Chapter 36
36
A fter Bart’s corpse was found in my bed, the whole retreat was shut down. Everyone was sent home early, and I found myself driving the seven hours back to Nevaeh with very different company in the car. Royce and Nate stayed at the mansion, speaking with the authorities—particularly after they caught wind of Nate punching Bart only hours earlier—but I’d refused to hang around to wait for my shadow. Instead, I ended up with Carly and Heath joining me for the drive…and at the last minute, Carter jumped in the back seat.
We all barely spoke the entire drive home, and I flat-out refused to share the driving with anyone else. When we arrived back into Prosper, though, I was faced with the dilemma of not having Royce in my room.
“Drop Carly off,” Heath told me when I voiced my concern. “You can come stay with us tonight.”
My head was hazy and I was so damn tired I could barely see straight, so I agreed without complaint. It wasn’t until I parked underneath Heath’s apartment building that I realized the error of my ways.
I should have suggested that Heath stay at my dorm instead, because I had only just clicked on the fact that Heath lived with Carter. And Nate…who I strongly suspected was the one who killed Bart. I said as much when we found the body—to Nate’s outrage—but apparently he had a solid alibi. Before he’d joined us in the pool, dozens of people had witnessed him and Paige engaging in a blow out break-up after he’d caught her kissing some random guy in the casino room.
I couldn’t forget the swirl of blood that had washed off his knuckles in the pool, though.
“Everything okay?” Heath asked as I hesitated, not getting out of the car. Carter was already grabbing our bags out of the trunk, and we were here now…
I sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, just…tired.”
He nodded his understanding as I climbed out of my car and locked it. “Understandable,” he murmured. “Thanks for driving, though. I really didn’t want to wait until Nate was done to take the plane.”
I yawned, rubbing my eyes. It was well past midnight, and my tequila hangover had kicked in halfway through the drive. The three of us were silent in the elevator up to their apartment, then once inside Heath showed me directly to his room. I resisted the urge to glance back at Carter, no matter how badly I wanted to see his reaction. I was too damn tired to care.
Heath sorted me out with one of his T-shirts and a pair of boxers to sleep in, then offered up his private bathroom so I could shower. That, in itself, justified the decision to stay with him rather than in my dorm. The last thing I wanted to do was shower in the communal washrooms.
I took my sweet time, washing my hair with his shampoo and loving that I came out smelling like Heath, then dressed in his clothes. Sure, I had my own bag with me, but this was better.
When I emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of steam, I found him stretched out on his huge bed with just a pair of loose shorts on.
“Ashley Layne,” he said with a teasing voice, “you’re staring.”
I smiled, unapologetic. “Do you blame me?” I tossed aside the towel I’d been using to dry my hair and crawled onto the bed beside him. Then hooked a leg over and straddled his lap.
His hands raised to rest on my hips, his thumbs stroking my waist beneath the oversized T-shirt. “You look good in my shirt, but I bet you’d look better out of it…”
I laughed, because it was such a cheesy line and we were both half dead. There was no delusion that either of us had the energy for sex, no matter how much we wanted it. “You look as tired as I feel, Heathcliff.”
He grimaced as I climbed off of him—retreating from temptation—and lay on my side to face him. “I haven’t been sleeping well,” he admitted. “It’s all starting to catch up a bit.”
I reached out to stroke his messed-up hair as he settled on his side as well. “Academic stress or life stress?” Both of which were totally relatable.
He gave a small shrug. “I’m not sure. It just feels like every time I manage to fall asleep I’m plagued by awful nightmares and wake up more tired than I was before sleeping. I haven’t been keeping up so well in my human development class though, so I wonder if that’s it. Stress fucks with my head something wicked.”
Concern for him rippled through my bones as I gently swiped my thumb over the dark shadow beneath his eye. “Maybe,” I agreed. “It wouldn’t surprise me. With all the society drama, I’m shocked that anyone actually graduates from Nevaeh. God knows I’m barely keeping up on my coursework right now.”
Heath gave a sleepy blink. “We need more study dates. Preferably without so many clothes.”
“Or Royce,” I added with a smile.
He just chuckled, his eyes already closed. “I dunno, I reckon he’d jump at the chance.”
I wet my lips but said nothing. Royce was…confusing. Heath was joking, I was pretty sure. Royce wasn’t into me as anything more than a curious entertainment even if I didn’t hate the mental image that conjured. But Heath seemed to be almost asleep so I didn’t want to keep talking if he had a chance of resting. I stayed quiet, stroking his hair lightly until his breathing evened out, then I carefully reached over to turn out the light.
Sleeping beside Heath was incredibly comfortable. I snuggled into his warmth, and he draped his arm around me, holding me close even though he was already asleep. It took no effort at all to drift off.
What I didn’t anticipate was how intense his nightmares really were. He woke me with a fright as he jerked, shouting something incomprehensible. For a moment in my own sleep-dazed state, I thought someone was attacking us but it became quickly apparent that he was stuck in a nightmare.
“Are you okay?” Carter asked from the doorway, making me gasp. “He didn’t hurt you?”
I drew a deep breath, trying to control my racing pulse as I sat up. “No. Just startled me, that’s all.” Heath thrashed a little, moaning something about…blood? “Does this happen a lot?”
“Lately, yes. Every night. Sometimes a lot more violent. Sometimes with sleepwalking.” He gave no emotion to his words, just stating facts.
I shivered, wanting to help Heath but not knowing how. “Is this why Royce wouldn’t swap sleepover shifts with Heath?”
“Part of the reason, yes,” Carter confirmed. “If you can wake him up, he should go back to sleep fine. The nightmares only seem to happen once a night.”
I stared down at Heath, his features hard to make out in the thin light of dawn. We’d barely been asleep for a couple of hours. The way his body jerked and the panicked tone of his mumbles…whatever he was dreaming must be terrifying.
“Do you want me to do it?” Carter offered. “You can go sleep in Royce’s bed if you’d prefer.”
I inhaled sharply. “Not offering your own?”
“Would you accept?” His question was pointless, he already knew the answer.
“I’ll be fine,” I replied after a heavy pause. “You can go back to sleep, I’ll look after him.”
Carter gave a heavy sigh. “If you need me…”
“I won’t.” I turned my face away, waiting until I heard the door click shut before reaching over to turn Heath’s bedside light on. He didn’t react to the light, but his brow was deeply furrowed and his jaw clenched so hard I could hear his teeth grinding.
Everything I’d heard was not to wake sleepwalkers, but Carter seemed like he knew what he was talking about?
Cautious, I gave Heath’s shoulder a little shake. “Heath, hey, wake up you’re having a bad dream.” Another jerk and mutter about trees this time, but he didn’t wake. I tried again, shaking him harder. “Heath. Wake up. You’re?—”
His eyes popped open as he gasped, unfocused gaze locking on me with a glassiness hinting at unshed tears. “Ashley?”
“Yeah, it’s me. You were dreaming and— oof .” The intensity of the hug he grabbed me in knocked the air clean out of my lungs, but I wasn’t complaining. He was fucking shaking as he held me tight, his face buried in my neck.
“You’re okay,” he was murmuring over and over. “You’re okay. You’re here. It was just a dream. Fuck, what is wrong with me ?”
“Hey, stop it,” I scolded gently as I hugged him back, stroking his spine. “There’s nothing wrong with you. It’s just a shitty way your brain is working through some stuff. Happens to everyone.”
His heart was pounding so hard I could feel it against me, so I just lay there and let him hold me until his breathing slowed back to normal.
Eventually, his grip relaxed slightly. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
Carter had asked the same thing. “Is that something you’re worried about doing?” That would definitely explain Royce’s insistence at remaining my only sleepover buddy.
He exhaled heavily, his breath ruffling my hair as he adjusted our position. “Yeah. One of the first nights with these intense nightmares, I was sleepwalking and punched Nate.”
I laughed, despite the situation. “Well, I think that’s less about your nightmares and more about Nate desperately needing to be punched.”
Heath chuckled slightly, then shifted so we could lie facing each other once again. Just like we had before falling asleep. “Nate…look, the way he’s behaved with you is unforgivable and I’m not going to make excuses for him. But he’s actually a good person, deep down.”
“Really, really deep?” I asked skeptically. “Why does he hate me so much?”
“It’s not you. Not really. I think…I mean, I can’t speak for him but from what I know it’s more about Max and your mom, and what them getting together meant for his mom. Nate was always so confident his parents would get back together after their split, but then all of a sudden Carina moved in…”
I scowled. “So he decided to take out his resentment on me?”
Heath offered a sleepy lopsided smile. “He started with your mom a few years ago, but have you met her? The woman is a fucking saint. No matter how cruel he was, she’d just smile and tell him that big feelings were always so tough to work through or some shit. It drives him insane but at the same time made him realize she wasn’t going anywhere.” He yawned, rubbing his eyes. “Anyway. The wedding getting moved up on the timeline made him go a bit…you know.”
“Psychotic?” I offered, and Heath grinned. “I won’t pretend that makes any sense, but I can appreciate that the Nate you know is a very different person than the one I do.”
“Yes,” he murmured. “That.”
I stroked my finger down the side of his face, loving how his lashes fluttered and he leaned into my touch. “I can handle Nate. But if it turns out he was the one who orchestrated my kidnapping?—”
“He didn’t,” Heath said firmly, eyes snapping open again.
I shrugged. “Okay. But if it turns out he did …”
“Then I’ll kill him myself,” he replied without even a hint of joking. “Whoever did that to you is pure evil, Ashley, they deserve everything karma can dish out. But that’s not Nate.”
I didn’t respond, instead just buried my fingers in his hair and kissed him. Because I believed that he believed Nate…but I wasn’t so sure.
“Go back to sleep,” I whispered against his lips.
He gave a contented sound, looping his arm over my waist to pull me close, his legs intertwining mine. “You’ll stay? Even after my nightmare?”
“Of course I will,” I replied, kissing his throat. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”
And I meant it. Cuddled up in Heath’s embrace was fast becoming my favorite place in the world. Except…it seemed odd not to have Royce nearby. I’d grown quite fond of his constant company. I hoped he was okay.