Page 40 of His to Cherish
“Go back to sleep.”
—
Cool air against my skin made me curl into the blankets as I woke up the next morning.
I opened my eyes, expecting to see my coffee table and television.
Instead, my eyes flew open and I flipped to my back before I quickly sat up.
I was in my bed, under my covers. On the wrong side of the bed.
Alone.
“Oh my gosh,” I whispered, and looked to the other side, the side closest to the bathroom, and the side where Aidan had fallen asleep last night.
Did I sleepwalk to my bed?
How embarrassing.
Then flames hit. I flipped back through the memories I thought were dreams. The rocking, the moving, the heat…and the kisses.
Go back to sleep. Don’t want to be alone.
A grin stretched my lips until my cheeks hurt.
Aidan had carried me to my bed and slept next to me.
He’d also left before I woke up.
I didn’t know what it meant.
I did know that as I got ready for work, there was pep to my step and lightness in my heart that I hadn’t felt in a long time. So I decided not to overthink the night. Not to get lost in the memory of warm skin and strong arms and feather-light kisses.
For the first time since I held Derrick outside my house, his blood all over my shirt, I made the decision to enjoy the moment…enjoy the day ahead of me.
—
The enjoyment evaporated by lunchtime.
Shane never showed up in the library, but that didn’t mean I didn’t see him.
And what I saw concerned me greatly.
He wasn’t tan as if he’d just spent the week in Florida like he’d told me he was doing.
When I saw him walking through the halls, not only was the sadness and guilt that had been heavy on him still obvious in his hunched shoulders as he slowly carried his books down the hallway, but he looked gaunt.
Pale. Sick.
Completely depressed.
My heart made a physicalthudand landed at my feet.
Not just because he looked depressed and I felt guilty for waiting so long to talk to someone about my concerns.
But also because he was no longer walking down the hall with the friends he’d had for years.Years.Possibly since birth, considering he’d lived here forever.
No.
