Page 66 of Stranded

“I was asleep, in my hammock, up there,” I say, pointing above us. “I had a… a nightmare. I woke up suddenly and Steve fell from my lap, I reached for him and sort of… tipped out and fell.”

“Shit, Zee. You’ve been sleeping up there in a hammock every night, when, at any time, you could have rolled the wrong way and fell to your death?” Weston asks, his fingers pushing aggressively through his hair.

“Umm… I guess?” I answer, worried about his reaction.

“You three stay here, no more questions until I get back, I don't want to miss anything.” He abruptly stands and storms out of the hut.

“Where’s he going?” He seems angry and I’m worried about him going off on his own.

“Just give him a few minutes.” I turn back to Kingsley when he gives my hand a small squeeze.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Bower reaches into the bag at his feet and turns back towards me. “I think you dropped this.”

He leans forward and passes me Steve, my rock. Instinctively, I take it as a small whimper escapes me and I cough to cover it up, hoping they didn’t hear me. I pull Steve to my chest and close my eyes tight. I’m not emotional because he found it for me, it’s that the sight of him remindsme of what just happened. That my nightmare woke me so suddenly that I’d knocked Steve to the ground and almost killed myself trying to grab him.

“Zee?” I open my tear-filled eyes to look at Kingsley. “You know that Steve is just a rock, right?” He looks nervous about my response.

“Dude!” Bower says, slapping Kingsley’s shoulder with the back of his hand. “Shut up.”

I try to stop myself from laughing, but a small laugh escapes me anyway, making both their eyes snap to mine.

“It’s okay, Bower. I’m not crazy, I know it’s just a rock. But he’s been with me for years. I know I have Mo-Mo, but he’s not with me all the time. Steve has been there with me since the beginning. Someone to talk to about how I’m really feeling, someone to cling to at night when the nightmares get bad.”

“I told you no questions until I got back,” Weston says, dropping a bundle of stuff on the ground and making me jerk in surprise at his presence.

As my eyes roam the items he’s just brought inside, I frown, recognizing it. “Hey, is that my—”

“Yes. That’s everything that was there. Now you have no reason to go back up there.” He sits in the chair and leans back, lifting an eyebrow as if daring me to argue.

I stare at my stuff as a jumble of thoughts go through my head, but one main thought keeps pushing to the front. I turn to Weston as I ask, “You want me to stay in here with you guys that badly?”

His cocky expression instantly disappears as he leans forward on his knees. “Of course we do, isn’t that obvious?”

“Not really. I don’t think I’m very good at reading between the lines with you guys. If you don’t tell me something directly, there’s a good chance I’ll misinterpret it.”

“What do you think you’ve misinterpreted?” Kingsley asks, his thumb rubbing over my knuckles.

I swallow heavily with the knowledge that once I say it, it’s out there. And I could be so off base with my assumptions. I consider my words carefully when I answer him. “I don’t understand what you three want from me.”

“Want from you?” Bower asks, looking confused. “We don’t want anything from you.”

My heart drops, realizing I was right, that the cuddling hadn’t meant the same thing to them as it did to me.

“Zee, what are you thinking right now? Your face just dropped,” Kingsley asks, trying to catch my eyes as he dips his head.

“Nothing,” I answer instinctively.

“No,” Weston says, shaking his head. “None of that, no more lying or omitting. Explain. Please?” His last word softens as I sit there uncomfortably under the intense gazes of the three men who have stolen my heart, knowing that I feel way more for them than they do for me.

“I thought, after the way you were, uh, cuddling me the other night, during the storm, that maybe you wanted something more from me. But I understand now,” I tell them quickly when I see several of them go to speak. “You were just doing it to calm me down and stop my panic attack. And I appreciate you helping me with that.”

Kingsley's eyes widen in panic as all three of them swear. “Shit, sweetheart, no that wasn’t why we did it. We did it because we care about you.We definitely noticed that the closer we got, the calmer you became, but that wasn’t the main reason for holding you.”

He squeezes my hand again before he continues. “I don’t think we understood your first question properly, but I don’t think you understood Bower’s answer either.”

I lift my head fully now, confusion swirling in my mind as I wait for him to continue. So theydowant something from me?

“Sweetheart, we don’t want somethingfromyou, we just wantyou.”

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