Page 15 of Miles

I found it difficult to imagine him being out of control in any other situation.

“Do you accept my apology?” he asked.

I nodded. What other choice did I have?

He visibly relaxed. “I wanted to put your mind at ease, is all. You managed to miss the rocks at the base of the cliff. I’d been swimming and happened to see you up there, before you… fell.” He cleared his throat, obviously trying to be kind. He knew the truth as well as I did. “I swam over. You were floating on your back, completely unconscious, bleeding pretty badly.”

It made sense, I supposed, though it would be just my luck to avoid hitting the rocks. Imagine if I had woken up in the water, I thought with dismay. Drowning out there, alone, would’ve been a pretty terrible death. He’d saved me from that.

I stared at him, willing him to understand how grateful I was. Granted, there was no way of knowing how the rest of my life would turn out, and I might very well end up wishing he’d let me die, but he didn’t have to save me. Even if the entire purpose of my still being alive was to learn that there were truly good, giving people in the world, it would be worth it.

He came back to me, moving slowly. A little tentative. “If you’re up to it, I could take you for a walk around the grounds tomorrow. There’s a wheelchair we could use. I’m sure you’d like to get out of here for a little while—and the surgeon recommended you get up and around, if possible.”

I nodded, smiling. So long as it was him, I would go anywhere. My hero, my rescuer. I imagined him holding me in his arms as he swam back to shore.

He had to be just as strong as he looked, if not more so, to manage something like that. It was dangerous to put him up on a pedestal, and I knew it, but it couldn’t be helped.

A series of lines appeared between his eyebrows when he frowned. “Do you think there are people looking for you?”

Just like that, the warm, fuzzy glow that had started to grow in my core went dark. He may as well have dumped a bucket of ice water over me.

I looked away again, ashamed and afraid he would press the subject. The only thing to do was shake my head and hope he didn’t pursue the topic any further.

He was quiet for a long time. I wondered what he was thinking. That I had tried to end it all because I was alone? Or because my family had disowned me? I could only hope for such a lucky break.

“All right,” he sighed. “Well, you’re here now. And we’ll do everything we can to get you back on your feet. Rest now. We’ll have our walk in the morning.”

I did rest, knowing he was with me. He had already saved me and wouldn’t let any harm come my way. It was one of those things I didn’t need to be told to know it was true.

The rest of my dreams that night were good ones. Antonio didn’t come back.

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