Rylla, where are you?Mila silently asked herself.Please come soon. Please.
* * * * *
8:41 P.M.
“Naomi, you look tired,” Nate said as Naomi yawned for about the hundredth time in the last five minutes.
“I'm fine,” she said, immediately straightening in her chair.
“You don’t look fine,” Rylla said. “You look like you should be home in bed.”
“Sam doesn’t want me to be home alone. The Fairytale Killer has him all freaked out, I think it brings back bad memories from my stalker.”
“Why don’t you go lie down upstairs for a while,” Rylla said.
“Or down here on the couch,” Nate suggested. When Sam had gone to work this morning, he had dropped Naomi off at Rylla’s and insisted that Nate not let her out of his sight. He understood his friend’s fears. Sam had almost lost Naomi three times in twelve months, and now she was pregnant. Now if anything happened to her, he didn't just lose the woman he loved but his child as well.
“Yeah, maybe, okay,” Naomi agreed.
Her acquiescence immediately concerned him. Naomineveragreed to voluntarily stay still. She was usually a whirlwind who constantly spun in circles. “Are you okay?”
She shot him a tired smile. “Just tired.”
She was pale too. Rylla obviously agreed because she pressed the back of her hand to Naomi’s cheek. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”
“I'm sure. Just tired. That’s it.”
“You want me to call Sam?” Nate asked.
“No, he’ll worry, and I’m really okay, I just haven't been sleeping.” Naomi yawned again.
“Yeah, I remember those days.” Rylla gave a sad smile. “You’re so big every position you lie in is uncomfortable.”
Nate remembered those days too. He had been home during the last month of his wife’s pregnancy, leaving again when Andrew was three months old. He remembered Rachel had complained that no matter where or how she laid in the bed she was still uncomfortable.
“All right, let’s get you settled on the couch.” Rylla took Naomi’s arm and helped her stand. Nate too stood and took Naomi’s other elbow.
“I can walk on my own,” Naomi said but made no move to tug herself free from their grasp, and Nate’s concerns about her went up a notch.
“Here you go,” he said, helping her onto the couch. “I’ll grab your feet.” He lifted them up onto the couch and he and Rylla helped her wiggle herself into a comfortable position. “Call out if you need us,” he told his friend as he spread out a blanket over her.
“I will.” Naomi yawned, her eyes already falling closed. She was asleep by the time he and Rylla sat back down at the dining table.
Getting Naomi to sleep hadn’t just been because she looked like she needed the rest, there was also the added bonus of some alone time with Rylla. As much as he wanted to be alone with her, he was glad Naomi had come to spend the day with them. She had done a fabulous job of keeping Rylla busy and distracted. Despite being eight and a half months pregnant she refused to stop working. Sam wouldn’t let her do anything outside the office, but she still researched cases, ran background checks, and helped in any other way she could.
“You should get some rest too,” he told Rylla. She hadn’t slept last night and now there were dark circles under her eyes. “I can stay up and answer any calls.”
“You didn't sleep last night either,” Rylla reminded him. “If you want to go upstairs and take a nap, go ahead.”
“Are you sleeping?”
“I can't.”
“Then I'm staying right here with you.”
“I appreciate it, but you don’t have to stay with me, I’ll be fine on my own for a bit and you’ll only be upstairs.”
Nate reached across the table and grasped Rylla’s hands. “I'm not leaving you.”