I blink and Aerin’s suddenly has a straw in her hands that she very gently rests against my lower lip.
“Drink,” she says softly. “You’ve been surviving on ice chips so your throat has to be killing you, right?”
I want to agree with her, but nothing comes. Instead, I focus on wrapping my lips around the straw and drinking the warm water. With each gulp, more clarity weaves through my mind.
We’re in the spare room. My right arm is numb. My abdomen is numb. The curtains are drawn but through the crack at the top I spot a dark sky. It’s late.
“How long?” I finally croak out.
Aerin’s brows lift and a flash of delight crosses her face. “Five days. It’s Wednesday night, nearly Thursday. You had a fever that kept us worried for a while there, but it broke yesterday. Then it was just a case of waiting for you to wake up. Bullet gave you a lot of blood and said he’d be pissed if you wasted it.”
I grow more alert and awake with every sip of water until Aerin pulls it away from my lips.
“Five days,” I repeat hoarsely.
She nods slowly.
Five days. She called Pidge, which brings me more relief than I can express. He never gave me the code to say he was in position nearby and I didn’t have time to check. The fact that she called them and not her father, though, tells me everything I need to know about how much Aerin understands about the danger she’s in.
“Tell me…everything.”
Aerin perches on the edge of my bed and starts to talk. Calmly, she describes everything she did to save my life, from the belt to the gunpowder. She details every step she took and Pidge’s terrifying arrival, then the following days of cleaning the cabin, maintaining cover, and ensuring that no one else found us. All of that plus remaining at my bedside to take care of me with what limited medical equipment Bullet brought with him.
“You saved my life,” I say when she finishes talking, my voice much stronger.
Aerin shrugs one shoulder and smiles. “Figured I owed you one.”
“I’m going to be okay?”
She nods. “Bullet said the knife didn’t nick anything important, but you’re going to have a wicked scar from what I did with the gunpowder. He did say your arm, though…” Her eyes drift to my numb limb and I follow, gazing at the swathes of bandages covering the limb. “He doesn’t think anything important was torn, but he couldn’t tell. Only when you woke up would he be able to find out if you’re still able to move everything important.”
“Like?”
“Your fingers.” Aerin’s hand lowers and she lightly brushes her fingertips over my knuckles. Despite the numbness in my arm, the warmth of her touch is like a beacon and they react on reflex, which makes her smile. “I’m not a doctor but that’s got to be good, right?”
“I think so.”
Aerin swallows audibly and when she looks back at me, tears shine in her eyes. In my current state, the sight of them is like a blade to the gut.
“Aerin…”
“I was so scared you were going to die,” she whispers, shaking her head. “Promised myself if you woke up, I wouldn’t cry.”
“You can cry.”
She shakes her head again, sending her hair rushing around her shoulders. “I couldn’t imagine not seeing you again, or speaking to you, or thanking you or…or anything, really. One minute you were here and then it was like you were gone and I hate that I—” She cuts herself off and sniffles, then she looks at me. “It’s unfair of me to ask this when you’re doped up on painkillers, I have to ask you something and I want an honest answer.”
My mind is blank at the possible questions she could have right now, so I nod slowly against the pillow. “Ask me.”
“Pidge told me about Gina.”
My gut tightens immediately.
“He told me everything and said he’d gladly have you mad at him if it meant you woke up.” She quickly swipes away a tear that escapes down her cheek. “Everything that’s happened between us. From the shower to the kiss to helping each other… I’m not crazy. I know there’s something between us. I feel it and I know it’s there. But you keep pushing me away. You act like those things are part of your job description, but I know you’re lying. You have to be because when I thought you were dying, it was like my whole world screeched to a stop and I couldn’t breathe. So you tell me right now, you tell me the truth…you feel something for me, don’t you?”
Oh.
Oh.
