Chapter 19
19
Melissa
“ M el?”
It took a minute to jostle my brain enough to open my eyes. I blinked a few times, frowning at the dark window at the foot of my bed.
“What time is it?”
“Uh… I didn’t look… Sorry, I can go…”
Sitting up, I shook my head, waving a hand in the general direction of Xander’s voice. “Nope. I’m awake. What’s up?”
My eyes finally adjusted enough for me to see his shadow shifting foot to foot just inside my door. It seemed like an anxious gesture, proven by him jumping when I heard a cat yowl outside over the sound of my sound machine. Poor thing.
“What’s the matter? Can’t sleep?”
“I was, but…”
I had to use context clues because he wasn’t giving me much. “Did you have a nightmare?”
I barely caught the nod in the dark. Scooting over, I lifted the blankets. “Come on, then. ”
“Really?”
“Believe it or not, sleepovers with any of the crew kids always end up with at least one of them in my bed. Once, it was all four. I don’t mind sharing. If I could, I’d steal Thor to sleep up here, but I’m pretty sure Wraith would pitch a fit.”
It was cute how he let his dog sleep in bed with him, but that didn’t make it easy for me to steal him for sleepovers. Wraith always picked him up before lights out, no matter how many kids I got on my side to whine at him. He was selfish with his dog.
After a moment of hesitation, Xander tiptoed to join me, crawling into bed. He kept his distance, but I could feel him relax after a minute, burying himself deeper into the blankets.
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
At first, he shook his head, but I could tell he wasn’t ready to go right back to sleep yet. Lingering effects of the nightmare, probably. I got the feeling if I was patient, he might be more willing to open up to me.
Sure enough, after a few minutes of quiet, he started talking. “My dad… He wasn’t usually home when I went to sleep. He always came home late and was usually in a bad mood.”
Typical for drunks. I’d dealt with so many in the ER. They were either happy, handsy, or pissed. Sometimes a combination of the three. Living with one was an awful way for a kid to be raised.
“I eventually learned to sleep in the closet or the tub. Somewhere he wouldn’t immediately look when he was drunk. If he found me, he’d hurt me. He blamed me for his life being so shitty. Said if it wasn’t for me, he’d be happy.”
I heard a sniffle, and he curled in a little more on himself, until he was practically a little ball. My heart ached for him, but I stayed quiet, listening to him let the hurt out.
“I tried to apologize, but he never listened. I couldn’t sleep well staying with him. I still can’t sleep well now. I don’t know why. He’s not here. But I can’t sleep.”
“Oh, honey.” I reached for him, pulling him in for a real cuddle. The tears that I knew he was holding back finally broke free, and he quietly sobbed in my arms. It explained a lot. Like his reaction when Wraith tried to wake him. After who knew how long being woken up by harsh hands, he trained himself to fight and flee first, and ask questions later.
“It’ll take time for your subconscious to accept that you’re safe here. But you are, Xander. You’re safe here. Wraith is protective to a fault. It’s annoying sometimes, actually. He hovers, even when I don’t need a babysitter. He’s not going to let anything bad happen to you.”
“He doesn’t–”
“Yes, he does,” I insisted, cutting him off. “He wants you here. I know he doesn’t show it well, but he does want you here. Every time he upsets you, he looks gutted. He’s just not the most emotional guy in the bunch. He’s known for only talking when he feels like he has something important to say. I’ll have to teach you how to speak caveman. Grunts and mumbles are more his style.”
He let out a watery laugh, which was an improvement. It broke my heart to see him crying so much. He deserved to be happy. No kid should live their life afraid to sleep.
Xander was still asleep when I woke up. It took some serious ninja moves to crawl out of bed without waking him. Luckily, I had practice with Ellie. She only went to bed with someone in the room with her, and I had to sneak to get out without her waking up. I crept out of the room, bumping into Wraith in the hallway. He looked half asleep, a towel thrown over his shoulder and a bleary expression on his face. His hair was an absolute mess, which was unfairly adorable, and he had pillow lines on his face. I felt a smile tug at my lips.
“Sleep well?”
He grunted. Caveman.
I was going to slip past him and use the restroom downstairs, but he stopped me with a hand on my elbow, giving me a questioning look as he jerked his chin toward my room. I sighed.
“He had a nightmare. I’m not going to tell you everything because it's his story to tell, but apparently he’s having trouble sleeping. I think it would be a good idea to get him into therapy. I know he probably doesn’t have insurance yet, but–”
“I’ll handle it. Whatever he needs,” he murmured.
I nodded, glancing back in the room where Xander was back to being curled into a little ball. When I looked up at Wraith, he had the same sad resignation in his eyes that I felt in my chest. We couldn’t take back what happened to him. We could only help him move on.
“Penny mentioned you seeing someone, too. Just until you guys understand each other a little more. You’ve been thrown a lot in a short amount of time and–”
“Okay.”
My mouth fell open, surprised. “Okay? Just like that?” I couldn’t help but give him a concerned look. “Are you sick? Is something wrong with you? That should’ve been a lot harder to convince you.”
He rolled his eyes at me, but his response was even more shocking than his initial agreement. “You’re a good nurse, Mel. If you think it’s a good idea, I’d be stupid not to listen to you.”
I was floored, and I didn’t know what to say to him. Which was a first for me, honestly. I wasn’t the kind of person to go speechless.
He huffed, and one of his rare smiles pulled at his lips. “You’re acting like I told you the sky was purple.”
I glanced over my shoulder toward the window. “Is it? Because that would explain a lot. Somehow ending up in an alternate dimension would be more likely than you saying anything to me that didn’t have a layer of snark to it.”
His smile faded almost as quickly as it came, but he didn’t look pissed. He looked… contrite.
“I’m sorry. You’re doing a lot for me and my brother. I’ll try to be less of an ass.”
I was seriously starting to consider that I was dreaming or something. The Wraith I knew would’ve shot back some kind of snarky response. I not so subtly pinched my arm to be sure.
That got him to roll his eyes, and the smirk came back. I snickered and shrugged .
“Had to be sure I was awake. For the record, I like snarky Wraith. He’s fun to poke at. But I appreciate the thought.”
A low chuckle escaped him, sending a thrill through me. If Wraith’s smiles were rare, his laughs were even more so. Butterflies filled my belly, and I had to stuff down the urge to flirt. Off limits, off limits, off limits.
Maybe if I repeated it enough, I’d get it through my head.
I decided to stop while I was ahead, heading downstairs and away from the stupid crush that wouldn't go away, no matter how much I dated and tried to forget it. I almost wanted to challenge the rule, since Wyatt was in a relationship with my best friend, but it wasn’t the same thing. I hadn’t seen Maggie in years and we were only friends in college. Wyatt and Wraith had been friends since they were kids. He wasn’t a long-lost friend I was getting reacquainted with. Even if I thought I could get away with it, I doubted Wraith would go for it anyway. Bro code and all of that nonsense.
Resigned to an unrequited crush, I pushed the thought out of my mind. I needed to focus on what was right in front of me. Somehow getting two brothers who seemed to have vastly different personalities to open up to each other.
If I pulled it off, I felt like I deserved a medal.
Thankfully, Wraith had started the coffee machine before he came upstairs. It was already percolating. I got out a mug and filled it while considering what we could do that day. When I explained to my boss why I needed more days off, she was more than happy to give me the time. I didn’t take time off often anyway, so I guess I had some days saved up. Which meant I had the time. I just needed ideas. Maybe I could get some of the crew involved. Not all of them. That was too overwhelming for Xander last time. But a couple probably had the time to come over. It’d take the pressure off Wraith and hopefully give the brothers the opportunity to–
Oh. That was an excellent idea. And I would totally laugh my ass off throughout the whole thing.
Picking up my phone, I scrolled through what was available in the area. There wasn’t much, it was a small town, but there was a college just on the edge of it, so there was stuff around there that was set up to entertain the masses so they didn’t have hundreds of bored college kids hanging around every weekend. There was only one place that fit what I was looking for, but it would definitely get the brothers to loosen up around each other.
I made a few phone calls to see who was available and made a reservation at a time when everyone was free, hanging up just as Wraith came back downstairs to join me. I slipped my phone into my pocket, giving him an innocent look as I sipped my coffee. From the look on his face, he didn’t suspect a thing.
This was going to be so much fun.