That cheering outlook led the three of them back through the house to the front porch. The sheriff said he would check in on them the next day while Blake encouraged James to focus on keeping Rose at home for a bit.
“That girl can roll with a lot of punches but staying put to heal from them has never been her strong suit,” Blake added. “Not to step out of line here, but I don’t think she’d mind healing if you were staying put right there with her.”
James told her not to worry. He’d make sure she got the rest she needed. Then the Weavers locked hands and walked slowly to their car. He couldn’t hear everything they said but he spied them looking up at the stars together.
He turned off the porch light to give them some privacy.
James had only spent one night away from his house, but it felt like a lifetime ago. He went through each room, checking every inch to make sure everything was like it had been.
Then he came to a stop at the guest bedroom door.
It was open enough that James could make out Rose, lying in the bed.
She was facing away from him, wrapped up in a quilt.
James had already told her good-night, knowing she was exhausted, and she had returned the sentiment, eyes swollen and heavy. So there was no reason for him to go in to see her now. No reason to talk to her. No reason to be near her.
He could go to his own room across the hall and probably fall asleep in a wink.
Yet, James couldn’t move from his spot at the door.
She was safe now.
His house was safe.
There was no reason to worry. There was no reason to hover. There was no—
James pushed open the door and walked around the side of the bed. Rose opened her eyes to the sound. She didn’t say a word as she watched him.
She didn’t say a thing as he took the covers off her.
She didn’t make a sound as he scooped her up into his arms, her side against his chest and bare legs dangling freely while he walked her out of the guest bedroom and across the hall.
Instead, she let him place her directly into his bed, watched him get in beside her, and accepted the covers he pulled up over them both. He reached up and clicked the light off and kept that silence going until a few minutes passed.
Then, he told her something he had never told another soul.
“When I was a kid, I got into a really bad fight with a teenager in the same foster home as me. He was pushing around a girl in the home with us and I tried to protect her. I did some damage to him but I was just a little thing and I had to have two surgeries on my arm. I hadnightmares after that, recurring bad ones that carried on for years. I’d wake up screaming and crying, and sometimes when it got really bad, I’d just completely shut down until morning. When that happened, no one could get me talking. It was like I was dead to the world. Everyone thought the nightmares were from the fight and the surgeries and getting moved around from foster home to foster home, but it wasn’t any of that.”
He couldn’t see her but knew Rose was looking up at him from her pillow. He took a breath and told her the secret he had kept since he was six.
“The thing that scared me the most was when I woke up in the hospital after my surgery. It was night, the room was dark, and I was alone. And I stayed that way for maybe twenty minutes before a nurse came in to do her rounds. But that twenty minutes? It felt like a lifetime times two. Small, hurt, and in the dark without any idea of what my future looked like. I didn’t know if I was okay, I didn’t know if I was in trouble, and the worst part, I didn’t know if anyone cared about me either.” James could still feel that terror, those fears that had him frozen in that hospital bed until a nurse came in. “Since then, I have spent every day working on making a life that never puts me in that situation again. Making sure I can one day help other kids never feel that too. And I think I’ve done a good job of it so far. I can sleep by myself in a dark room and not worry about a thing. But I’m here to tell you something right now, Rose Little.”
He rolled onto his side to face her.
He imagined her dark eyes searching him but could only make out her silhouette now.
Even that brought him comfort.
“For the first time in my life, the idea of falling asleep alone bothered me more than waking up by myself. So, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to stay with me tonight. At least until I fall asleep, just so I can know you’re here. So I can know that you’re safe. If that’s okay with you.”
In the dark Rose Little said four words.
“It’s okay with me.”
Her hand went beneath the covers and found his. She interlocked their fingers together and, a few minutes later, she was asleep.
James listened to her even breathing, felt the warmth of her hand in his, and smiled into the darkness.
