JAMESON
I finished brushing my teeth and dropped the damp brush into its drawer beneath the sink, glad we still had some water left in the pipes so I could feel remotely human in our situation. Glancing at myself in the mirror, I barely recognized the reflection staring back at me. He was new. He was, despite circumstances and revelations, optimistic and…reassured?
Splashing cool water on my face, I clung to the marble countertop, trying to shake the nerves that finally caught up with me. Soph almost drowned tonight.
Oh my god.
She almost drowned. She gave up. I had to shake that thought—she explained herself to me. I understood her. But she ran away from me. I had scared her so much that she didn’t feel safe around me.
Shaking my head, I tried to get the thoughts from my mind. I needed to fix things with Soph. I needed to prove to her that I could never hurt her, would never hurt her. She had asked me to stay in my room with her tonight, and that was the least I could do to start showing her I was serious about being her protector. If she had a nightmare, I would be there. No questions.
Collecting one of our dim flashlights, I wandered through the narrow hall back into my bedroom. A fading flashlight at my bedside was still glowing inches from the mattress, so close to Soph’s face that it lit her features in a delicate way, almost as if she was a painting. Approaching the bed, I anticipated conversation, but the slow rise of the covers informed me she was sleeping. She needed to. I knelt at her side for a moment, lightly grazing my knuckles against her cheek. I needed to prove she was real, more than a painting, and safe with me.
“Jameson.” My name barely left her lips in an unconscious mumble.
My gaze was drawn to Sophia. Her lips pulled apart slightly as she exhaled. Her eyes fluttered, assuring me she was lost in a deep, necessary slumber. I lifted myself from her side, despite my urge to sit and stare at her gorgeous face for an eternity, and carefully climbed in bed next to her. I was worried the mattress would shift and wake her, but Soph was out.
I’m surprised either of us slept at all, considering the house almost crumbled apart from the rain alone. The frantic pelting of my bedroom window coverings tore me from sleep. It had only been two hours; my phone was taunting me. I placed the phone, its battery fading without power, back on my nightstand and returned to Soph. I hadn’t left her side and she had not moved. I hesitantly lifted my hand to her side, lightly settling it in the curve above her hip. I was hoping to feel her breathe, assuring myself she was still with me. My palm warmed almost instantly, burning with the delightful sensation against Soph’s figure. It was electric, flowing through me with a tingle that defied all sense of rationality.
“I almost lost you tonight,” I whispered, the sound even surprising me.
She rolled away onto her stomach and her face flipped toward me, smashing her cheek into the pillow. Her lips pouted, slowly parting while she breathed. It felt in that moment as though there was nobody else, nothing more, and we could stay like that for eternity.
“Get up!” Thomas stormed into the room, barreling toward my bed. I didn’t miss the way his face tightened with displeasure as he saw Soph curled against me beneath the mess of covers.
“What?” I whispered, glancing at her sleeping figure.
“It’s coming! We need to get to the safe room NOW!”
Thomas flew from the room as quickly as he stormed in, leaving a trail of rage in his quick absence. Soph sleepily wiggled onto her elbows, blushing like a child as realization hit.
“What’s happening?” Her voice was groggy, barely even the soft hum I had fallen for. I tried to remain calm, jumping over her and pressing my hands around her face.
“It’s officially a hurricane,” I stated, surveying the fear that swallowed her eyes. “We must have slept through the warning sirens. We need to go. Now.”
“Where?” She pulled my hands away from her face and climbed from the bed, reaching for the sweatshirt I held out for her. Her strawberry blonde waves were a knotted, damp mess against her face.
“Safe room at the end of the hall. You just go, I’ll be right behind you.”
“No.” Her feet stomped. “Absolutely not.”
“Go, Soph. I’ll be right there. I’m just going to put some clothes in a bag and I’ll meet you there. Thomas and Elizabeth are already in there.”
“Absolutely not.” Her arms crossed along her body and her small chin lifted in the air defiantly. “I’m not going anywhere without you. If you’re holding me prisoner, you’re the one I’m following.”
The warning sirens were going off in one-minute intervals now. We needed to be locked away in the safe room ten minutes ago. We didn’t have time to debate how insanely immature Soph was being, so I hung the extra sweats I was carrying over my shoulder and walked toward her. I knelt down, placing my shoulder against her stomach and wrapped my arms around the back of her thighs.
This is not how I imagined the first time I would be so close to her bottom.
Soph gave up pounding my back almost instantly as the shattering glass of my bedroom exploded into the room while I carried her out. Thomas was standing in the doorway of the safe room, anxiously pounding his foot as we approached. The scorn along his face blended suitably well with the angst.
“You’re putting us all at risk…again,” he snapped at me.
Once he began closing the door to the windowless room, I slowly leaned over one of the couches and tried to gracefully rest Soph against the cushions.
“Ow.” She giggled when her head bopped the armrest.
Elizabeth came from behind me, extended her arm to give us two bottles of water. I stood from placing Soph on the couch and graciously took the bottles from Elizabeth. Her face was warmer than hours prior, hopefully accepting the fact that Soph wasn’t going anywhere. She was with me.
“Is the generator on, Thomas?” Elizabeth shuffled through some plastic bins as she questioned the man who stood steaming in the center of the room.
“Yes.”
“Thomas,” I groaned, “just…”
“Honey…” Elizabeth snaked her arm through her husband’s, resting her face against his chest. “…it’s over. It’s too late. Sophia is part of this.”
I ran my hands through the mess on my head, feeling it matted against my skull after drying from pulling Soph from the marina. Jesus. I turned my head slightly, hoping to catch her asleep or somehow able to ignore Thomas’s cruel demeanor, but she was staring at the windowless wall, gnawing on the knuckle of her right index finger. Even in a fit of anxiety, clouded by the haze of worry and torn nerves, Soph was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. Watching her process everything, the chaos and calm within our safe room; it all made me think.
I was seeing Soph in a new way now that she knew everything and stayed with me. I was a new person and, as I saw her, so was she.
We could still hear the sirens, despite the soundproofing and layers of plastered concrete surrounding us behind the subdued blue walls. Thomas had still avoided acknowledging Soph. He was resting along the length of one couch, his feet crossed on Elizabeth’s lap as she casually read the pages of a book.
We were in the eye, the torturously unpredictable middle of a hurricane and yet here we were, a perfect family. I couldn’t imagine something further from the truth.
My distracted attention was quickly pulled when I felt her tug softly on my elbow. I knew the look. I recognized it without fully engaging in contact with her gorgeous blue eyes. The sparkle was replaced with an alarming blankness.
I knew I could help her, that I could help her work through the quiet panic suffocating her. I scooted myself closer to Soph on the couch, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her trembling frame tightly against me. If she were to feel suffocated, it would be with my care and not with her panic attack.