Page 29 of Sharp Lies

“Warren?” I gasped, dropping to my knees next to him. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Another firework went off at that point, followed by several more, and he moaned and jerked like he’d just been hit by the explosives. I put a hand on his shoulder and found him shaking, and when another firework led to the same reaction from him, I bent down to look at his face.

“Warren?”

He didn’t respond. His eyes were shut tightly, his mouth drawn into a grim line, and I could see from the tension on his face that he was in some sort of panicked state. He didn’t look conscious at all, but like he was asleep and dreaming the most horrible dream he’d ever had. His hands were balled up into fists and held tightly against his chest, his legs drawn up over them.

He was having a panic attack. I didn’t get them myself, but I’d had a friend who did, and this was exactly what it had looked like.

Oh shit. I tried to remember what we’d been told to do for that friend when she went into an episode like this, and for a long second, I drew a blank. Then suddenly I heard her mom telling us.

“She got into a car accident when she was young, and memories of it come back whenever there’s a loud noise,” she’d said. “If it happens when you’re around, don’t try to wake her up. Just pull her to you and hold her. Tell her it’ll be okay and keep her safe. Make sure she doesn’t hurt herself.”

Right. I barely knew the guy in front of me, and I definitely didn’t think he’d ever want anyone to see him in this state. But the rules were the rules. I lay down against his back, ignoring the chill of the concrete underneath me, and wrapped my arms around him. Silver watched me for a moment, then lay down in front of him and shoved her nose into his neck.

And when the next firework went off, we held him still as he twitched, absorbing his shivers and lending him our warmth.

We stayed that way for what felt like about an hour, though I doubted that was true. It was only the fireworks, after all. Fifteen minutes, at most, and less than that if you considered how long they’d been going before I got over here. When the sky outside finally fell silent and stayed that way, I let out a long breath and let myself relax a bit.

In front of me, Warren twitched a bit like he was just waking up and then twitched again, presumably because he’d just realized he had a girl he didn’t know and a dog cuddled up next to him on the floor of his basement. He stretched out, and though I thought for sure he’d pull away and send me home, his next move shocked me.

Instead of pushing me away, he turned so he was facing me, put his head on my shoulder, and blew out a shaking, hesitant breath while I tightened my arms around him.

CHAPTER 14

LILY

––––––––

I DIDN’T TALK TO WARREN for two days, though that wasn’t on purpose. I was at my mom’s house doing the same thing I’d been doing for several weeks now: cleaning up the place and working with the handymen who were working on the changes we needed to the house. We’d figured out that although she could get most things done on the bottom floor, there were also things she wanted to do upstairs, and getting her there without me having to help was important.

If nothing else, it meant her doing things without having to constantly ask, and we’d already decided that was important to her mental well-being.

So I’d called the handymen back and ordered one of the attachments to the staircase for her, which meant not only having the guys in the house to install it but also figuring out how to keep two wheelchairs available for her at all times—one at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom. This had led to us deciding on a new opening to the side of the top of the staircase, where we could push the upstairs chair while it wasn’t in use, and that led to a whole lot more construction than we’d anticipated.

We were busy, and the house was cluttered. Though that wouldn’t have stopped me from talking to Warren if he’d been around.

The thing was, though, he hadn’t been.

I paused now on the porch and stared across the yard at his house, wondering what was going on over there and thinking back to the night of the fourth. Once the fireworks had stopped, he’d pulled away, dried his eyes, and looked up at me.

“Thank you,” he said quietly. “I wasn’t... I wasn’t expecting them to be so loud.”

I’d remembered then that he wasn’t actually from this town and so didn’t know how much pride the town took in its annual fireworks display. He’d probably thought there would be fireworks in Chicago but not all the way out here. And instead, there had been explosions going off right over the town.

That didn’t explain why he’d had the reaction he had. But I’d taken one look at his still-strained, very pale face and decided I wasn’t going to ask what was going on. I knew he’d been in the military and figured it might have something to do with that.

I’d also thought at the time that it hadn’t been any of my business, and though Warren had helped me with Tony, that didn’t give me a right to any of his secrets.

But that hadn’t stopped him from reaching out and taking my hand when I tried to stand up. “Let me take you out to dinner as thanks,” he said quietly.

My skin had buzzed at the contact, my heart hammering at the intensity of his gaze.

And I’d said yes without thinking twice.

Because that man...

He needed someone to be there for him. And though I never would have expected it, I wanted to be that person.