dream just made me feel even sillier for getting myself hit by a car. I’d survived a tornado—that had killed my aunt and several other people—without a scratch. But I’d managed to break my freaking leg by running out into a parking lot without paying attention. Not my finest moment.
“May I?” Hayle nodded to the empty side of the bed.
I hesitated, but the truth was, I didn’t want to be alone right now. “Sure.”
He pushed back the covers and slid in next to me. It wasn’t until his bare shoulder brushed against mine that I realized he was shirtless. In the dim light offered by the night-light Tristin had plugged in to make sure I didn’t kill myself getting in and out of bed, I could see the outline of Hayle’s boxer briefs. He was almost naked. And in my bed. In the middle of the night.
Well, shit. Not what I needed to be thinking about right now.
“Did you know I had the same recurring nightmare for most of my childhood?”
I shifted enough so I could see the outline of his face. “No. What was it about?”
He closed his eyes. “I’m always sitting on the front porch of my house while it burns down behind me. At first, I just sit there, the heat almost suffocating me. But, at some point, I jump up and start banging on the front door, trying to get inside...because my parents are trapped inside, and I’m helpless to do anything about it.”
The sorrow in his voice punched straight through my chest. “You said that in present tense. You still have the dream?”
“Every once in a while. Not like I used to. I woke up screaming so often, I had a permanent pass to the nurse’s office through most of elementary school. Whenever I started to fall asleep in class, my teachers would send me off for a nap.”
“Wow. I had no idea.”
He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at me. “How would you? It wasn’t that bad by the time you knew me, and it wasn’t something I liked to talk about. That or my father’s death.”
His father’s death. A tiny sliver of a memory niggled at me, urging me to ask, “Did your father die in a fire?”
“Yes. He was in the bath, of all things, and my mother only had time to warn one of us...” He trailed off, not needing to explain that Lily had chosen to save her son over her husband.
“Wow, Hayle. I’m so sorry.” I reached for his hand and slipped my fingers between his. “I can’t believe we’ve never talked about this.”
“It’s not exactly the most uplifting topic of conversation.”
“When have you ever worried about being uplifting?” I teased, hoping to lighten the moment.
It must have worked, because a grin played at his mouth. “Excellent point.”
“Seriously, though, you should have told me. I’m not only here for the fun stuff, you know.”
He leaned in close but didn’t attempt to kiss me. “Trust me, Thea. I know.”
“So, tell me something else. Anything.”
Hayle was quiet for so long, I assumed he wasn’t going to answer. But, then, he quietly said, “It’s my greatest fear.”
“What is?”
“Fire. I can’t even light a freaking match without flinching. And don’t get me started on my reaction to bonfires.” He chuckled under his breath. “There was an embarrassing incident at a classmate’s thirteenth birthday party that you never need to hear about.”
“It’s understandable. My trauma doesn’t even come close to the trauma of losing your father that way.”
He brushed a strand of inky hair out of his eye. “The crazy thing is, I don’t actually remember that night. There are little pieces. Like, I remember it being loud and being scared of the firemen in their gear. But everything else is a haze. And, yet, my terror of fire is almost debilitating.”
“Is that why there aren’t any fireplaces in the mansion?” I’d never thought about it before, but it was a rather strange omission from a house that size.
“Yes. Dad made sure that none were included in the design.” He gave me a pointed look. “See? He’s not so terrible.”
“Hayle,” I breathed. “Can we not?”
We’d danced around this argument too many times to count, and I wasn’t about to have it out with him at—I glanced at the clock—two-seventeen in the morning. Especially when we would be seeing Vincent later today for Thanksgiving dinner.
It would be my first time back at the mansion since the accident, and I wasn’t particularly looking