Chapter 27:
I couldn't sleep.
Neither could he.
We lay in the dark in his bed — the big one, the one he'd never let anyone into before, the one with the sheets that smelled like him — and neither of us said a word for a long time.
Then he said, "You awake?"
"Yeah."
"Come here."
I was already there. But I moved closer.
He put his arm around me and pulled me in until my back was against his chest and his face was in my hair.
"You smell like the hill," he said.
"I smell like dirt and fear."
"You smell like you."
"That's not better."
"It's better."
I laughed into the pillow.
---
We lay like that for a while.
His hand was flat on my stomach. His thumb was moving, slow, back and forth over the fabric of my shirt.
"Kael."
"Mm."
"Your hand."
"What about it."
"It's moving."
"
