“Hmm. About that, Lily, there’s been—” He stopped and the hand on her knee dropped to his lap as the door opened and Ham poked in his head.
“Da?”
Lily’s lips parted in surprise when her son asked for Roen and not her.
“What is it, Ham?” Roen asked. “What do you need?”
“Bed and a story.”
“Ah, yes.Treasure Island. Go on up and I’ll be there in a few minutes to help you.” When he was gone, Roen said, “Lizzie is either already asleep or ready to drop. I’ll take her. You can stay with Clay and Hannah.”
“You don’t want to work?”
“No. I don’t think so. Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins beckon.”
•••
Lily sat up, thumped her pillow, and tried lying down again with one arm hanging over the edge. She was back to sleeping on her side of the bed, but there was nothing comfortable about the familiar depression. She may as well have been sleeping on stones. Huffing softly, she turned again, this time flinging her arm sideways toward the middle of the bed.
“Lily?” Roen flipped back his blankets and got to his knees. He rested his forearms on the edge of the mattress and peered over the side of the bed. “Have you slept at all?”
“Hardly a wink.” She turned toward him and drew her arm under the pillow. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
“I wasn’t sleeping well myself. Only quieter about it.” He picked up a blanket from the floor, stood, and began to roll it. “May I?” he asked, using his chin to point to the middle.
Lily nodded, realized he could only dimly make her out, and then said she was fine with the bundling blanket. When Roen tossed it on the bed, she straightened it. “Perhaps it should be thicker,” she said. “Taller.”
“It’s the middle of the night. I’m not building the Great Wall.” Still, he yanked on one of the comforters and began to roll it on the edge of the bed. When he was done, he pushed it toward the middle. “Good?” he asked.
“Better.”
Roen lifted the covers and slipped under them. He turned onto his back and cradled his head in his hands. “Infinitely better.”
“I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing.”
“Oh, I know we’re not.”
Lily chuckled quietly. “Good night.” She edged toward the barrier blankets and curled on her side so that her knees were close to her chest. She folded her arms around them and shut her eyes.
“According to you, those blankets are there so you keep your distance.”
“You’re wrong. They are there so you keep yours.”
He sighed. “G’night, Lily.”
•••
They were a complicated tangle of arms and legs and twisted blankets when they woke. Lizzie was standing at the foot of the bed, watching them as raptly as she had listened to Roen’s tale about Old Man McCauley.
Lily was flushed pink with sleep and a fair amount of embarrassment as she tried to disentangle herself. Roen, she noticed, looked perfectly at ease as if this were a situation he managed every morning. He sat up while she was only able to raise herself on her elbows. His feet were uncovered and he wiggled his bare toes at Lizzie.
Giggling, she pointed to his feet. “I wear my socks to bed.”
“Mine are on the floor. Would you get them for me?”
She nodded and went to the side of the bed closest to him. She put them on her hands like mittens and held out her arms to show him that his socks came nearly to her elbows.
Roen plucked them off one at a time and pulled them on his feet. “Thank you.”
