Page 74 of Perfect Harmony

He stayed there for only a few secondsbefore standing up. “I’ll go make up the spare bed.”

“Don’t bother,” she said. “I’m not goingto sleep anyway.”

Tank dropped his big head onto her lap witha heavy sigh. She rubbed behind his ears and along the bridge of his nose.

“You should try,” Gideon said.

She shook her head. “It won’t work.”

Without looking at him, she said, “I’msorry I still have your shirt. I meant to wash it and give it back to you, butI kept forgetting.”

“It’s fine,” he said.

Feeling weirdly detached from her body, shesaid, “That’s a lie. I wasn’t going to give it back.”

“Um, okay,” he said.

“I mean, I meant to give it back but then Irealized that wearing your shirt helped me sleep,” she said. “So, I kept it.I stole your shirt.”

Laughter bubbled up and out of her chest. “I’ma shirt thief.”

“It’s fine, Gracie,” he said. “I have lotsof shirts. Take as many as you want.”

That made her laugh harder. Tank liftedhis head and stared at her, his dark brown eyes full of curiosity before he glancedat his master as if to say, ‘Do you see the crazy lady on your couch?’

Still laughing, Grace said, “How funnywould it be if you came home one day to find all of your t-shirts missing?Just gone.” She giggled again. “You’d have to call it in and be, like, I needto put an APB out on my missing t-shirts, Wanda. The t-shirt thief has struckagain.”

She howled laughter, and then sputteredwhen Tank licked her open mouth. She pushed his head down. “Tank, gross.”

She wiped her mouth, her sudden fit of gigglesdisappearing as quickly as it arrived. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong withme.”

“You don’t have to apologize, baby.”

“Your shirt doesn’t work anymore,” she said.“It stopped working a few nights ago, and now I’m tired again and I’m so tiredof being tired. You know? Like, just once I want to go to bed and fall asleeplike a normal person. I had that for a little bit with your shirt and it was,”she paused, “it was the single best thing that ever happened to me, Gideon. Itwas even better than kissing you, and Ineverthought it would be possiblefor anything to be better than kissing you. Only, it doesn’t work anymore, andI can’t sleep and I’m so tired.”

Tank was sitting up on the couch now. Hisbig body towered over hers, and she leaned her head against his chest and listenedto the steady beat of his heart. “I took a sleeping pill tonight. I took oneeven though I hate them because they make me slow and weird. I kind of dozedoff though which is good, right? Only, when I woke up my room was full ofsmoke and the wall beside me was on fire and I thought I was going to die. Idropped to the floor like they tell you to do but the smoke was so thick. Itwas so thick, and I couldn’t breathe, and my brain was weird from the sleepingpill and I couldn’t find the door.”

“Tank, move.”

The dog jumped off the couch at Gideon’slow command and when Gideon sat down beside her and pulled her into his embrace,she flung her arms around his waist and rested her cheek on his chest. She closedher eyes, the steady beat of Gideon’s heart even more soothing than Tank’s.

He rubbed her back and kissed the top ofher head. “It’s okay, baby.”

“I was so scared,” she whispered. “Icouldn’t find the door and I was… I was terrified. I kept waiting for my lifeto flash before my eyes, but it didn’t. It was just darkness and smoke andterror.”

Gideon held her even closer, his armswrapped around her body, his warm hands stroking her back. “I’m sorry you hadto go through that.”

“All my stuff is probably wrecked,” she said.“Jesse said they got the fire out pretty quickly. But because the wall betweenmy place and Edgar’s place caught fire, there would be a lot of water and smokedamage. I didn’t even think to grab pictures or my laptop or… I panicked andjust ran out the door with nothing but my phone.”

“That’s what you should have done, Gracie.”Gideon smoothed a soft path across her lower back with one big hand. “Things arereplaceable. You’re not.”

“I’m sorry I yelled at you, and I’m sorry Iwas impatient with you at the mall earlier tonight.”

“I deserved it,” he said.

She lifted her head and studied his beautifuleyes. “Yeah, you did.”

He kissed her forehead. “You look exhausted.Come on.”

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