fucking touch me!”
He raised both hands in surrender. “Okay, okay,” he said. “I just want to let you know I understand. Your life sucks. You came here for a reason. You shouldn’t leave until you are sure there is nothing here for you.”
“There’s not.”
“And how do you know?” he said. “You’ve haven’t stuck around long enough to find out.”
“I have too much to do,” I said, walking again. Levi walked beside me but didn’t try to touch me this time. “I can’t turn my back on that.”
“I don’t expect you to,” he said. “But don’t you think you deserve a break sometimes?”
I didn’t say anything. I could use a break, sure. Everyone could. But did I really have time to relax when people were dying back home? I didn’t think so.
“Stay the day,” he said, stopping me again.
I stared at him. Was this guy nuts?
“I mean it,” he said. “It’s going to be morning soon. I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be out when the sun rises.”
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “I’ll drive fast.”
“But why do that when you could stay here, see what our little town has to offer?”
I looked around. Every house was lit up. “Doesn’t anyone sleep around here?”
Levi laughed. “Only when they have to.” He sounded full of pride, like it was of his doing. I wasn’t so sure it wasn’t. “The night had been taken away from so many people for so long, they no longer wish to waste it. Here, they don’t have to.”
I frowned. I still didn’t like it.
“Stay, please,” Levi said. “What can it hurt?”
There were quite a lot of people here I could end up hurting if I lost it at the wrong time.
“I can’t.”
“You can,” he said. “You don’t have to save the world tonight. It’ll still be here tomorrow.”
I wanted to keep arguing with him, but something deep down stopped me. Did I really want to turn my back on this? Was this a chance for me to step away for a little bit, to clear my head? If I went home, all I would do is go to my room and wait out the day. Was I ready to deal with all the thoughts that would arise from loneliness?
“Fine,” I said. My stomach did a strange little flip when I said it. “I’ll stay.”
“Good,” Levi said, clapping his hands together. He acted like I had just made his day. “I have a spare room made up especially for you.”
That made me hesitate, but I didn’t back down. I’d made my decision, no matter how misguided it was. I’d have to live with it.
We walked back to DeeDee’s, our pace hurried. I still wasn’t sure this was the right thing to do, but I was committed now.
Levi ran inside the diner to let Ronnie know what was up. He came back out a moment later and told me to follow him. He jumped into a red pickup truck and waited as I started my Honda and fell in behind him.
It wasn’t raining now. I wasn’t so sure when it had stopped.
Levi honked as he pulled out onto the road, waving into the rearview mirror. I waved back, surprising myself.
Something was going on here.
And right then, I really didn’t care what it was.
16
Levi lived in a quiet little neighborhood in the middle of town. Trees surrounded many of the yards, obscuring the lights from downtown that would otherwise ruin the blissful atmosphere.
He pulled into his driveway and parked in front of the garage. The house wasn’t large, but it wasn’t small either. It looked inviting, nearly as much as Levi was himself. The curtains fluttered closed and a face I didn’t catch vanished within the house.
I pulled in behind him and shut off my motorcycle. Levi was waiting by the front door for me.
“Someone’s inside,” I said as I stepped up next to him.
“It’s probably Eilene, my wife. She often waits for me by the window.”
He unlocked the front door and held it open for me. I hesitated, unsure this was really what I wanted, but I went in anyway. I wouldn’t make it home before the sun was up. I really had no choice unless I wanted to look for some hole in the ground I could hide in.
“Eilene,” Levi called. “Sienna. We have a guest.”
A timid face peered around the corner as Levi led me into the living room. The girl was probably eighteen or nineteen, but the innocence in her eyes made her look younger. Her