Page 55 of Through the Water

I cleared my throat against a sudden rush of emotion and gestured dumbly toward the tray in Bailey’s hands. “You hungry?”

You hungry?

The woman looked like a goddess, and the best I could come up with was ‘you hungry?’ Clearly, I’d been in the desert too long to converse with the trees—or whatever the hell it was Bailey had said.

She nodded, shifting against the pillows and twisting her necklace between her fingers in the ensuing silence. I was gawking. I knew it, but it was like I was seeing her for the first time.

And it seemed I wasn’t the only one who’d been rendered stupid by the sight of her. Bailey caught his shin on the leg of a chair as he moved forward, sending it into the wall with a jarring thud and nearly losing his grip on the tray.

“Hey—” He cleared his throat, his voice suddenly much deeper than before. “Hi. You got yourself a tent bed. K, did you get one of these?”

“Um—” I fumbled for the next word, suddenly drawing a blank.

What was the question?

The nurse from before sat in a small chair in the corner. The slight smile on her lips indicated that she wasn’t reading the book in her hands. She was listening to every word. “It’s a Posey bed. It keeps her safe at night.”

Bailey nodded. “I just use a nightlight, but that’s cool. Ari, you look like you need a drink—uh, a chair.” He shook his head and tried again. “You should have a chair. All of them. I don’t know why they didn’t put a table in here. Do you think there’s room for one? I could run out—”

The older woman stopped his rambling with a small pat on the back. “Ariana looks pretty comfortable right where she is. Listen, I imagine my dinner companions have given up on me by now, so I suppose you and I will just have to make do, won’t we?”

“I—” He shot me a panicked look as the woman latched onto his side like a leech, protesting, “But I have somewhere I need to be!”

She chuckled in response, keeping a firm grip on his waist. “Oh, I think we both know that’s not true, dear. Just humor this old woman, will you?”

Heat curled down my spine. I pushed my shirt sleeves up over my forearms, trying to recall if Ari’s room had felt this warm the last time, or if someone had been messing around with the thermostat.

One corner of her mouth lifted as she watched me chew on my bottom lip, searching for an icebreaker. Compliments were always a good start—or maybe I’d mix things up by opening with a joke.

“Hi,” I croaked, sounding like a pubescent boy.

Clearly, I was a bit rusty.

Ari’s eyes sparkled with amusement, and she reached for her notebook and pen.

That was Georgia.

Like a dummy, I actually glanced back toward the closed door. “Oh, she seems… nice.”

She patted the mattress with her fingers and scooted over, inviting me to sit. I left the crutches near the foot of the bed and sat facing her, letting my knee dangle over the edge. The feel of her thigh brushing against mine reawakened my dick and threatened my self-control.

It was probably just because I hadn’t eaten, and it was almost—I glanced at my watch—six-thirty. Okay, Bailey might have been right. I’d fallen into a few bad habits—nothing I couldn’t break once I was out in the real world again.

Ari briefly covered her face with both hands before returning her attention to the notebook. I watched her gnaw at the corner of her lip as she wrote, wondering if she was considering throwing me out again.

Turns out, there was no Halloween party tonight.

“So, all of that was because you thought there was a costume party?” I shook my head with a relieved laugh. Ari hadn’t lost her mind; she’d just been playing a part. “And here I thought it was your everyday outfit.”

She winced.

Do you think we could start over and you forget everything I said? Hi, my name is Ariana.

It was the same thing I’d said to her during our first lunch together, and a request I was more than willing to accept. She wasn’t the only one in need of a do-over. I’d spent the better part of our time together in the cafeteria imagining her naked, something that now left me feeling like an ass.

Clearly, I was a mess. One second, I was giving up on there being anything romantic between us, and the next, I was convinced I could have my cake and eat it too. I needed to take a step back to consider the situation from every possible angle.

It was the right thing to do.

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