Bed time
1054 Words
*Briony*
I sit on the edge of the bed, waiting for my sleeping companion. I have put on a clean blouse and skirt that I brought from Georgia. I can't quite bring myself to sleep in my nightgown. I hear a soft tapping and rise to my feet. "Come in."
The door opens, and Wade peers into the room. "Are you ready for me to come inside?"
I nod. With one long stride, he's in the room, looking as uncomfortable as I feel.
"You want the door closed?" he asks.
I nod again, my voice seemingly absent from the room.
He sets his saddlebags near the door and glances around the room, his gaze avoiding both me and the bed. Finally, he lets out a long, slow breath and meets my eyes. "I figure we got two choices here. I can either sneak out the window and sneak back in at dawn, or I can sleep on the floor."
"Or you can sleep in the bed," I suggest.
His gaze flickers to the bed.
"I think it would hurt Julieta's feelings if she somehow discovered that you hadn't slept in the bed." I explain.
"Yeah, well, right now I'm more concerned with your feelings," he admits.
"Are you?" I query, intrigued.
His eyes meet mine. "Yes."
"Well, right now, I'm tired and would love to sleep in a bed. If we keep our clothes on, with the bundle board between us, I see no problem with us sharing the bed." I tell him.
A smile seems to plays at the corner of his mouth. "You don't think I could crawl over that?"
I tilt my chin up defiantly. "I don't think you would crawl over it."
He accepts my challenge with grace. "All right. Which side do you want?"
"I'll take this side next to the table."
He crosses the room and sits on the side of the bed nearest the window. The ropes supporting the mattress creak under his weight. "Can I take off my boots?"
"And your hat and your coat," I agree.
I take one last look around the room. Julieta's clothes hang in a wardrobe without doors. Her wardrobe has fewer clothes than my new one, but Julieta has something I don't.
"Oh, isn't this beautiful?" I murmur in a hushed tone of awe as I cross the room and touch the delicate white lace over the silk gown.
"White's not very practical," Wade comments. "It would be showing all the dirt before the morning was half over."
"A she-wolf would only wear it once," I counter.
"Seems like a waste of money then," he says.
I sigh. "I suppose, but I guess you're paying for all the memories it would hold."
"Memories?" he echoes.
"Yes," I answer, glancing over my shoulder at him sitting on the bed, briefly wondering if men cling to memories the way women do. "A she-wolf would wear it on her wedding day."
He frowns. "What are you gonna wear when you marry Chase?"
I shrug and walk to the bed. "Something that we purchased in Fort Worth, I imagine."
"You should have told me you needed something special." He says.
I sit on the bed with my back to him and remove my shoes. "I don't need something special." I quickly slip beneath the covers and roll to my side, my back against the bundle board.
The bed shifts as he stretches out on the other side of the board.
"Do you mind if I keep the lamp burning?" I ask.
"Don't mind at all." He says.
I can’t help but ask. "Will it keep you awake?"
"No. I always sleep with a light burning." He says.
I roll to my back. "You do?"
"Yep. The light from a campfire or the lamp beside my bed."
His gruff voice reveals more than his words, a vulnerability that I sense he doesn't often share. I hug myself, treasuring the information he's entrusted to me. "Is Chase's house like this one?"
"Nope." He mumbles.
"What does it look like?" I ask.
He pauses before answering. "It's big."
"Is it pretty?" I want to know.
"Chase thinks so." He says.
"But you don't think so." I know it instantly.
He sighs deeply. "I don't think you can really appreciate it until you've seen it."
"Do you live there?" I ask.
"No, I got my own place about an hour’s ride away."
"Is it big?" I ask.
He sounds like he has fond memories of his home when he answers. "No. It's smaller than this place. Just one room, but it suits me."
I draw the covers up to my chin, watching the shadows dance on the wall as the flame inside the lamp flickers. I can imagine Wade in his one-room house, with his horses and the stars.
"Good night," I whisper, turning to my side.
"Briony?" He says.
I turn my head slightly. "Yes?"
"If you hear that animal cry out like you did some time back... just ignore it." He says.
I had suspected it was his cry I had heard, not an animal's, but a wail of someone lost.
"Sometimes, I cry out at night, too," I admit softly.
He doesn't respond, and I hadn't expected him to. I let the silence settle around me, closing my eyes as the lantern light dances across my eyelids, its presence comforting. The bed shifts again.
"Briony?"
I roll over and come up on my elbow, finding Wade has done the same. Our gazes lock, his just a bit higher than mine. I freeze, holding my breath, watching his Adam's apple move.
"I... uh... I wanted to thank you for the shave. I've never felt anything so fine in my whole life." He mumbles.
"It was my pleasure. I... I'm going to shave Chase after we're married," I feel compelled to add.
He nods brusquely. "He will like that. 'Night."
"Good night." I snuggle into the covers, trying to banish the memory of Wade's jaw in my hand. I had once tried to imagine his smile, and now I wonder about his mouth poised for a kiss.
I squeeze my eyes shut. I have done nothing wrong. I just shaved my fiancé's brother in thanks for his kindness... yet this reasoning does little to soothe my guilt.
- Writer
