Page 55 of Sudden Summer

I chuckled, dropping my voice to a whisper. “Us, of course.”

“We are? That’s news to me.” She smiled as her eyes drifted shut.

“Don’t think for a goddamn second that I don’t see us going the whole way. A wedding, with Connor and Beckett as the ring bearers and Juniper as the flower girl. I keep thinking of Stone and Mae’s wedding. Maybe you’ll be pregnant by, ours, too.”

But there wasn’t a reply. Because my beautiful little bird had fallen back asleep, safe and warm in my arms.

Birdie

My heart squished violently in my chest as my eyes popped open. I’d been hoping I’d wake up to a room filled with sunlight, but no. Instead the late night darkness made the walls feel like they were closing in.

My wrist and ankle throbbed in sync with my racing heartbeat, but that was my own stubborn fault. I should have taken another dose of the pain killers. Beau woke me up two times, I think, since I fell back to sleep in his arms, practically begging me to take them, but I didn’t like not being able to feel my body. I wanted a little pain to help stay grounded.

Unfortunately, that was a fine line, and I’d swung too far over into the pain direction. I needed to take something.

Sitting up was more difficult than I anticipated, especially moving to get out of the bed without waking up Beau. A pang of guilt hit deep in my belly. Juniper should be home. But instead, she was spending the night with Jessie and Hawk, because Beau needed to take care of me.

I set my feet on the floor, trying not to howl at the acidic pain that shot through my ankle. My body clearly needed time.

Time to heal.

Time to process.

Time to forget.

My silent footfalls got me down the stairs and into the kitchen. I grabbed a glass from next to the sink, slightly limping towards the fridge to fill it with water.

Back at the sink, I lifted the glass to my mouth as I looked out into the vast black that surrounded the house. The water from the springs here on the Silver Ridge Ranch was even more crisp since it had been refrigerated after being bottled at the well house. There was nothing better in the world, though. I know Beau didn’t believe in the lore, but I did. There was something healing in the water.

A flash of movement outside the kitchen window pulled my attention away from my drink. I stilled, my eyes whipping back and forth across the glass panes to try and detect anything, but I didn’t see movement again.

What I did finally see, as my eyes adjusted to looking out into the night, had me jumping back, the glass in my hand slipping out of my grip and shattering into a thousand pieces on the floor. Still, I didn’t stop. I slipped over the glass, trying to get my voice to work. I wanted to scream, but nothing came out. I tried. I tried when the eyes I saw staring through the window at me disappeared. I tried when the door handle to the back porch jiggled, and the eyes appeared in the door. Nothing would come out.

Hands landed on my shoulders, and the edges of my vision started to blur. Breath rattled out of my chest, but I couldn’t pull any air in.

“Christ,” Beau growled as he scooped me up and walked to the sofa, where he deposited me. His hands were still on me, grounding me as I fought to catch my breath while he crouched down in front of me.

“What the hell happened?” he asked. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head. I wanted to say more. To explain what I’d just seen out the window. But a wave of nausea slammed into me, and the only thing I managed was to double over, my arms wrapped tight around my waist.

“Fuck, you’re bleeding,” he hissed as he lifted my feet up, placing them gently on the coffee table. “Give me one second.”

He stood, and suddenly the fear was back, racing through my body. I scrambled to hold onto his arm, shaking my head so hard it felt like I’d trigger a migraine.

“Birdie, what is going on?”

I pulled him back towards me, until he was close enough to the sofa that I could tug him down. The second the back of his legs touched the cushions, I was burying myself in his chest.

“Okay, okay. Just breathe. I’m so sorry I didn’t realize what this was. You’re safe. You’re safe, baby.”

“No,” I groaned.

“No?”

“He was here,” I whispered.

Beau’s body froze. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I should be telling him to breathe, but since I could barely manage my own lungs, I tucked my head into the crook of his neck and tried to find comfort in the last lingering tendrils of his body wash.