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Chris squeezed the tops of his arms. “Do you think you’ll be able to get back to sleep?”
“I don’t know,” Jamie admitted.
“Do you want me to stay?”
Jamie looked sharply up at him, the sadness slipping away for a second. “You’d do that?”
“Of course I would,” Chris replied, giving him a reassuring smile.
Jamie smiled back. “Okay.”
Jamie slid backwards on the mattress to make a space for Chris, who climbed into the bed and straightened the covers, pulling them up to waist-level before lying against the pillows. He didn’t even blink when Jamie curled up against him and placed his head in the space between Chris’s shoulder and chest, his arm lying lightly across Chris’s belly. He allowed himself a smile, glad that Jamie was so comfortable around him. His smiled widened when Boomer jumped on the bed, too, and lay on Chris’s other side, penning him in. He scratched the Labrador behind the ears with one hand and began to gently card the fingers of his other hand through Jamie’s mussed up hair, nails softly scratching at his scalp.
Jamie’s eyes closed and he sighed contentedly. “Mmm…s’good…” he mumbled.
“Yeah?” Chris murmured, tilting down his head to look at him.
“Don’ stop…”
Chris grinned and continued.
A few minutes later, Jamie’s breathing levelled out and Chris knew he was asleep. He didn’t stop stroking his hair.
He was annoyed with Nick Foster about not informing him about Jamie’s nightmares or the details of his interrogation. Chris would have never let Andy go on about their patrols in Afghanistan if he had known exactly what Jamie had gone though.
Chris liked Jamie enormously; more than that, he admired him, respected him. It had only been a week, but they had already become comfortable with each other, the way they spoke, the way they joked, the way they moved around the house. It was Chris’s job to protect him, but now Chriswantedto protect him, regardless of his duty.
He sighed and pulled Jamie a little closer before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.
Chapter 6
The shrill ringing of a phone cut through the blackness of sleep and Jamie’s eyes fluttered open. He was aware of a warm body lying pressed up next to him that definitely did not belong to a dog, and he smiled to himself. The phone rang again, and his smile disappeared as he suddenly remembered why he’d woken in the first place. Chris stirred as Jamie threw back the covers and swung his feet to the floor, standing and half-running to snatch the ringing phone from the cradle on the dresser in the hallway.
“Hello?” he answered hoarsely.
“Jamie?” a woman replied. “Is that you?”
“Victoria!” He smiled, then cleared his throat. “To what do I owe this pleasure so early in the morning?”
“Early? Did you just get out of bed? It’s almost lunchtime!”
“Seriously?” Jamie looked out of the window and rubbed the back of his neck.
“Yeah. Anyway, It’s Winter Picnic Day and we’re all getting together on the beach in an hour or so. Somebody mentioned that you were back, so I’m calling to ask if the son of the President of the United States of America is still humble enough to grace us all with his presence?”
Jamie laughed. Victoria Prewitt was one of his oldest friends. They had grown up together with a bunch of other East Hampton kids and had been doing Winter Picnics since they were about sixteen. It basically involved sitting on the beach in the cold on a Sunday afternoon, eating whatever the family cooks had made, and drinking copious amounts of champagne. Of course, Jamie said yes.
After replacing the phone, he padded into his room. Chris was awake and Jamie smiled at him as he retrieved his towel from the back of the door. “Hey.”
“Hi.”
“We’re going on a picnic. Some friends of mine do this every year and they’re meeting in about an hour. That okay?”
“Sure,” Chris replied.
Jamie grinned and headed for the shower. He couldn’t believe he’d managed to get to sleep again after the nightmare. He couldn’t believe that Chris had stayed with him for the rest of the night after Jamie had almost accidentally shot him in a half-sleeping state. Chris had been the sweetest, most understanding human being the night before, and he hadn’t been at all perturbed when Jamie had clung to him like a child. The best thing about it was that Jamie didn’t even feel embarrassed about doing it. He’d felt safe, secure, which was more than he’d felt in a long time, even with Boomer sleeping by his side for the last couple of months.
By the time Jamie had cleaned himself and made his way back into the bedroom, Chris had vacated the bed, presumably in favor of the shower en suite in his own room. He dressed warmly for a day outside—T-shirt, button-down, and hooded sweatshirt—before heading downstairs to find Boomer, who had been strangely missing from his room, waiting downstairs and staring forlornly at his empty kibble bowl.
