“Of course.” He nodded. “I’ll keep you in my prayers, Juliette.”
People sometimes say that, but I actually believed he would. “Thank you, Father.” I shrugged. “And you never know, you might see me again.”
“I would love that.”
I’d never considered myself a religious person. But there was something to be said for a man who listened, who offered to pray for you. It felt like Father Maloney was as close to God as I was going to get right now, and someone up there had known I needed that talk.
I took the kind priest’s words to heart. I left the chapel with a renewed sense of hope that there was still some good in the world.
When I returned to Wes’s room, he was awake.
“Hey,” I said as I sat by his bedside. “How are you feeling?”
“Alive but in pain.” He sounded like he’d swallowed a toad.
I ran a gentle hand through his hair. “I’m so sorry.”
He placed his hand over mine. “Nothing to be sorry for. You didn’t do anything. This is what I signed up for.”
“It doesn’t matter what you say. I feel like this is my fault.”
“I’d do it all over again,” he said.
Wes hadn’t said the wordsI love youearlier. But did he need to say them when his actions spoke so much louder?
“They’re going to discharge you in a few days, right?” My voice shook. “What if after you recover fully, we run away?”
His eyes widened. “Run away to where?”
“We could go back to Ortigia or—”
“You think we can get away with that? Your father will have my head if I disappear with you.”
“But wouldn’t it be easier to deal with everything away from the States? Why couldn’t I convince my father that we’d be safer there? He’s already got his goons on my trail. Can’t they guard me from anywhere? I feel like the farther from the US we go, the safer we’ll be.”
“You can’t leave your job and everything you’ve worked for.” He flinched in pain. “You’re just scared. And it’s understandable. But we have to find a better way to deal with this situation than running away. That would be like letting evil win.”
My foreboding feeling about something being off with Wes continued to haunt me. Today’s trouble had nearly made me forget that things weren’t perfect between us at the farmer’s market before everything went down.
“Can I stay with you tonight?” I asked.
“You need to get a good night’s sleep. You’ve been through a lot, too. I think you should go home.”
“I’m sort of afraid to leave the hospital, knowing that whoever did this is still out there.”
He nodded and reached out his hand. “I understand, baby. If you’re scared, you should stay. I was just thinking that the sooner you get back to your life, the better.”
Mylife?
Notourlife.
I thought for a moment and decided I couldn’t let fear win. Hiding out in the hospital with no good place to sleep would’ve meant doing just that. I sighed. “I think Iamgonna head homeand try to rest.”
“Good call.”
“But I’ll be back here first thing in the morning,” I assured him.
“Okay.” He smiled.
