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She is exhausted.
Having been forced to stay awake for the past day, and then going through one traumatic episode after the other, she was at her limit.
I pull the blanket over us and press my lips to the top of her head.
She doesn’t even move.
In all the time I had known Agatha, I had always felt that we shared a different relationship than she did with the rest of the group. I had never imagined that she would fit into my life like this. Now, I can’t imagine her not by my side.
I can’t see the rest of my life without her by my side.
I stare at the ceiling.
Maybe it’s time to visit the safety deposit box and retrieve the one piece of jewelry that could tie Agatha to my side forever. I know it’s hasty, but my mind has been made up. I can’t let her slip through my fingers.
I love her. When Mom gave me that ring many years ago, I didn’t think that I would be settling down anytime soon. I never met a woman who made me feel the urge to commit. I used to blame part of it on my hectic work schedule.
But maybe that was never the case.
Maybe a part of me always knew it would be Agatha. Every woman I met I would compare to the woman now fast asleep in my arms. From the first time I laid eyes on her and she looked up at me with that haughty expression of hers. Even as a child, she had a way of burrowing herself into people’s hearts.
For the ten-year-old me, she had been my first crush.
Oh, I adored her.
And she has taken full advantage of that. With her glossy golden curls and wide blue eyes, she often had me ditching my friends over the summer holidays and having tea parties with her and Charlotte, her best friend.
I have been shamelessly used and loved every minute of it.
I chuckle, remembering those moments.
Of course, the crush started evaporating once I started dating. But I always had a soft corner for her. Zayn and Fergus had nowhere to go home to over the holidays, and Philip’s parents opened their home to them. And I lived nearby, so we stuck together during breaks.
And then, Fergus’s sister died.
He was inconsolable. And that is when Agatha started hanging around him more, forcing him to play with her or sit with her. Quietly, she eased his pain while we could not do anything but watch his suffering, helplessly, our words useless, our young minds unable to handle the concept of this trauma. But for some reason, Agatha understood what he needed, and she devoted her entire break to fixing Fergus’s broken heart, picking up the shattered pieces one by one and carefully putting them back together.
She is an amazing and complicated person, and I love all these different sides of her. She is snarky and fierce and wildly independent. I can’t believe that she is all mine.
But right now, she is star
ting to look like a shadow of herself.
Thankfully, she has thrown out that weird coat she insisted on wearing outside, but there is a constant worry in her eyes, and she is becoming twitchy. I want this whole thing to be over so that she can relax.
But the day after tomorrow, I plan to get the ring from the bank. The attempt on my life has also told me that life is very short and I don’t want a life without this woman. My heart skips a beat when I recall the way I froze when I saw her smash into the blue car and then spin around to crash into the pole.
For a few scant heartbeats, I’d thought she was dead. It felt like someone had thrust their hand into my chest and shredded my heart into ribbons. Her name was a desperate scream on my lips until she stumbled out of that car, half-naked and bleeding.
I hold her closer to me, and she mumbles something as she stirs awake.
“No, no. Go back to sleep,” I murmur, stroking her hair.
She settles back against me, slipping back into a deep sleep.
I sigh and switch off the light.
I am in the midst of my meeting when I hear the knock on the glass door and look up to see Hastings at the door.
