“I know,” Nicole told me. “I saw the date on the stone.”

“What were you doing there?” I asked.

“Running,” she said. “I usually run in the morning, but it was raining too hard. When the rain stopped, I decided to go. My route takes me past the cemetery, and I saw your Jeep there. I looked around, and I saw you on the ground. I thought you might be…hurt or something. I didn’t know about the day…”

Her voice trailed off, and I nodded. It made sense. I felt the bed drop a little and opened my eyes. Nicole was sitting beside me with her eyes full of concern.

“Is this okay?” she asked. “I mean, if I sit here?”

I looked up at her and nodded again. She was quiet for a minute, and I just kept basking in the scent that was all around me as I stared blankly toward her bedroom wall.

“Thomas? How long were you out there?”

“What time is it?”

“Almost three.”

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“In the afternoon?”

“Well…yes.”

I turned my eyes into the pillow. I had left the house shortly before eight in the morning.

“A while,” I finally said.

“You were soaked,” she reminded me. “It hadn’t been raining for a good hour when I saw you.”

I shrugged, which made the blanket shift off of my shoulder. Nicole reached up and fixed it again.

“Do you want anything?” she asked. “Are you hungry? Or I could make some hot chocolate. That might warm you up.”

I shook my head and closed my eyes. I sank further into the pillow and finally started to feel a little warmer. At least I wasn’t shivering anymore. The mattress shifted again, and I opened my eyes to find Nicole standing to walk out the door.

“Stay!” I reached my hand out from under the blankets, toward her.

Nicole turned back toward me and slowly returned to the edge of the bed. I relaxed again as her fingers ran down my arm. When she got to my wrist, I flipped my hand over and wrapped my fingers around hers. I looked up to her just to check her expression, but she didn’t seem to mind. I closed my eyes again. Soft fingers brushed over my temple and began tidying the hair that was plastered to my forehead. Her fingers continued up and over my head, pushing the longer strands back over the top of my head as my consciousness faded into the background.

I felt as if I were floating—my mind only barely comprehending the images in my brain.

Nicole’s hand still stroked my hair, but we were sitting out on the cliff near the ocean with the wind blowing across our skin. I had my legs pulled up against my chest, and Nicole’s were sticking straight out. She was pivoting her feet back and forth at her ankles.

“Is this it, Thomas?” Her voice was a low whisper over the wind and the waves. “Is this the real you, without the costumes?”

I looked down and realized I was sitting on the rock, naked. I looked back up at her, trying to figure out if I should be embarrassed by my lack of clothes, but she was only looking at me inquisitively as she awaited my answer.

I didn’t have one for her.

I was disoriented for a moment when I finally woke up, but I didn’t feel at all concerned about where I was.

The light in the room was dim, and the clock on the nightstand said it was twenty after eight. I was warm and comfortable, and the smell all around me was just glorious. I couldn’t describe it, but I could definitely name it—Rumple. It just smelled like her. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply before opening them again and focusing on what was around me.

Nicole was on the floor with a reading lamp beside her along with a bunch of books and papers. She kept going back and forth between one of the large textbooks and a notebook, where she furiously scribbled notes and then to a worksheet. Every once in a while, she would stick the tip of the pen in her mouth and nibble the end of it. As I shifted in the bed, she looked up at me.

“Hey,” she said quietly.

“Hey,” I replied hoarsely. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Hi.”

Tags: Shay Savage
Source: readsnovelonline.net