Then I swallowed hard and stumbled into the hallway. The voices stopped when I got close to the living room, and as I stepped into view, I found six pairs of eyes staring at me in surprise.
“Abraham Daniel, you scared the shit out of me!” my mom bitched, coming off my dad’s lap and bracing her hands on her hips.
“Bram was just exhausted,” my dad said soothingly, reaching out to tap Mom’s butt with the back of his hand.
“Why the hell are you awake already?” my mom snapped, not ready to let go of her anger. She wasn’t mad, not really, but sometimes when she was scared it morphed into anger.
“I—” My words cut off as I glanced at Ani’s worried face. “Just tired,” I said as she stood up from the couch. “I’m okay.”
She moved fast, and when she hit my chest, we stumbled back a step because I hadn’t really grown steady yet.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” she whispered against my chest. “You have to sleep, Abraham.” Her fingers dug into my back. “You scared me.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered back, ignoring the people staring at us. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You went down, and I—”
“Shh,” I said soothingly.
“I caught you,” Trevor interrupted with a smile. “You’re welcome.”
“Shit,” I groaned, making Ani laugh a little.
“What the hell was that?” my mom asked as she dropped back down onto my dad’s lap, making him grunt.
“I haven’t been sleeping very well,” I answered, walking Ani into the room so we could sit on one of the couches. “It must have just hit all at once.”
“Well, I’ve heard some doozies about trying to get out of an argument, but I gotta say, this one takes the cake,” Uncle Mike joked, shaking his head.
“I wasn’t trying to—”
“Uh-huh,” my dad muttered like he wasn’t convinced.
“Well, now that we know you’re just sleepy, we’re heading home,” aunt Ellie said sweetly.
“I told you he was just tired,” my dad argued.
“I didn’t know you were a doctor,” Aunt Ellie retorted, climbing to her feet and pulling Uncle Mike with her.
“Think I know my boy,” Dad griped as my mom stood up, too. “He’s looked like shit for weeks.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I replied sarcastically, making Ani snicker.
I wanted to look at her, but I was afraid to see her expression. I’d passed out during the most important conversation of my life, and I was both embarrassed that it happened and worried as hell that everything I’d said had gotten me nowhere.
“See you guys later,” Trevor called, following his parents out the front door.
As soon as they’d gone, I leaned back on the couch and closed my eyes.
“Are you two staying here tonight?” Dad asked.
I didn’t even open my eyes as I said “no” at the exact same moment Ani said “yes.”
“You’re not going home,” Ani barked.
“You can drive us,” I conceded.
“We’ll stay here,” Ani said to my parents, ignoring me. “See you in the morning?”
I didn’t want to stay the night, but hell if I was going to argue with Ani about sleeping in the same bed again, even if we were at my parents’ house and I was too tired to do anything but sleep. She hadn’t taken off when I’d passed out. She’d stayed.
That had to mean something.
I followed her into Katie’s old room and stripped down to my underwear after she’d closed the door behind us. We were both moving quietly so we didn’t wake the baby, but I was aware of every noise her clothes made in the darkness as she got ready for bed. As I crawled into bed behind her, I could have cried at the wave of relief that hit me.
“You scared the shit out of me,” she hissed as I tried to wrap my arm around her middle.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Well, what the fuck? You aren’t sleeping?”
“I couldn’t ever fall asleep, so I was just staying up until I was so exhausted that I could get a full night’s rest,” I answered, ignoring the way her body had stiffened as I pulled her closer to me.
We were facing each other on our sides, and I scooted down the bed a little so our faces lined up on the pillows, nose to nose.
“I want to talk,” I slurred, trying in vain to keep my eyes open.
“We’ll talk in the morning,” she breathed against my face, lifting her hand to smooth down my beard. “Go to sleep.”
* * *
“I’ll get her. You sleep,” my mom said quietly when Arielle woke me up the next morning.
I was standing next to the portable crib, trying to calm Arielle down without lifting her up. My legs were still pretty unsteady, and I glanced at Ani’s sleeping face as my mom pushed past me and picked Arie up. Then I looked down at myself and felt my face heat. I was standing there in nothing but my boxer briefs.