Page 119 of Wandering in Darkness
CAL
When I open my eyes, I’m wrapped in Grayson’s arms. I can’t fathom any part of this is comfortable for him, but he’s wearing a smile when I look at him, so he must not care too much.
“Good morning.”
“Hmmm,” I mutter while I burrow in, as if he could possibly get any closer. “Can I go back to sleep so I don’t have to face the day?”
“What do you have to face?” Grayson asks. “Lt. Allen’s bullshit has been sent to the police. They’re likely tearing through his life as we speak… it might not feel like we have complete closure until we see him arrested, but we’ve made it so he can never hurt anyone again.”
I hesitate as I realize what he’s saying. “You’re right.”
“Of course I’m right.”
“I just never knew you could be right, but there’s a first time for everything,” I say as if this is an astounding discovery.
Grayson laughs and squeezes me. “Excuse me? I surely heard you wrong.”
I shake my head as I tuck my face against his bare chest. “Nope. Heard me fully right, for sure. Are you going home today?”
“Not unless you kick me out, and if you do, I’ll probably just mope at Felix’s and hope you call me back. Or maybe find a boombox and stand outside your window in the rain.”
I grin at that ridiculous mental image. “I suppose, out of pity, I’ll let you stay.”
“Yeah?” he asks.
“You have to stay here all day… as punishment.”
“I don’t know if that’s enough. Maybe staying the rest of my life would be.”
“Maybe if you hang around even in the afterlife,” I muse.
“I’ll do that. I’ll never leave you.”
I close my eyes, loving every second of this. “What… what do we do now? I mean, we can’t lie in bed all day, can we?”
“We could eat breakfast then crawl back in bed.”
“I like the sound of that,” I decide as I smack around the bedside table for my glasses. After exactly two seconds of searching, I give up, exhausted.
Grayson grabs them and then romantically tries sliding them onto my face by accidentally jabbing me nearly in the eye.
“What was that for?” I cry.
“I was trying to be all suave and slide them on with finesse!”
“Quite suave at nearly popping my eyeball out.”
“You’re rather dramatic, you know that? You’ve been hanging around Felix too long.”
“I’ve never been dramatic a day in my life,” I say as he finally manages to get the glasses on me. “I’m too exhausted to get up now.”
“Just after putting your glasses on?”
“I need to be cuddled some more to help me recover from the damage done to my eyes.”
Grayson pushes my hair up. “I’m sorry I caused you so much distress. Let me make it all better,” he says as he kisses the palm of my hand and then each of my fingers. “Did that heal you?”
“Just a little bit,” I tease.
