“Right. Waters and I have a truckload of paperwork to finish, so I’m gonna head out,” Tate said with a yawn.
“Are you gonnafill him inonce you get there?”
He pointed a finger at me. “No one will notice if I add another black eye to your already fucked-up face, West. Watch it.”
I grinned before growing serious again. “Thank you,” I said, looking at my hands. “For helping Charlie find me. For saving us both. I’m glad to have you as a friend.”
Tate blinked and shuffled on his feet. “You’re welcome. Me too.” The room was quiet for a beat before he continued, “That was weird, right?”
I sighed. “Thank God. Yes. Can we never do it again?”
He chuckled on his way out the door. “Sounds good to me. Oh, I almost forgot.” Pulling a small square of paper out of his back pocket, he handed it to Charlie. “For you. Once you get a phone, I’ll text it to you.”
Charlie flipped the paper over, revealing a photograph of me and Sunshine, Viola’s hairless cat, sitting on that horrible mustard brown couch. Grinning, he looked back at Tate. “This isawesome.Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Tate said with a smile, and left.
Eyeing the picture, I said, “You can’t hang that up.”
“Oh, I can, and I will. It’ll be the focal point on our picture wall.”
Our picture wall.
The words tucked into my chest, warm and cozy. “Lie down with me?” I asked, shifting over to give him room.
With a smile, he joined me, wrapping one arm around my middle and scooting in close.
“Where have you been staying?” I asked, fingers carding through his soft hair. It was a rich brown, even darker than before, with a subtle hint of auburn. I couldn’t wait to see it catch in the sun.
“I’ve only been out since yesterday. Your Mom let me sleep in their hotel room for a few hours earlier, but I mostly just wanted to be here.”
I pressed a kiss into his hair. We’d have to think about where to stay once I was discharged. Could we go back to the lookout? Who was in charge now that Leonard was dead? Was I even strong enough to do all of those stairs on crutches?
For now, I was content to hold Charlie until one of us had to move.
I opened my mouth to ask if he’d given any thought to what he wanted to do with the future spread out before us, only to be jostled when he sprang up next to me, as if startled.
“Oh, no! I have to pee!” he exclaimed, scurrying out of bed and making for the door.
I laughed so hard my whole body hurt, and it was the most wonderful thing in the world.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Ithink the physical therapist is trying to kill me.”
Sweaty and out of breath after fighting with a resistance band for half an hour, I sat back on Dad’s couch with my ankle propped up on an ice pack.
“It might be too soon to make that joke,” Charlie quipped, sitting in the chair across from me, a smile on his face. He didn’t look up from the book in his lap.
I chuckled. “Where’d Dad go?” I asked, looking over my shoulder into the kitchen.
“He went out back halfway through your grunting and cursing.”
Alright, so maybe I was a bit dramatic with the calf raises, butfuck,rebuilding my strength after being off my left ankle for two weeks sucked. Snagging the crutch propped on the arm of the sofa, I stood.
The pain in my ankle was mostly gone, and the stitches were removed, but I’d have a gnarly scar for the rest of my life.
Which was okay, because Ihada life, and so did Charlie.
