Feather Light

Chapter 26

If you'd told me spending a night in a fancy hotel with a gorgeous blonde would be the hardest thing I'd ever done, I would have laughed. But that night... It was insanely difficult.

There was only one bed, and while it was big, it was still just one bed. After we had talked out the whole day in detail for the twentieth time and shared turns in the bathroom, we turned to face the mattress uneasily.

"I'll sleep on the couch," I offered, gallant in my boxers.

Keira shook her head. "Who are you kidding? A six year old would barely fit on that thing. I'll sleep there."

"You're not six."

"I'm little!"

"Not that little..."

She arched an eyebrow at me. "What are you trying to insinuate, sir? Are you calling me fat?"

"You got me, hippo. I thought you people were meant to be jolly..."

Ignoring me, Keira looked at the bed again. "This is a pretty big bed; we've been asleep all afternoon on it. We can both sleep here. Only if you're okay with that?"

Gulp. "Fine. If we have to. And only if you don't steal the covers."

"No promises," she giggled. Before I could react, she grabbed a pillow and whacked me in the face with it. "That's for calling me fat by the way. Don't mess with the pillow master, I will take you down!"

"Challenge accepted!" I bellowed, and a pillow war ensued that lasted longer that it should have for two adults.

After we had exhausted pillow silliness, we collapsed onto the covers and the weirdness descended again.

"I have a confession to make," Keira started slowly, her wings draped over her like a blanket. "I've never shared a bed with anyone before. Does that make me strange?"

I shook my head. "I haven't either. Well, Noah, when we were little. But that doesn't count. There's never been anyone I trusted enough to take my coat off around, let alone fall asleep next too."

"They keep us lonely."

"What do?"

"Our wings," she said, curling towards me slightly. "People our age should be in college, getting drunk, starting bands, normal stuff. Not running scared and hiding, afraid of even taking off a jacket in front of people."

"You don't have to be lonely anymore," I told her, trying and failing not to sound like a sleazy pickup artist, "I'm here. And Pop," I added as an afterthought.

"Thanks, Leigh." We lapsed into a silence so long, I thought she had fallen asleep. Then I heard her speak quietly into the dark. "I was so scared today. I thought you were... And those men..."

Her voice trembled and I ignored the voice screaming in my head, the one telling me to leave it alone, go to sleep, don't fall in further. I pulled her over to my side of the bed and enfolded her inside my arms, attempting a brotherly-friend type embrace. "You did amazing," I told her. "You are amazing. You saved me today, but I promise, I am always going to look after you." We didn't speak again; we didn't have to. Keira melted into my side, the deep shaking from her body eventually subsiding as she fell asleep.

I didn't sleep a wink for the rest of the night. Maybe it was the drugs I'd been shot with, or the running and the fear. But if I'm being honest, I just didn't want to miss a second of time while she was in my arms. It didn't matter that she didn't love me. It really didn't. It only mattered that she was there.