Page 20 of Forbidden Dark Vows

I don’t always eat breakfast. Most days, I’m running late for work, and I’ll either skip the meal completely or grab a cookie from the biscuit barrel in the kitchen on my way out, much to my dad’s dismay. But sitting on the side of Harry’s bed, licking jelly from my fingers and wishing the coffee cup was three times bigger than it actually is, this is the most delicious meal I’ve ever eaten.

When only a few crumbs remain on the plate, Ronnie reaches into his pocket and produces a pack of cards. “Picked these up too from the shop on the first floor. Thought it would help pass the time.”

“Anything else we should know about?” Harry’s smile is a hundred times brighter than it was when I arrived the day before, and I wonder if it’s because he’s feeling a little better or if it’s all down to the company.

“It’s still snowing.” Ronnie shrugs and clears a space on the tray for us to play a game. “The weather reports say this will make the blizzard of ’79 look like a flurry.” He sounds unfazed by the news.

Harry looks at me. “If you need to get home, we’ll help.”

Ronnie arches an eyebrow while he shuffles the deck of cards like a professional, ruffling them between his hands and making them dance. “You’re going nowhere, and I’m not letting her step foot outside this building. I’m sure she’d rather keep all her fingers and toes. Wouldn’t you?” He winks at me.

“Yes.” I rub my hands together. “Harry is only worried that I’ll beat him at Rummy.”

“Harry probably doesn’t even know how to play Rummy.”

“Don’t you?” I ask him, and he shakes his head. Or rather he moves his eyes from side to side, his head still too delicate to roll across the pillow. “We’re going to need more coffee then because I learned from the best: my dad.”

We play Rummy until the porters come to take Harry for a brain scan.

While he’s gone, Ronnie gets more food from the cafeteria, and we sit and talk about Sumaira. It’s obvious how much he loves her—it shines through his eyes and his voice turns to runny honey whenever he talks about her.

“I wish she were here,” he says like we’re on vacation in a log cabin somewhere in the snowy mountains. “She’ll be gutted that she missed this.”

We don’t mention Alessandro Russo. It’s an unspoken agreement between us when Harry isn’t in the room, that we’rehere for him, and we’ll deal with the difficult stuff once he’s feeling stronger.

That afternoon, we play Crazy Eights and Go Fish, the two men frustrated that I won every round of Rummy. The nurses come and go. They take Harry’s vitals , the assistants bring his food, the cleaners clean around us, but mostly they leave us alone.

The day barely makes an appearance before night waves hello again. The world outside the hospital feels like someone built an igloo around us, and we must wait for it to melt before we can leave. The window is half covered by snow, and we leave the blinds drawn, making us feel even more like caterpillars inside a chrysalis.

Day two degenerates into boisterous games of Hearts and Snap. Even Harry manages a chuckle when Ronnie slams his hand down hard on the tray and yells, “Snap!” for the tenth time in a row.

“I think you’re cheating.” I watch his pile of cards growing while I only have a handful left, and Harry is down to his last three cards.

“I think you’re a sore loser.” Ronnie flips over the Ace of Hearts and sets it down on the mobile tray. “Come on. If you win this game, I’ll buy you all the chocolate in the shop downstairs.”

I place my card, the Ace of Diamonds, on top of his and shout, “Snap!” before he can react. “Challenge accepted.”

Ron wins the next three games, but he goes to the shop nonetheless, and returns with a carrier bag filled with chocolate. I eat so much that I’m buzzing with the sugar rush, and we move onto Charades instead.

I’m miming dipping my head underwater and opening my mouth to scream when the nurse walks in and says, “Jaws.”

“Where was the shark?” Ronnie shakes his head, but his smile is wide. “We’d have gotten it right away if you’d tried eating the end of the bed.”

That night,I sleep fitfully. I must sense that our bubble is about to burst. The snow has finally stopped, and even though the temperature inside the building has been constant, the sky is a shade lighter, and I don’t shiver whenever I glance at it.

I wake up a couple of times to find the same night nurse standing beside Harry’s bed. Later, I’m jolted from a bizarre dream in which Harry is trying to scale the John Hancock Tower in his hospital gown while Ronnie zooms around him in a hot air balloon. I suddenly realize that Harry is awake and trying to sit up in his bed.

I’m out of the seat in a heartbeat. “What are you doing?” I keep my voice low so that I don’t wake Ronnie.

I go to cover Harry’s chest with the blanket, but he grips my wrist gently. “Get in with me, Ruby.”

I instinctively glance at the door. “I can’t. What if the nurse comes in?”

“She won’t be back around until morning.” His eyes are like huge dark stones in the dim glow of the night lights. “Please.”

He must sense it too, that this is coming to an end. This has all been so surreal that it can’t possibly continue for much longer. It isn’t real life, and right now, Harry’s reality is brain scans, afractured arm, and grieving for a friend who died in the same wreck that put him in hospital.

“What will Ronnie say?”

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