ago. Since then, she’d had exactly one person in her life that she could fully trust … one person she could rely on, no matter what the circumstance, and that was the only person she ever wanted help from.
Herself.
Yes, she watched rom-coms every weekend. Yes, she loved the whole knight-in-shining-armor shtick, just like the rest of Hollywood’s target audience. But she didn’t need one. She’d figure this out.
Because if she didn’t, she had a feeling Luke was going to step in and figure it out for her.
Chapter 7
“Luke! Luke!” Trina screamed. “Help!”
Luke ran toward the sound, his sneakers pounding down a hallway lined with gray metal lockers. Fluorescent lights buzzed above his head, and he started counting doors, trying to catch up to her.
He rounded a corner, caught a glimpse of her as Randall paused long enough to tighten his grip. Then Randall sprinted, Trina flung over his shoulder, her blond head bouncing as she struggled to get loose.
“Help me, Luke! Don’t let him take me!”
Luke ran faster, then felt the hallway lengthen before him. He turned right, turned left, turned right again, always just enough behind them to catch a quick glimpse of her hair before they disappeared. But he never got closer. He reached out like he could almost touch her, but she was too far away.
“Luke! Save me!” Trina pounded her tiny fists on Randall’s back, trying to break free of his iron grip as she screamed. “Help!”
Luke called up every ounce of energy, pumping his arms to catch up, but the hallway got longer, her voice grew fainter, Randall’s footsteps faded to a rhythmic, dull staccato as the sound of his own harsh breathing drowned everything else out. He was sweating, cursing himself, shouting for her, the sound of his own voice bouncing off cement-block walls.
“Trina! Trina! Triiiiina!”
* * *
“Luke. Luke. Wake up.” Piper’s voice startled Luke out of his nightmare the next afternoon, and he blinked rapidly, trying to center himself. Gone was the long hallway with endless corners, gone were the ugly metal lockers, gone were the buzzing lights.
Gone was Katrina.
“You okay?” Her eyes were troubled as she handed him a water bottle. Luke nodded as he closed his eyes, trying to bring his breathing back to normal. “Same dream?”
“Yeah.” He sighed, trying to focus on the chickadees twittering above his head, rather than the screaming from inside it. He was used to the damn dream attacking him in the middle of the night, but Jesus, the middle-of-the-day approach was new. He hadn’t slept for shit last night, so he’d decided to grab fifteen minutes in the hammock out in back of the cabin before facing the girls. Apparently that’s all it had taken for the demons to take hold.
“What was it this time?”
“Hallways. I couldn’t get to her.” Luke scrubbed both hands over his face. “I can never get to her.”
Piper put a tentative hand on his shoulder, like she wasn’t quite sure if he was far enough out of the dream to handle being touched.
“I’m worried about you, Luke.”
“Don’t be. I’m fine. It’s just a dream.”
“It’s a dream that won’t leave you alone. You should see yourself, Luke. When it’s happening, you’re terrified.”
“I’m not … terrified.”
Oh, who was he bullshitting? He woke up in a cold sweat once a week. Sometimes he could remember the dream, and sometimes he could only remember the fear.
“Fine. You’re not terrified, because you’re a big, strong he-man who doesn’t do terrified. I get it. But your dreams are telling you something, and I’m not sure it’s healthy to ignore them like you’re trying to do.”
Luke sighed, pushing himself out of the hammock. “I have way too many meddling therapists for friends. Have I ever mentioned that?”
“At least twice a week, yes.” Piper smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “We just care about you. And this thing is eating at you, little by little. I just think maybe it’d be good to talk to somebody about it, you know?”
He shook his head and picked up the Red Sox hat that had fallen to the grass. “I don’t want to talk to anybody, Piper. These dreams are my penance, okay? I didn’t save her. I couldn’t. And I’ll live with that guilt for the rest of my life.”
“Luke—”
He put up a hand. “It’s all I have left of her, Piper, okay? I’ll take the damn dreams.”
* * *
The next night, after the girls were asleep, Gabi wandered down to the beach and sat in an Adirondack chair,