"Sore." He smiled, small and tired. "We're a pair."
"We are."
She shifted closer, pressing herself against his side. He wrapped his good arm around her.
"What time is it?" she asked.
"No idea. Don't care."
"We should probably get up. Deal with the door. Talk to Diaz."
"Probably." He didn't move. "Five more minutes."
"Five more minutes," she agreed.
They lay there in the quiet, the morning sun slowly filling the room. Tessa could hear birds outside, the distant sound of a car passing. Normal sounds. Safe sounds.
Her phone buzzed on the nightstand. She ignored it. It buzzed again.
"That's probably Diaz," Brian said.
"Probably."
She reached for it anyway. Three texts from Diaz, two from Bree, one from an unknown number that turned out to be Dr. Hendricks.
Diaz: Call me when you're up. Need to go over a few things.
Bree: Coffee and breakfast at our place whenever you're ready. No rush. Love you both.
Dr. Hendricks: Heard what happened. Take all the time you need. The job will be here when you're ready.
Tessa stared at the last message. She hadn't even officially accepted the position yet, and already the town was treating her as if she belonged.
"Good news?" Brian asked.
"Hendricks. Telling me to take my time." She set the phone down. "I haven't even said yes yet."
"You going to?"
"Yeah." She said it without hesitation. "I am."
They got up slowly, moving like old people, everything stiff and sore. The bathroom mirror showed Tessa what she'd expected: dark bruises ringing her throat like a necklace. She touched them gently, remembering Carla's hands, the pressure, the way her vision had started to go gray at the edges.
Then Brian had been there, and Carla was gone, and she could breathe again.
She covered the bruises with a scarf and went to face the day.
The living room looked better than she'd expected. Someone had cleaned up the blood, righted the furniture, and swept up the glass. A sheet of plywood covered where the sliding door had been.
"Hank and Colby," Brian said, reading her expression. "They stayed until three in the morning getting everything sorted."
"I didn't even hear them."
"You were out cold. So was I, mostly." He moved to the kitchen and started the coffee maker. "New door's coming tomorrow. Hank knows a guy."
"Hank knows a guy for everything."
"Small town. Everyone knows a guy."
