Page 59 of Things We Hide from the Light
Still holding his hand, I sat next to him on the floor. My shoulder and arm pressed against his. His body’s fading tremors rolled through mine and I absorbed them.
“I’ll relax when you stop scaring the hell out of me.” I bumped my shoulder into his. “Starting to fade?”
He nodded slowly. “Yeah.”
“Then let’s get you upstairs before you crash,” I said. I got to my feet, plucked Piper out of his lap, and set her on the ground. Then I held out a hand.
He stared at it, head cocked, thumb pressing into the spot between his eyebrows.
“Come on. You know as well as I do that the crash sucks almost as much. You can either lean on me or I’ll call your brother.”
“Mean,” he said before taking my hand. It took effort from both of us, but I managed to get him on his feet at the foot of the stairs.
“Kids in elementary school used to call me Meana because I was so bossy,” I confessed. I ducked under his arm and wrapped my own around his waist.
“Kids are assholes,” he wheezed.
We tackled the first step together. Piper dashed ahead of us, tail wagging. Nash was holding back, trying not to put too much of his weight on me. But there was a long flight of stairs between us and his apartment.
“It started with these twins in elementary school, Darla and Marla. Pretty, popular, and they wore matching, name-brand outfits,” I told him.
“They sound horrible,” Nash joked. “Want me to do a run on them? See how many times they’ve been arrested?”
I laughed and felt him give me just a little bit more of his weight.
My legs were trembling from my workout that morning. I was not looking forward to sitting down to pee tomorrow.
“So what are the odds that you’ll magically forget this ever happened tomorrow?” Nash asked as we took a break halfway up the stairs.
Piper returned to us, sniffed anxiously first at Nash’s shoes, then mine, before running back to the top.
“I can be bribed.”
“Name your price,” he said, taking the next step.
“Cheese sticks,” I decided.
“The cold, peeling kind or the clog-your-arteries kind?”
He still sounded winded as we trudged along, but not like he was fighting for every molecule of oxygen.
“No contest,” I scoffed. “Give me all the deep-fried goodness.”
“I’ll keep you in fried mozzarella for the rest of your days if you never tell anyone about this.”
“Unlikesomepeople, I respect the privacy of others,” I said pointedly as we finally hit the top step. Piper danced in front of us like she was proud of our accomplishment.
He sighed. “There you go again, Meana. Kickin’ a man when he’s down.”
I angled us toward his door. “Keys, hotshot.”
He didn’t quite manage to hide the wince when he used his left hand to dig into his pocket.
Bullet wounds and panic attacks. Nash Morgan was a hot mess. Emphasis on the hot.
I took the keys from him and unlocked his door. Piper darted across the threshold into the dark apartment.
Nash pulled me along with him as he reached for the light switch and flicked it on.
