Page 77 of The Only Reason (The Trident Trilogy 2)

She puts up her hand. “No, not a chance. He would kill me if he found out I shooed you away. Like I think he would literally kill me.”

“I’ll try to be quiet,” I whisper as I walk into the room.

His eyes are closed. It looks like he’s sleeping. I tiptoe to the couch.

“When have you ever been able to sneak into a room without waking me up?” he says.

I freeze like a burglar caught sneaking into a house.

“One of these days it will work, Mason,” I say as I slowly turn around.

He smiles at me. “Never going to happen. Come here.”

I crawl into bed with him like I’ve done every possible second of every day since we got here. He holds up the covers so I can crawl under. He wraps his arms around me as I rest my head on his chest. After enduring twenty-four hours of not knowing if he would live, I like to hear his heart beat as much as I can.

“How are you feeling?”

“I feel great,” he says, kissing the top of my head. “I wish they’d let me leave.”

“Mason, you were unconscious for almost a full day. You lost a lot of blood. You have to be patient.”

“Well, you know patience is one of my many virtues,” he says, sighing. “It’s probably one of my best.”

“Yep. Right after modesty.”

He grabs me under the arms and pulls me up to kiss him.

“Stop! You’re not supposed to use your left arm,” I protest.

“Stop being my nurse. I’m fine.”

He kisses me deeply. I start kissing down his neck until I get to his wound. A round hit him right on top of his body armor. Luckily it hit him in a fleshy area above the clavicle, where there are no major arteries. It probably would have hit Dad in his head if Mason hadn’t jumped in front of him. I put my hand lightly on his bandages.

“It’s fine, Mills,” he whispers as he pulls me back to the other side of his chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“If you ever jump in front of another bullet, I will kill you myself.”

“Noted,” he says, stroking my hair. “Are you still going to your aunt’s funeral?”

“Yeah, I asked Chase to go with me. He said he would, but he thinks I should ask my dad to go.”

“Have you talked to your dad yet?”

“No.”

“Mills,” he says gently. “C’mon, babe. You need to talk to him.”

“It’s cute you think someone who jumps in front of bullets gets to question my judgment,” I say, snuggling deeper onto his chest.

He pulls me closer and kisses the top of my head again. “How long are you going to use that against me?”

“You jumped in front of a bullet. I get to use that for the rest of our lives.”

“I did it because I knew you couldn’t survive watching him die. After all those years—the nightmares. No way you would have survived that.”

“I wouldn’t have survived you dying, either.”

He hugs me tighter. “I didn’t die. Somehow we’re all fine. Please just go talk to him.”

“Can we please quit talking about it? This is the only place I’ve been able to get any sleep since we got here. Can we take a nap?”

“Yeah, babe. You know that’s allowed in the bubble.”

I laugh as he pulls the blankets tighter around me.

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