Page 123 of Malachi
She nodded through the welling tears in her eyes.
“I did the right thing,” she repeated. I nodded, giving her silent praise as she came back to me.
“You did the right thing, love. And I am so fucking proud of you.” My throat felt tight with emotion and unshed tears as I pulled her close, wrapping my arms around her in the most complete embrace I think I had ever given to anyone in my entire life.
The feel of her body against mine was a stark reminder, one that I desperately needed.
She was here. She was safe. We were okay. We were all going to be okay.
“Fuck, I’m hungry. Is anyone else hungry?” Ollie exclaimed, breaking the tension in the room as laughter, or at least chuckles, rang out from each of us.
“How can you think about eating at a time like this?” Levi scoffed, but there was a grin on his face.
“Hey, don’t yuck my yum, dude. Trauma does weird things to people,” Ollie shrugged.
“Fucking facts, Ollie. Fucking facts,” Naomi chuckled.
“There’s food in the fridge. Make yourself at home,” I stated, but he was already halfway to the kitchen before my words were even fully formed. “As you already are,” I muttered, shaking my head with a smile.
“Is it me, or does it feel like it’s well past midnight?” Gideon asked, glancing out of the bay window at the pitch black sky.
“It is after midnight. One in the morning, actually. How is that even possible? How does it feel like it should only be dinner time, but it also feels like two days have passed?” Levi agreed, running a hand through his hair.
“We were kind of preoccupied today. Not like we had the chance to check the time while literally running for our lives,” Ruth agreed.
“Anyone else need a drink?” I offered, my arm still wrapped around Eden’s slight frame.
“Oh my God, yes!” Levi groaned.
“Thank fuck! I thought you would never ask,” Delilah agreed.
“I don’t have much in the way of drinks other than whiskey. I might have something else —”
“Whiskey is perfect,” Delilah cut me off.
“You want whiskey? Are you sure?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
“What? Girls can’t drink whiskey?” she shot back, leveling me with a look. With a shrug, I helped Eden to sit back on the sofa before heading to my office for glasses and the bottle.
Minutes later, we were all situated, comfortable with our partners and glasses in hand.
“I’ve gotta say, you ladies are some of the biggest badasses I’ve ever known,” Ollie stated, taking a sip of his whiskey between bites of food. He’d put together a large plate of random finger foods that all of us were nibbling on as we talked.
“We did okay, didn’t we?” Delilah agreed with a sigh. No matter how much we wanted to lighten the mood, it was impossible after such a day. There was too much to process, too much to talk about.
“I still can’t believe what an excellent shot you were, Eden,” Gideon commented. I wanted to smack him over the head for bringing it up again. She had only recently calmed down enough to nibble on a few crackers as she took sips of my whiskey.
“Me either, honestly,” she chuckled. “But it was like time slowed down. I was able to focus like never before. And I just didn’t think.”
“Like seriously, though. You climbed up in a tree and did the thing. Then jumped down like it was nothing.”
“Oh, it wasn’t nothing,” I scoffed, pointing down at her wrapped ankle. She hadn’t broken it, but she definitely had a horrific sprain. “I can’t believe you jumped down to the ground on that ankle, love.”
“I did what I had to do, right?” she shrugged.
“That you did, darling,” I praised her, squeezing my hand on her thigh.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m crashing,” Naomi sighed.
