Sleep was only marginally easier to achieve that night, and only because I was exhausted from not sleeping the night before. Even so, I woke myself up at least five times with nightmares. By morning I was almostmoretired for fighting with my sheets and running from invisible bad guys than if I hadn’t slept at all.
It was a worry. My nightmares had been awful right after the attack, when I woke up in hospital and came to terms with what had happened. When the doctors explained how close I’d come to dying, I was haunted by the most disturbing dreams and eventually prescribed medication to help me sleep dreamlessly. I hadn’t needed to take those pills for a few months, though, and no longer had them.
Stupid me. I wasn’thealed; I’d just repressed the trauma and Connor’s gun in my face ripped it all right back to the surface.
“Good morning, sunshine!” Brodie greeted me when I dragged my feet into the kitchen not long after sunrise.
I paused, squinting at him, and then checked the time on my phone. Yep, sun had just come up and it was the weekend. What the fuck was he doing awake so early?Andrew sat beside him at the kitchen table, sipping something hot from a mug. Did we get a coffee machine?
“Give her a minute to wake up,” Andrew scolded, putting his mug down, then smacking the back of Brodie’s head with a rolled-up newspaper. “She’s not used to your level of permanent energy, bro. Fuck it, neither am I. I forgot what a pain in the ass you can be.”
Brodie just laughed, a warm, easy sound. “Don’t lie. You missed me, Drew.”
“What…” I started to say, then yawned. “What the fuck is going on?” I tried again.
Andrew gave Brodie a pointed look, and theBloodstone Sentinelhimself jumped up to grab a premade iced coffee from the huge refrigerator.
“Brown sugar oat milk shaken espresso, right?” he asked, presenting me with the coffee and grinning like a goofball.
I accepted it and moved to sit at the table when he gestured for me to join them. “Thanks,” I murmured, taking a sip. “That was thoughtful of you.”
“We figured you’d need it,” Andrew said absentmindedly as he read his newspaper like a sixty-year-old man. “After the night you had.”
I winced. That told me all I needed to know about how thin the walls were. “Sorry. It’s not usually so bad, but?—”
“Connor made things worse.” Andrew cut me off with a nod and had me wondering if he somehow knew what had happened to me at Tennessee Hallows College. “Understandable.”
I cleared my throat, searching for a change of subject. “How come you guys are awake so early? Do you have a weekend class?” Some people did, but it wasn’t super common from what I’d seen last weekend.
“Nope, I’ve got an audition to go to,” Brodie replied with an excited smile. “My agent is picking me up in an hour or so. It’s areally exciting new role, and I’m up against some huge names. Wanna help me run lines to prep? Andrew fucking sucks at this.”
Confused, I blinked between them both, then took a huge gulp of coffee. Maybe I was still half-asleep.
“A new role?” I asked, unable to help myself. “NotBloodstone?”
Brodie shook his head. “Nope, it’s totally different. Female-focused romantic drama adapted from a novel. I’m auditioning for one of the main love interests, a snowboarder.” He slid a thick wad of paper across the table to me. “Have a look, tell me what you think.”
My jaw dropped as I read the title and all theConfidentialstamps littering the first page. “Um, Brode, I can’t read this! It’s?—”
“Protected under that NDA you signed,” he replied with a smirk. “You’re fine. Go ahead. My role would be Drex Slater.”
Shocked, I looked back at the script he’d given me to read. Funnily enough, I was familiar with the source material as a romance novel on my e-reader…but had no idea it was being made into a movie. This was huge. And perfect for Brodie to break away from superhero typecasting, too.
“Do you have any plans today, Evelyn?” Andrew asked, pulling my attention from the script I’d just started leafing through. “After you help Brodie run lines, of course.”
I shook my head. “Not really. I’d kind of like to do some work to tidy this place up but need to get supplies. Is there a hardware store nearby?”
He gave a small nod, putting his newspaper down. “Yes, there’s one in town. You can’t go alone, though, and I have a polo match.”
Brodie scoffed a laugh. “Because you were ever an option to head into town,Knightsbridge. Ethan can take her in when he wakes up.”
I frowned, rubbing at my temples. “Why can’t I go alone?” Aside from the fact I wouldn’twantto, no one knew I was even in Vermont, let alone attending Meadowridge. I was safe…at least I was pretty sure I was. Unless Andrew really did know about the crazy fuck who’d shot up my last college in his attempt to kill me…
He met my gaze across the table, his expression unreadable. Then his jaw tightened slightly. “Because how will you get there, for starters? And then how will you carry all your supplies? Not to go sounding antifeminist but surely it’d help to bring some muscle along to do the heavy lifting?”
Okay, he had valid points. And I didn’t hate the idea of going into town with Ethan, since I had spent far too long thinking about that latest kiss in the libraryagain. Maybe we needed to finally talk things out. Or fuck.
I knew which one had my vote.
