Page 83 of Night Terrors

Speaking of Winder, his eyes drifted shut. No matter how healed he thought he was, he still had a ways to go.

I dragged my chair closer to his bed as quietly as I could, and dropped into it with my eyes closed. If he was going to nap, maybe I could catch a few minutes of sleep, too.

“Blaire.”

Winder was the only person who made my name sound like a demand, and it still made me smile. I opened my eyes. “What’s up?”

He shuffled over on his bed, patting the space beside me. “Come here. I miss you.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Get up here before I come down there and drag you up myself, and then we’ll both be in trouble.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, I’m coming.”

I carefully crawled into bed next to him, my body settling knowing we were next to him once more; we were whole, we wereokay. I lay on my side, tangling my hand in his hair, and kissed him lightly. Emotions churned in my core, demanding a release, and I couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down my face.

We were okay. We were going to be okay. Winder was here next to me, and we were both here, and we were safe.

“Hey, now. What’s all this about?” He wiped away the tears. “I’ll be out of here in no time. I promise, they can’t keep me here forever, even though I think the one nurse might be a sadist.”

Through my tears, I laughed. “I just… I’m just so grateful you’re still here. I thought I lost you for sure. I thought I was telling stories to a dead guy.”

Winder leaned forward and kissed me, the faintest brush of his lips against mine. “I just got a little lost. But I found my way back, and I’m never leaving again.”

I shuffled to curl against him, comfortable in this moment, in us. He wrapped his arm around me, and I reached for him, being careful of the IV’s and sensors stuck to his skin.

“Winder?” Something hit me, a question I’d forgotten to ask in the chaos.

“Yeah, baby?”

“Donovan?”

I could practically hear him wince. “Yeah, so Donovan is my real name. My legal name. No one has used it in years, though.”

I considered his words. “Winder suits you better.”

“Because I can get out of the awful situations I find myself in?”

“No, because you made the best out of the hand you were dealt. That’s something that deserves to be respected, not forgotten.”

“Thank you,” he whispered, an emotion lacing through it I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

“What do we do now?” I asked, holding onto his hand like it was the only thing keeping me on the planet. “Seeing as we have a lifetime to spend with each other.”

“Well, I did promise you flowers.” He smiled, and I laughed.

“I don’t like things I can kill.” I paused, realizing what I had just said. “Don’t start with me.”

This time, he laughed. “Okay, we won’t unpack the irony of that statement right now.”

I shook my head. Even recovering in a hospital bed he was ridiculous. “What do you want to do? I know you have your house, but I’d kind of like some privacy for a little while at least. Are you opposed to staying at my place?”

“I was…I was actually thinking someplace else altogether.” He hesitated. “I know you want to change things, to make things safer for the school kids Conrad was targeting, but right now, I think this town has enough bad memories for the both of us. So, a change of scenery is in order, until we get back on our feet. I have a friend who works down on the coast, on a beach. Still inthe state, in case anyone needs us, but far enough away we can focus on each other for once.”

“The beach, huh? What kind of friend is this anyway?” I’d never tell Winder to change, but the idea of the two of us selling drugs to spring breakers felt a little strange after everything.

“A legitimate friend, I promise. He runs a small resort.” He paused. “I’m not saying it has to be forever. I’m just saying as a next step, to get us off the ground, while we heal from everything. Then maybe we can come back and start to make the changes in the world you wanted to see.”

I didn’t speak, sitting silently with all my feelings. He had just said everything I’d been trying to figure out how to tell him. A fresh start, just the two of us. I didn’t care about my apartment. I only cared about him.

Winder rubbed his thumb across the back of my hand. “Baby? We don’t have to do anything you don’t want. We can stay here; I’ll do whatever you want.”

I shook my head, rolling back to lock gazes with him, his eyes brought back to life once more. “Winder, you’ve always been my home. Where we go doesn’t matter, as long as I’m with you.”

His grin split his face in two, and he pulled me into a close hug, ignoring all the wires and lines attached to him.

I didn’t know what would happen next. And for the first time in my life, it wasn’t a frightening thing. Because I knew I had Winder next to me. He was all I needed.

The moon was everywhere, but it was always whole, and that was something I would never forget.