Cruz and Daniel were the last to leave, and once the door clicked shut behind them, I exhaled slowly and faced Myles.
Comehere, I signed.
He finally moved from where he’d been standing, and dragged himself over to me. Once he reached my bed, though,he fell on his knees, put an arm over my stomach, hid his face in the space between my breasts, and began…crying.Sobbing, more like. His breaths hitched every other second; his shoulders shook against me. His tears seeped through my hospital gown, and his voice was hoarse as he kept saying, “I’m so relieved, Rina. I’msofucking relieved. I’m sorry…I’m so, so sorry.”
I swallowed and cupped the back of his head with my left hand before running my fingers through his hair.
“Rina…” Myles cried harder, and the sound of his agony reverberated around the chilly room, making my own tears fall.
“I wasterrified,” he whispered, then held me tighter. “I was goingcrazy.” His shoulders shook again.
I tried to clear my blurry vision by blinking a few times, but stopped when it didn’t work.
The tip-tip-tap echo of my tears hitting the pillows merged with Myles’s sniffs, and it was a shared symphony of solace that I both relished and appreciated.
He pressed a long kiss on the swell of my left breast, then moved back a bit reluctantly.
I looked at him then, at the tears splattered on his beautiful face, and at the relief in his eyes.
Sit, I signed.
He rose, settled in the chair to my left, and swiped the sleeve of his hoodie over his cheeks.
I should have listened to you when you warned me, I told him.I should not have acted so foolishly.
He shook his head. “No.” He held my hand briefly and kissed my knuckles. “I shouldn’t have made that stupid fucking comment. It was careless and cruel of me. But despite that, I failed to stop you from entering the storeroom. Hell, I all but let this happen to you because I was too bullheaded about keeping the damn bookshelf and pushing back the flooring process so that I could figure out a way to fix the shelf.”
It wasmyturn to shake my head.
Stop it, I signed.Don’t do this to yourself. We could not have predicted any of this, but I’m still sorry I didn’t take your warning seriously.
I had to spell certain words very slowly, because I knew Myles still struggled to understand signed alphabets.
He sniffed and once again took my hand in his. This time, though, he held it between both of his and rubbed the pads of his thumbs over my fingers as he looked at me with slightly furrowed brows.
“Move in with me,” he said out of the blue, then squeezed my hand.
I sucked in a breath as I searched his face, and the honest eagerness I found there warmed something in my chest.
“I know it’s crazy of me to ask this of you,” he continued, “but I want you with me 24-fucking-7, Rina. I’m tired of stealing moments with you; tired of looking over my shoulder every time I kiss you or touch you.” He swallowed. “You and I both know that after today, your grandfather won’t even let me step into your house, let aloneworkthere. And I can’t fucking have that; I can’t not see you every day. It’ll drive memad.” He sniffed again. “Also, I wanna be there for you while you heal. You guys keep telling me that what happened to you today isn’t my fault, and maybe it isn’t, but I still want to make sure I can help you however I can when it comes to your recovery. I wanna be there for you from now on – for everything.”
I brought our joint hands close and kissed the inside of his wrists.
He was right, wasn’t he? Once I went home,Avôwould do everything in his power to keep Myles away from me. And, with my initial hesitation towards going back there, paired with the wayAvôhas been behaving with Myles ever since he’s learntabout our relationship, my answer to Myles’s request was pretty much obvious.
Because the idea of getting tolivewith him – yeah, that sounded absolutelyperfectto me.
I smiled as I pulled my hand away from his, and when he looked at me in silent anticipation, I let go of a steady breath and signed,Okay.
He grinned, then – an action so lovely that it brought a spark to his eyes.
“Yeah?” he asked.
Yes, I signed.
“You sure, right?”
I chuckled.Yes, silly, I told him.
