I was wrapped up in some kind of cocoon, the silver tinfoil-thing covering me was bouncing light off from the lanterns in an annoying way. It was tight-locking all of my limbs to my sides, along with something having been tucked under my chin and sides of my head to prevent me from moving it—a towel, maybe?—which felt constrictive and not at all comfortable.
My body hurt but I wantedout.
Someone farther away from us snorted softly. “He falls forty feet and still wakes up a motor mouth.”
“Is that far?” I asked.
“Far enough.” Fingers grazed along my forehead and up through my hairline, the feeling soothing, cutting against the sharp stabs of pain spidering through my body. “Too far.”
“Can you please apologize to Blake for me?” I asked.
“You don’t need to apologize to me, Marlow. Stop it.”
My eyes widened as reality hit me. “Blake.”
He was so hard to see but I recognized that soft laugh immediately.
Why did it sound so choked up?
“Yeah...”
“You made it.”
“I did.” He trailed a finger along the bridge of my brow and down under my eye, circling gently until my lashes fluttered against his skin. “You didn’t warn me you’d be surprising me with jumping off the side of a cliff.”
“Technically, I was jumpingawayfrom a snake. The edge of the cliff just happened to be there. Poor planning on my part,I’ll admit. Man, I’d kill for my heating pad right about now. Everything fucking hurts so bad.”
His touch was retracted almost instantly, my gut tightening in response. His face was hard to make out with how the lantern was shining behind him, only really highlighting the outline of his body. He hunched over to curl his hands up close to his face, sucking in a sharp inhale that sounded caught between a cough and a soft cry.
Why was he upset?
Was it something I said?
The outline of him was all I had to go off of. The shaking in his shoulders was visible while he fought back whatever was trying to burst out of him.
“Blake... I’m not going to let them sue you. I swear.”
He breathed out another laugh. This time around, it sounded less amused and held on to much more sorrow than I’d ever heard from him before. “I’m not worried about that, Marlow...”
The pounding in my head made it so damn hard to hear his softly spoken words.
I twisted my hands at my sides, the sore digits hard to flex from the healed-over cuts and scrapes of being dragged along the rough terrain on my way down. “Can you hold my hand?”
I needed to feel connected to him somehow. Chase whatever it was making him upset away for good and get my dry-humored Blake back. This overly careful, subdued version of him was freaking me out more than my broken body was.
He straightened slowly, clearing his throat. “I can’t, I’m sorry. We have you wrapped up in a space blanket so you don’t freeze out here.”
That explained the tinfoil. “What about you?”
“I’m okay.”
“No you’re not,” I argued. “You’re shaking. Get under here.”
“I’m fine, Marlow.”
“Please?”
He seemed to hesitate, fighting with himself to give in to my pleas and pull away this straitjacket so I could finally breathe again. All I wanted was to feel him curled up next to me like we’d been in my cabin two mornings ago—safe from the world and tucked in where only the two of us existed.
