Page 135 of Split You Open

Ledger hesitates for a second before grabbing the coffee table to shove it out of the way. Just as he finishes up, Rhett appears with his mattress and blankets in-tow.

Both Ledger and I watch as Wes and Rhett plop their beds down onto the floor in the middle of the room before pushing them close together.

“Good lord, it’s like a pillow fort,” Ledger mutters as he watches quietly.

“Not like, it is a pillow fort,” I correct with a wide grin.

With everyone down here and getting ready for bed, I know my time working is over for the evening. I shut my laptop, place it to the side, and gently lift Blair’s legs off mine so I can stand. Wes steps around Ledger and scoops up Blair in his arms. She stirs with an annoyed little groan.

“What’s going on?” she mutters without opening her eyes.

“We’re going to bed,” he tells her. “I wanted to hold you tonight but Rhett demanded it was his turn. I disagreed. Before we could come to blows, we decided we’re doing another group night.”

Blair hums, the sound more content than before but otherwise remains quiet as Wes lowers them both down into the middle of the squishy looking pile.

“I’m not sleeping like this,” Ledger huffs with a shake of his head.

“You weren’t invited into the fray anyway,” Rhett points out as I move toward him.

Blair growls as she begins to burrow under the covers. “Ledger is welcome to join us if he wants.”

With that, she vanishes beneath Wes’s duvet.

What the hell? Since when did the tension between them disperse? Wes, Rhett, and I all exchange surprised looks with one another. Clearly, they didn’t know about this either. We all look to Ledger next. He shoots us a smug smile. Well, shit, this is new.

And a relief.

I’m tired of holding a grudge against someone I can’t kill. Maybe now we can actually all move on and focus on this Dixie asshole.

“I’ll sleep on the couch,” he mutters before pulling off his shirt.

I sink onto the mattress behind Rhett and scoot close so that I can wrap myself around him. Lifting my head, I call out to Ledger, “Flip off the light!”

Ledger grunts before he reaches over and turns off the lamp. Everyone settles in, shifting and pulling covers over them until they’re comfortable. With my face pressed against Rhett’s back, I can feel sleep reaching out to pull me under. I’m more tired than I originally thought.

Just as I’m about to fall asleep, I hear whispering.

“You okay?” I hear Blair ask softly, her voice thick with sleep.

Wes hums. “I am now.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Our conversation earlier stirred up some… old memories,” Wes admits, speaking quietly.

Being nosy, I strain to hear what’s being said.

“About what?”

“You know my daughter drowned,” Wes replies grimly. “Hearing that Anchor could do that to his own daughter, it shook me. I can’t stop seeing images of my daughter on the autopsy table. Then, as I tried to sleep, her face was replaced with yours and I just…” Wes’s voice trails off as his breath hitches.

I freeze, surprised by this. I knew Wes had a family that had passed away, but I never learned how it happened.

“I’m sorry, Wes,” Blair whispers back. “No one should have brought it up. I didn’t even consider the parallels between what happened to me and what happened to your daughter.”

“It shouldn’t have happened to you in the first place,” Wes hisses. “What parent does that to their own child?”

“Not a normal one,” Rhett murmurs, clearly eavesdropping too.