None of that had startled me. Waking up in a bed with Aster hadn’t happened since I’d moved to Doughnut, but it was familiar enough that it wouldn’t have jolted me from dozing peacefully.
What was more unusual was the other person tucked into the bed behind me. They had one broad hand pressed firmly to my chest, over my heart. The other rested on my belly.
‘Um.’
At my wordless expression of confusion, Aster woke up. His brown eyes grew wide, then filled with tears. He snuffled closer until his head was tucked under my chin, his arms holding me tight.
His tears soaked into the soft fabric of my T-shirt, and it was almost like I could taste them. The thick saltiness rolled over me. As confused as I was by waking up in an unfamiliar – but incredibly comfy, no complaints here – bed with unknown person spooning me, my priority would always switch to Aster when he was sad.
I held him close and nuzzled into his chaotic hair. It smelt amazing. He must have just had a shower, or maybe he’d changed the recipe for his homemade shampoo bars. The lavender scent I’d drifted awake to intensified as I breathed against his scalp.
‘It’s okay, Aster,’ I whispered. My bestie was my priority, but I kind of wanted to establish who exactly was tucked up behind me without waking them, and slip out of bed without their knowledge if the opportunity arose. Keeping my voice down increased my chances of a sneaky getaway. ‘Whatever it is, we’ll sort it out together.’
‘We absolutely will,’ Aster said thickly, giving me one last squeeze before retreating to his own pillow.
I pushed my eyebrows high, looked down at the hand on my chest, then back at Aster. The universal sign forCan you please explain who this is?
Aster didn’t get the message. He sniffed, bloodshot eyes not leaving my face.
‘Who’s behind me?’ I breathed.
‘Oh. That’s Callum,’ Aster said, like his boyfriend snuggling with his best friend was perfectly normal.
I struggled to recall what had happened after I fell, but drew a blank. Obviously, I’d made my way to Callum and Aster’s cabin, then somehow I’d consented to spend the night in the middle of an awkward sandwich.
Aster’s hands tangled with mine. ‘I’m so fucking happy you’re alive.’
His words snapped me from worrying about why I’d allowed such a weird sleeping arrangement.
‘You’re happy I’m alive?’ The whooshing wind grew louder. ‘Was there a point when I could not have been alive?’
Aster’s eyes filled with tears again. ‘What do you remember about the storm, Lukey?’
I breathed deep, grounding myself with Callum’s hands on my chest and stomach. Despite how odd it was to cuddle with a man I’d only met a handful of times, I couldn’t deny that his presence behind me felt good. Calming.
‘I remember that the weather changed quickly.’ Oscar might have said there was a storm coming before I left his farm, but there was no way to know one was truly on the way until it was on top of me. ‘I’d passed a couple of goat huts on the way out to the cliff to check on the eagles, so I walked back along the path to find them. Then I fell over.’
I frowned. From there, my memories grew dim. Aster lay quiet beside me, the toes wiggling against my shins betraying the restless energy always bubbling inside him.
‘It couldn’t have been too bad?’ I hedged. ‘I’m here and I’m not hurt, so I must have found shelter, then made my way here?’
The tight press of Aster’s mouth turned that final statement into a question.
He rubbed his thumb over my knuckles. ‘I’m going to explain a whole load of stuff now. I need you to promise you’ll listen and remember that I would never lie to you.’
‘Did you once try to eat a frozen hash brown?’
Aster rolled his eyes, temporarily derailed from being either sad or super serious. ‘That happened one time and I cannot understand why everyone must continuously go on about it.’
‘Okay. Test over. You wouldn’t lie to me.’ I took another deep breath, Callum’s hands firm. ‘Tell me stuff then.’
Aster’s face switched from dramatically exasperated back to solidly serious. It was the same expression he’d worn at age nine when he explained to me that he was deeply and irrevocably in love with the puppy his next-door neighbours adopted. I didn’t think anything he was about to say now would be quite as cute, but hopefully it would result in less breaking and entering.
‘You broke your leg when you fell.’
I tensed, but no pain pulsed from my shin.
‘Yeah,’ I said slowly. ‘It really fucking hurt.’ I screwed up my face. ‘That makes no sense. It’s not broken now.’
