Henry Cavill comes over and sets his head in my lap. I rub my hands through his hair and sigh.
“Do you want me to skedaddle into my room so you girls can really spill the beans?” Mom offers.
I say, “You don’t have to,” at the same time as Avery says, “Yes, please. If you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind,” Mom says. “Besides, these walls are thin as paper. I’ll hear it all from my room anyway. Don’t you mind me.”
She stands, walks over and places a kiss on top of my head.
“Tomorrow’s a new day, Hallie. And you have the day off.” Mom smiles and smooths my hair.
“And I’m taking Mia,” Avery says.
I hadn’t even thought about being off. I would have gone to work if I had to, but a weight lifts from my shoulders knowing I don’t have to function at full capacity.
“I want to go back to the hospital,” I say. “When I wake up, I’ll head over there. They’re discharging Greyson sometime during the day. I want to be by his side.”
“Of course you do, dear,” Mom says. “And you should be.”
“He’s got nurses,” Avery says. “You need sleep. Don’t set an alarm.”
“We’ll see,” I tell her.
I don’t even know how I’m going to sleep. I’m tired enough, I feel like I could sleep for a week. But my skin feels too tight and my thoughts prickle relentlessly.
Mom heads into her room. I grab the mug of warm broth and take a sip. Then I eat a few bites of toast.
“You sure you don’t want a sandwich?” Ave asks.
“This is perfect.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asks carefully.
“It?”
“The fire? Greyson’s injury? Your day? Mia’s declaration?”
I shake my head. “She had no idea.”
“But she meant it,” Avery says, confirming what I saw.
“Yeah. She did,” I say. “Easy-breezy and full of truth.”
“Is that the sign you were waiting for?”
“Pretty much.”
“So this,” she flattens her palm and waves it in a circle toward my exhausted face. “Is just you being tapped out from fighting a fire and witnessing Greyson get injured?”
“No. There’s a lot more.” I sigh. “It seems like Mia’s words sent Greyson running in the other direction. Or maybe it was the fire. Or a combination of both.”
“He just went through a fire—one that injured him,” Avery says. “He basically stared death in the face.”
“I know. I’m trying to take all that into account.” I look over at my sister, my expression pleading with her for something—I don’t even know what. “There was something in his eyes, though. He’s questioning us. I can tell.”
“You can’t say that today, Hal. He’s in a hospital bed, on pain meds, processing a lot.”
“Yeah. And …” I blow out a breath. “He got a job offer in DC.”
