Page 43 of Hold Your Breath
With him gone, the dark shadows inside the house regained their menace. He disappeared around the corner of the cabin, and she ran for the next window, not able to breathe until she could see him again. Once he was back in sight, Lou made a face at herself. How had she returned to being a scaredy-cat in just the short time he’d been outside?
He paused for a minute outside her bedroom window, staring hard at the ground, but then he continued his circuit. Lou looked away from him for a moment, her eyes scanning the landscape. The trees were huge and menacing—not only in their ability to hide all sorts of frightening things in their shadows, but also their own shapes turned nightmarish in the dark. The tree limbs bobbed and dragged, potentially hiding someone who might be using the tree line as coverright now, staring back at her.
The door flew open, making Lou jump and swallow a scream. Bringing in another gust of frigid air, Callum reentered the cabin, stomping the snow from his boots onto the mat just inside the door. “It’s clear. I want to take another look at those tracks outside your bedroom window once there’s daylight, though. I think there might be fresh boot prints, but it’s too hard to tell in just the moonlight.”
A shiver coursed through her at the thought that her stalker might have returned while she was in a deep sleep. Knowing that the shades would have blocked his view helped, and having Callum there helped even more, but it was still unnerving to be watched.
“Go back to bed where it’s warm,” Callum said, having apparently seen her shake and misinterpreting the cause. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
She turned toward the bedroom. The woodstove caught her eye, and she started to make a detour in its direction. Since she was up, she might as well feed the beast. Besides, she didn’t want to go back to the shadowed emptiness of the bedroom without him.
Callum’s voice stopped her. “I’ve got it. Go to bed.”
Although he was bossy, he was also helpful, so she ceded firewood duty to him. She did give him a “careful, Buddy” look, however, so he’d know her easy-going nature had its limits. Lou wasn’t sure how seriously he took her nonverbal warning, since he laughed, although he quickly turned the sound into a strangled cough.
Even worse than entering the darkened bedroom by herself would be admitting that she was scared, so she made her way—albeit slowly—into the room. Not allowing her gaze to travel to the windows and whoever might be lurking outside, she slid into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. Lou felt like a six-year-old, afraid of monsters under her bed. She hated that someone could do this to her.
This time, she definitely did not fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Instead, she stared at the pine ceiling until Callum returned and slid into bed next to her. Opening her mouth to ask one of the dozen questions hovering in her throat, Lou suddenly realized that she didn’t want to think about it anymore.
“Tell me something else you liked about being a marine,” she asked instead.
There was that pause again, the one that made Lou hold her breath in anticipation, not knowing if Callum would share something about himself or if he’d shut her down, as usual.
“I suddenly had brothers, guys who had my back, no matter what. I liked that.”
She tried to let her breath out silently, so Callum wouldn’t know she’d been holding it. “What didn’t you like?”
She heard the bedclothes rustle, as if he were shifting positions, but she was too afraid of breaking the spell to turn her head and look at him. “Leaving. It was hard, after I was out. I felt…I don’t know, pointless.” He made a small sound of frustration. “That’s not the right word. It’s hard to explain. I was lost for a while until I joined the dive team. Then I had another new family in search and rescue.”
It seemed so big, so important, what he’d shared with her that she didn’t want to diminish it with platitudes. So, keeping her mouth shut for once, she just reached out and found his hand. Lacing their fingers together, she squeezed hard, smiling when he squeezed back.
* * *
Dawn light was creeping around the shades when Lou awoke. Her first impression was of toasty contentment, and she smiled as she snuggled into that lovely warmth. When she realized the source of that heat was Callum pressed against her back, his arm wrapped around her middle, her eyes went wide.
With a sleepy grunt, he pulled her closer. Lou swallowed as her heart went crazy. This wasCallumwrapped around her like a possessive grizzly bear. Should she get out of bed? Go back to sleep? Roll over and kiss him senseless like she’d been wanting to do for months?
The last option was the most tempting. She bit the inside of her cheek, trying to build up the courage to do it. After all, he was the one treating her like a body pillow, so technically he’d made the first move. So what if he’d been unconscious at the time? Plus, there had been that kiss—the kiss that they were apparently going to pretend never happened.
Taking a deep breath, she started to turn when she felt him stiffen. Then he was gone, leaving her back and her heart cold. Before she could recover from his sudden abandonment, there was a rattle of shades, and light poured into the room. With a groan of disappointment, she shoved her head under her pillow, wanting to hide from his rejection as much as from the sun.
“Time to get up,” he announced.
“Five more minutes.”
When he didn’t respond, she figured he’d agreed to her request—at least until he jerked the covers off of her.
“Why do you hate me?” she wailed from beneath her pillow. Although she tucked her knees into her chest, the cold air wouldn’t allow her to fall back asleep.
“We need to leave now if we want to get to the clinic and back before your shift starts.” He did not sound at all contrite about torturing her. With a groan, she reluctantly sat up.
She yawned as he stared at her head with a bemused expression. “What?”
“Your hair. It’s…” As he trailed off, his hands made an exploding type of gesture.
“Whatever,” she grumbled, shoving a few strands out of her eyes. “At least I don’t have your morning face.”
“What?” It sounded like he was trying not to laugh.
