Though she didn’t say anything, she left her feet to press against my leg, and awareness of her sizzled over me as I double-checked the tuning. It took me a few chords to warm up my hand, but when I started to play, Frankie never once looked back at the page.
Maybe I should feel bad about interrupting her homework, but I enjoyed her attention way too much.
And maybe I could tell her with music what I couldn’t in just words.
Maybe.
Chapter Fourteen
Dangerous Curve Ahead
Frankie
Something smothered me. Even as I fought against it, the pressure bore down and I couldn’t get air into my lungs. They burned, and my eyes teared as I flailed.
“Frankie.”
No. I had to get away. I had to…
“Frankie.”
Eyes snapping open, I jerked back against the pillows as I stared into the darkness. Then a light shone from Ian’s phone, and he had hold of my left hand in his right. There was a red mark on his jaw, and all of a sudden, my wrist hurt like hell.
A groan escaped, and I closed my eyes.
“It’s okay,” he said gently. “It’s really okay. You awake now?”
“Yeah?” I tugged my fingers from his grasp to scrub at my face. Terror churned in my stomach. Unease slid along my spine. Adrenaline pounded in my veins.
“You don’t sound too certain,” Ian murmured, the bed depressing under his weight as he sat next to me. It was the first night since I’d come home that I slept alone.
I sighed and dropped my hand back to his. When he cradled my hand and then closed his fingers around it, I held on a little tighter. “I’m not.” My heart raced, and even though I tried to calm my breathing, it was still coming in fierce pants.
The light from his phone cut out and plunged us back into darkness. “Can I help?”
Archie had texted that something had come up and he might be late getting back over if he made it at all. But he promised to see me first thing in the morning. Jake and Coop hadn’t come back either, though they’d texted as well. If I’d asked, they’d have come. But I got it. They were trying to give me and Ian time together.
“Will you lie up here for a little while?” I didn’t want to ask. Hell, I didn’t want to push, but I didn’t want to be alone either.
He shifted without letting go of my hand and put his phone beside the bed, and then he stood. For a second, I thought he would retreat back to his pallet on the floor. Then he lifted the comforter and slid in next to me. For that, he had to let go of my hand.
“How do you want to…?” he started to ask, but I rolled onto my side as he extended his arm, and then I curled up and put my cheek against his chest as he curved his arm around me. I hadn’t really been this close to Ian in a while. Not even in the days when he was here day in and day out. The others had let me curl up with them, but he hadn’t.
Eyes closed, I burrowed my nose against his shirt as he brushed some of the hair away from my face. His heart beat a steady tattoo. Curled up on my left, I rested my right wrist against his mid-section.
“If that’s too heavy…”
“Shh,” he said. “Nothing about you is too heavy.” Then he pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I should have been right here to chase that dream away before it got to you.”
“It’s okay,” I told him. In the dark, it was just easier. “I don’t even know what I’m dreaming about. It’s always shadows and running. Sometimes I can’t breathe. Most of the time, I’m just afraid.”
He sighed.
“It stopped for a couple of nights.” So maybe not every night anymore.
“But tonight you were alone.” Self-recrimination darkened his tone.
“Not alone.” He smelled like Ian. Like sunshine and hot days. Like grass and play. There was always this clean warmth to him. I rubbed my cheek against him. “You’re here.”