Page 90 of Wicked Games

He rubs my back. “Christ. I’m sorry. Are you feeling okay now?”

I lower the lid and flush the toilet. “A little shaky, but yeah.”

“I’ll get you a washcloth,” he says, getting to his feet.

“Thanks.”

With the cool, damp cloth, he blots the sweat off my face and wipes my mouth, and it feels good against my feverish skin. After we made love, I changed into a pair of pajamas and a pad. I’m not quite over my period yet, and I’m glad I’m not sitting on the bathroom floor naked.

“What time is it?” I ask as he helps me stand up, his strong hand gripping my arm.

“Almost three. Come back to bed. We don’t have to be up for a while yet.”

I crawl in and he curls his body around mine. He needs to do some purging of his own, and while I doze, he tells me stories about Theo growing up. He mentions Brooke in some, but I’m not jealous of her time with him. I’m sorry, so devastatingly sorry, that the woman he loved enough to marry betrayed him all because his best friend happens to be a woman.

“I like her,” I say, referring to Violet.

“She likes you too.” He pauses. “I’m going to ask her to stand up with me at our wedding.”

“That sounds nice. Did she wear a tux when you married Brooke?”

“Yeah. She wanted to.”

“Maybe she’ll mix it up this time. She can wear a dress.”

“Who will stand up with you?”

I wiggle closer into his side. “Hattie would have, but now I’m not sure. Julianne, maybe. She’s been with me through a lot.”

He quiets, and I think he fell asleep, but then he says, “What about Brooke and Vale’s community center?”

I prop up on my elbow. “What about it?”

“Brooke’s gone and Vale will hopefully be in prison soon.”

“There’s no one to run it,” I fill in.

“Yeah.”

“Do you have time for that?” I ask, snuggling back down in bed.

“I can make time.”

“It’s a good idea.” I’m tired, and I barely hear him when he says, “What about you?”

“Hmmm?”

“Can you make time to help out? Would you want to?”

“The minute we met, I gave you my whole life. You tell me.”

He kisses my cheek. “Then you have a little time. Get some sleep.”

“You too.”

Safe in his arms, I slip into a deep sleep free of nightmares.

Sometimes things come together in a way you never would have dreamed, and sometimes, no matter how carefully you plan, things explode, and all you can do is pick up the pieces and hopefully glue them into something better than what you had before.