The sight of it made my throat tight all over again.
They had created a fortress. A soft, chaotic barricade against the world outside. It wasn’t a sleepover. It was a triage unit wrapped in fleece and fairy lights.
Mia appeared at my elbow. “Come on. Center spot’s yours.”
“Um, Mia, what does your poor husband think of this?”
She gave me a soft smile. “Who do you think helped us with all these mattresses? He’s fine. He’s upstairs reading, but he said to call out if we needed anything. And he’ll do a run to the diner in the morning for breakfast for all of us.”
“He… he really doesn’t mind?”
“No, he really doesn’t. Now, in you get.” She gestured to the center mattress. I climbed on, then she and Maya settled on either side of me, like bookends. Pickles circled twice at my feet before collapsing with a dramatic sigh, his warm weight pressing against my ankles. The other girls filled in around us, a loose constellation of bodies and blankets.
The quiet stretched, soft and unhurried. Someone had turned off the overhead lights, leaving just the glow from the hallway.
“How did he know?”
The question came out before I’d fully formed it. My voice was hoarse, barely there.
Maya shifted beside me. “Know what?”
“Cam.” I stared at the ceiling. “How did he know to come? I didn’t call him.”
A pause. I felt Mia and Maya exchange a look over my head.
“Em.” Maya’s voice was gentle. “You were asking for him.”
I turned my head to look at her. “What?”
“His name. You kept saying it, over and over. Between the...” She gestured vaguely, encompassing everything that had happened on that bathroom floor. “We didn’t know what else to do, so Mia called him.”
“And he just... came?”
Mia snorted softly from my other side. “Honey, I barely got the address out before he hung up. I don’t even want to think about how fast he must have been driving.” She paused. “The look on his face when he got here. Laser-focused. Like nothing else existed except getting to you. He didn’t even say hello, just pushed right past us.”
I turned that over in my head. I’d been calling for him. My subconscious had reached for him even when the rest of me was too shattered to function.
Surely my defenses were better than that? Or they used to be. I had spent years training myself to never need anyone, to lock the ugly parts away where no one could see them. But the moment my control slipped, my heart had gone straight for him. It was a betrayal of my own rules, and the most honest thing I’d ever done.
“Get some sleep.” Maya tugged the blanket up over my shoulder. “We’re not going anywhere.”
I closed my eyes. Mia’s warmth on one side, Maya’s on the other. Pickles a solid weight at my feet.
Around me, the others settled in. Poppy’s soft humming faded into silence. Hannah’s breathing slowed. Cassidy shifted, her knee bumping against the edge of my mattress before she stilled. Annie and Samara were whispering softly to each other.Small sounds, small movements, but I felt every one of them. A circle of love holding me in place.
Tomorrow, I’d have to figure out what came next.
But tonight, I let myself drift.
I love you, Emily.I pulled the duvet up to my chin, letting the echo of his words follow me into the dark.
CAM
Saturday, 10:47 AM
Me:Hey. Just checking in. How are you doing?
The three dots appeared almost immediately. Then disappeared. Appeared again. I stared at the screen like an idiot, my coffee going cold on the counter.
