Page 184 of Pucking Them
With an effort, I force my eyes to open.
I’m staring up at the night sky. Even the light of the stars hurts my pounding head. But when I glance down and realize that I’m lying in silver sheets in my black silk pajamas, I relax.
I’m in my bedroom in Freedom Mansion.
I’m home.
Slowly, fragments of what happened begin to take shape in my mind.
I’m not only home.
I’m alive.
And I almost wasn’t.
I thought that I would never be here again.
My chest tightens.
Once, this had been nothing but an empty mansion. It was a place of loneliness. But then, the twins and Robyn filled it with their sunny joy.
They lit up its darkness, and my own.
Suddenly, I’m desperate to see that Robyn and Shay are real. I only heard them when they burst in like they were my white knights for once.
Clumsily, I twist on my side on the mattress.
My muscles are weak.
I hurt everywhere.
But all I need right now is Robyn and Shay.
They rode with me in the ambulance, Eden as well. I remember flashes of their faces, then Michael and his tests.
Yet it is blurred like it was happening to someone else.
“Robyn,” I whisper. It doesn’t sound like my voice. I clear my throat and try again, stronger this time. “Robyn.”
“Hey, he’s awake.” Immediately, Robyn leans over me, pushing me gently onto my back again.
She was already lying on the bed with me.
Has she left my side at all?
She is dressed in one of Eden’s cat t-shirts with the embroidered image on the front of a kitten drinking tea, along with the white words:Sip Happens, Just Purr.
If the stars are out, then does that mean it’s Friday evening? Have I been unconscious or asleep all day?
Shay bounces onto the bed, crawling to my other side. “How are you feeling?”
His hair is a mess, and his eyes are red-rimmed like he’s been crying for hours.
My heart clenches.What if he has?
He is naked. Not a surprise.
I swipe over my dry lips. “Like I’ve been run over by my own car.Twice.”
