“Because you’re the closest person to her, and you don’t look surprised by this.”
“I am fucking surprised,” I retort.
Connor shakes his head, still disbelieving.
“I just fucking reacted, Connor,” I retort, my brother frowning between me and him. He’s trying to give me the benefit of the doubt, which is making this fucking painful. “Stop turning it into a thing.”
And then Daisy’s eyes slowly focus on me. Her tense limbs slacken, but the panic stays in her gaze.
I peel my hand off her mouth. “Daisy?”
She blinks a few times, and Lo releases her arm. I sit up off her body, and she touches her head in confusion. When she truly meets my eyes, her face breaks and she starts crying again.
I immediately lift her into my arms, and she hides her face in her hands. “They were here,” she says. “They were stabbing me—”
“Hey,” I say roughly, stroking the back of her head. “You’re safe. No one’s here but me, Connor and Lo.” She’s on my lap, in my arms, where she’s been so many times before.
But it’s fucking different now.
We’ve never been in front of other people. And we’ve never called ourselves anything other than friends.
Lo climbs off the bed. “Daisy, who’s them?”
Her hot tears wet my gray shirt, and she mumbles into my chest, “Bad guys.”
Lo frowns. “What’d she say?” he asks me.
“Bad guys,” I say. “It was a fucking nightmare.” But no matter how imaginary her dream was, to her, in those three minutes, it felt real, more so than any kind of bad dream I’m used to.
I understand why she’d rather not take the medicine at all, but she has to sleep some. It’s trading one bad place for another.
Daisy’s arms wrap underneath mine, clutching onto me tightly. My brother gives me a single warning look like, You can’t lead her on.
His concern is warranted. I would feel the same fucking thing if I was him in this situation. But no part of me wants to disentangle her from my body.
Still, I know I have to.
I whisper in her ear, “I’m going to tuck you into bed, and you’re going back to sleep.”
“What?” she breathes. She glances up at me with wide eyes, and she shakes her head. “No, Ryke. I can’t go back…”
“You’ll be fine,” I tell her, prying her arms from mine and setting her back against the mattress.
“No,” she cries. She springs up immediately. “No, please don’t do this…I need you—”
“Daisy,” I say her name forcefully. My lips find her ear. “You have to fucking try to sleep again.” I rise off the bed, and she hugs her legs and rests her forehead on her knees, sobbing.
I turn to my brother, my heart clenching, and I throw my hands up like, What do you want me to fucking do now?
His brows are furrowed in concern. “Daisy? What can we do? I can get Lily on the phone.”
She shakes her head and wipes her tears. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
While my brother keeps conversing with her, Connor suddenly rests a firm hand on my shoulder. “I need to talk to you,” he says quietly.
He looks angry. His deep blue eyes pierce me in accusation, and his fingers are digging into my skin. He rarely shows this kind of emotion—and he’s letting me see it on purpose.
He knows.
He knows I’ve been keeping her problems a secret, and he probably gathered that they stemmed from a traumatic event.
I don’t want to talk about her issues with him. “Maybe later,” I say, stepping out of his hold.
“Ryke, this is serious.”
“You don’t think I fucking know that?” I growl under my breath. I glance back at Lo who’s looking between us, but he doesn’t say anything and Connor and I shut down the conversation.
Lo hands Daisy a water bottle. She takes small sips, leaning against the headboard. “How many times has this happened?” my brother asks her.
“Not that much.” She rubs her eyes with the back of her hand. “It was just a nightmare.”
“Not according to the smartest guy in the goddamn room.”
“The world,” Connor corrects him, hiding his anger from my brother. “Being smarter than the three of you really isn’t that big of an achievement.” He pauses. “No offense.”
“I’m fucking offended,” I retort.
“Oh, sorry,” he says flatly. “I don’t really care about your feelings.”