She pressed closer and asked, “Is it nightmares?”
Fuck.
He didn’t want to get into this with her.
This was one of the things that drove them away.
“No.”
She didn’t utter a follow-up question.
But for some reason, his mouth moved.
“Conditioned myself to wake up before they happen.”
“Okay,” she said softly.
“I don’t go back to sleep’cause…”
He didn’t finish.
She still said, “Yeah.”
She knew why.
If he went back to sleep, the nightmares would come.
She left it there.
Or she leftthatthere.
“The other women—?”
It didn’t take her long to deduce that.
“Not big fans of the nightmares or me getting up at two orthree in the morning.”
Her frame got tight.
“Lottie, it’s okay,” he assured her.
“It really isn’t,” she replied.
“It is because I’m not with them, I’m with you.”
He heard her head move on the sheet and he looked down atthe shadow of her face in the dark.
“This is true.It’s still not okay.Didn’t they talk to youabout it?”
“Yeah.The rigmarole.Find a way to sort it out.VA.Pills.Groups.”
“And?”
“The VA is a clusterfuck.Pills slow me up and I cannot beslow and do my job.And I got a group.”
The pitch of her voice was higher with her surprise when sheasked, “You’re in a group?”
“It consists of Axl, Mag, Auggie and Boone.Sometimes, shitgoes down with one of us, or one of us sees the other’s gotsomethin’up, we hit someone’s crib, have a few beers, talk it out.”
