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The laundry though, there was a lot of it. All the guys had their stuff in here.
Ah, hell with it. I bagged it all. Her stuff and theirs.
Jeremy wouldn’t mind.
Chapter Three
It Gets Worse at Night
Jake
They started out the same way every night—she’d go from sleeping peacefully to beginning to twitch. After the third night in a row, the first tremble of her hand would rouse me. Most of the time, I’d open my eyes, and she’d just be shifting. It was harder when I slept on the floor. So far, only Bubba hadn’t taken a turn sleeping with her, even if we’d all made it clear that it was all right—even Frankie.
That first night, he’d crashed on the sofa, but after that, he made a pallet on the floor in her room. Coop, Archie, and I rotated who slept with her. The bed could fit two of us with her comfortably, and three if we wanted to squeeze.
Since her wrist was still in the splint and she had bruises on her back, face, and arms—fucking asshole—none of us wanted to squeeze. So for one night out of every three, I slept on the floor. The night before, I had, and it had been hard to sleep because I couldn’t tell if she twitched, so I found myself waiting for shifts in her breathing.
I wasn’t the only one. More than once, when I opened my eyes to check on her, I’d find Coop shifting either on the other side or on the floor, we’d both look at her, and if she was still sleeping, we’d go back to sleep.
Tonight, when the twitching started, I rolled onto my side and stared at her. Archie had the other side, but there was a light on in the corner, and when I glanced over, I found Bubba frowning at the bed. He had a notebook open and had been writing something in it. The roses he bought her filled the room with their scent, and she’d smiled so wide at them, the cut on her lip had started to split.
Worth it, even if we had to ice it a little.
Still…I didn’t care that he was awake so much. The light he had on let me make out Frankie’s face. The smallest of frowns tightened between her brows, and her eyes shifted swiftly under the closed lids.
A dream.
But a dream or a nightmare?
The nightmares had been bad. She had them when she was younger, usually after a horror movie—hence why wenevermade her watch horror flicks. Frankie’s imagination didn’t need the help. While she hadn’t really talked about what happened with Mitch, I didn’t doubt that it was worse than a horror movie because it happened to her.
Fucking asshole. If I ever saw him again, a broken jaw would be the least of his problems.
Still, at the first whimper, I pressed my forehead to hers and whispered, “Shhh…” I gripped her left hand carefully, wrapping my fingers around hers so she could squeeze. “It’s okay,” I murmured close to her ear. “You’re safe.”
I felt more than saw Archie wake up, and he wrapped his arm around her, hugging her. That was the other thing we’d discovered. If we caged her in and hugged her close, it seemed to settle her, and the last couple of nights, we’d gotten her out of the nightmare and back to sleep before she woke all the way up.
I hated that panicked look when she’d jerk awake and the fact that she’d be shaking. Worse still, she wouldn’t tell us what was in her nightmares, and I wanted to push her, to make her tell me, because I couldn’t fight what I didn’t know was there. Any other time, that would be exactly how I tackled it.
But I couldn’t do that to her right now. I didn’t want to be the asshole.
No, that title was reserved for that fucking asshole who…
Her eyes flickered open, and Bubba rolled forward to his knees, ready to move. She let out a little sigh, and they drifted closed again as she burrowed.
“Sleep, Baby Girl,” I whispered. “We got you.”
The corner of her mouth tipped, and she squeezed my hand, then her breathing deepened and evened out. I sighed, and Archie lifted his head long enough to press a kiss to the back of hers. We shared a look, and then he dropped back down with a yawn.
Bubba scrubbed a hand over his face and went back to leaning against the pillow he had propped against the wall and glanced down at his notebook. I raised an eyebrow. “You should be sleeping,” I whispered. “You still have school in a few hours.”
It was my turn to stay with Frankie, we’d drawn numbers for it to keep it fair. Coop would stay with her the next day, and then we were at the weekend. We’d make the call for Monday once we made it through the weekend.
“Not tired,” Bubba said. “Want to finish this. Get some sleep. I’ll keep an eye on her.”
I frowned. I got it, I did. But man… “Bubba,” I said, pitching my voice lower when Archie lifted his head to glare at me. “You need sleep. Leave it for tomorrow.”
He just shot me a dry look. “Good night, Jake.” When he turned his attention back to his notebook, I just sighed and settled back down on the pillow. I still had Frankie’s hand in mine, so I hugged it to my chest, and when she snuggled closer, I let my eyes close.
