he hadn’t been screaming all night. “He’s a great kid.”
“Yeah, he is.”
