Page 18 of The Witch & the Hound
Tail says you jumped higher than the humans.
Shut up,I typed, cheeks flaming.
Tail likes when you jump.
I pressed the phone to my chest, laughing helplessly.
By the time the credits rolled, my soup was cold, my blanket tangled, and my cheeks ached from smiling.
Good movie,he texted finally.Better with you.
My breath caught. I stared at the screen for a long moment, then typed back:Agreed.
The dots blinked once, twice, then disappeared.
I waited. Five seconds. Ten. Finally, his last message came through.
Sleep well, witch.
I curled tighter in my blanket, phone pressed to my chest, and whispered into the quiet, “You too, Bram.”
* * *
I woke at three in the morning with my bladder staging a full-scale revolt. Wine and too much soup had apparently formed an alliance against my sleep schedule.
Grumbling, I shoved the quilt back and padded barefoot across the cold floorboards, cursing quietly when my hip twinged.
The bathroom light was too bright, so I did my business in a sleepy half-daze, head tipped against the cool wall. My phone buzzed where I’d set it on the counter.
I frowned. Nobody texted me at three a.m. except my sister when she was drunk, and I was not in the mood for “guess which bartender I’m making bad choices with now.”
I washed my hands, picked up the phone, and squinted at the screen.
Bram.
One message. No dots, no preamble, just his blunt honesty staring back at me.
I don’t want it to be just once.
I sat down on the closed toilet lid, phone clutched in my hand, heart slamming like I’d just sprinted the length of Seaview’s pier.
My first thought:Holy hell, he texted that at three a.m.?My second thought:Holy hell, I'm grinning like a lovesick idiot in my bathroom at three a.m.
The mirror across from me caught my reflection, curls feral, cheeks flushed, eyes wide. Not the face of a woman who’d planned on keeping things casual.
I typed, deleted, re-typed. Finally, I sent:
Go back to sleep, Bram.
Almost immediately, three dots appeared.
Can’t.
My chest tightened. I chewed my lip, then thumbed out:Tail keeping you awake?
His reply came fast:You are.
Heat crawled up my throat. I pressed the phone to my chest and laughed, too softly for anyone but the ghosts of my house to hear.
