“Nana, what was that?”

Her nana smiled as she put the hospital phone back in its cradle. “He seems like a nice boy.”

Zoe smiled. “I’m lying in a hospital bed with a hole in my side and part of my liver gone and you’re trying to set me up with a guy?”

Nana laughed. “You have worked so hard to clean up your life. You deserve something good in it now.”

“That life is still following me, Nana and this…incident is only more proof that I shouldn’t be dragging anyone else into it.”

“I don’t think you’d have to do any dragging. He seems to really like you.”

Zoe put her hand on top of the one her nana had on the side of the bed. “Not like that, Nana. He just lost the love of his life. He’s still grieving. We’re just…I’m not even sure what we are. I don’t know him well enough to call us friends.”

“Not yet. He’s obviously worried about you. People don’t worry about people that they don’t care about.”

Zoe laughed. “He’s just a nice guy, Nana. He’s going through a hard time right now and so am I. It’s not the time for either of us to start anything new.”

“Maybe not just yet,” her nana said. “But the time will come, and cultivating a friendship first won’t hurt a thing. That man was brought into your life for a reason; I believe that.”

“He was brought into my life because of a horrible, tragic accident, Nana. I’m kind of tired. Would you mind if I take a nap?”

“Of course not, sweetheart.” Nana stood up and leaned over the bed. She kissed Zoe on the head and whispered, “Sweet dreams, my love.” Zoe smiled and wondered what Nana would think of her if she knew what kind of dreams she had every time she closed her eyes since the night of the accident. Her head was like a live porn show and she’d never admit it to anyone out loud…but she had begun to look forward to taking part in the show.

Zoe closed her eyes after her nana left the room and the first thing she saw in her mind was Levi. She saw the way he looked when he had come into the diner the day before. His hair was a mess, thanks to the skullcap he’d just pulled off his head. The top was flat and it hung down over his collar in the back. She’d taken one look at him and wanted to use her fingers to comb it all back into place…but she hadn’t wanted to stop there. His pretty brown eyes were bloodshot. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a few days…at least not well. She’d had an almost overwhelming desire to pull him into her chest and let him rest his head while her fingers traced the dark stubble on his cheeks and chin and then ran through his hair. Her pulse sped up as she thought about it and her palms began to sweat. She tried to open her eyes so that she’d stop there…but they’d given her some pain medications and sleep already had its heavy hold on her. Unable to fight it…she gave in…and Levi was there waiting for her on the other side.

* * *

“What’s wrong?” Zoe whispered. She was sitting on the edge of Levi’s bed and he was lying down with his head in her lap. She was gently running her fingers through his soft hair. He looked so sad. Zoe looked up at the photo of Krissy on the wall. She was so pretty. Zoe didn’t think she could ever compete. “Is it Krissy?” she asked. “Are you missing her?”

Levi sighed. He had his eyes closed as he said, “Yes, I miss her all the time. But that’s not what’s wrong…not all of it anyways.”

“Then what is it? I want to help.”

“I just don’t understand what’s happening. It’s like I’m…obsessed.”

“Obsessed?” Zoe knew the feeling, but she thought she was the only one. Maybe she still was. Maybe he was talking about something different altogether. But if he was, why was he lying there with his head in her lap, letting her touch and caress him?

“Yes. I’m obsessed with sleeping.”

“Why? Is it because you can dream about Krissy?”

He opened his brown eyes and looked at her face. “It was,” he said. “At first. But now…I hardly ever dream about Krissy anymore. When I do, she’s telling me that I need to move on. I dream…about you, Zoe, almost every night.”

“You do?” He nodded. Zoe almost admitted that she dreamt about him too…but something held her back. Instead she said, “Tell me about them.”

He moved his eyes from her face and looked at the wall. “I don’t know if I can. They’re kind of…well, I’m not sure you’ll be okay with it. I promise you, though, I try to control them. I just can’t. They’re getting more realistic too…it’s like you’re really there.”

“I won’t be upset. Tell me, it’s okay.”

 Levi sat up and Zoe immediately missed the warmth of his head in her lap and the feel of his silky hair in her fingers. He turned so he was on his knees and he looked at her face again. Zoe saw something in his eyes that made her core begin to smolder. He was looking at her like she was pretty, maybe not as pretty as Krissy, but he clearly saw something in her.

“I’m confused,” he said. “I’ve had…erotic dreams before, but never like this. These dreams started before I ever even met you. They started before I ever even saw your face.”

Zoe sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. “Levi,” she said, softly. “I’ve been having the same dreams. Ever since that night…the night I found Krissy. I wonder…” She paused. Was he going to think she was crazy? Did it even matter…wasn’t this just another crazy dream?

“You wonder, what?”

“Please don’t think I’m crazy…but that night, when I touched her, I felt something stir inside of me. It was like I was being filled with something warm. That feeling only lasted for a few seconds, but I’ve felt like a different person ever since.”

“You think Krissy wants us to be together?”

“Will you think I’m crazy if I say yes?”

He sighed again. “If I do, I’ll have to think the same about myself. There have just been too many signs…too many coincidences.”

“But why me? I mean…I have nothing to offer you.”

He hooked his fingers underneath her chin and tipped her face up to his. “You’re beautiful, Zoe. You’ve overcome so much. You’re too hard on yourself.”

“You have no idea, Levi…the things I’ve done. When I was using…I’d do anything for a fix, and I mean anything.”

“We can’t change what’s already happened to us. All we can do is move on from here.”

“So what’s the next step?”

He grinned. “I’d like to be a gentleman and say we take it slowly, and get to know each other better…but my body is saying other things.”

Zoe smiled up at him. “Well, since this is probably another dream anyways, let’s go with what your body is saying.”

Levi laughed and then his big hands were suddenly on the hem of her shirt. He looked at her again and when she didn’t object, he kept going. She raised her arms and let him pull it off over her head and then he reached back and unhooked her bra. She was embarrassed about how thin she was. Even though she’d put on a few pounds staying with her nana and papa, she still worried that her body looked like a little boy’s. The way Levi was looking at her, though, allayed most of her worries.

“You’re really beautiful, Zoe.” She felt herself blush and Levi smiled. “You’re not used to compliments, are you?”

“Not really.” That was an understatement. Her mother was usually too wasted to notice her when she was growing up and at school she was always the little girl with the stringy hair and shabby clothes.

“You should get used to it,” he said. “Do me a favor?” She would have done anything for him at that moment. She nodded. “Lie all the way down and put your arms up over your head.” Zoe scooted down so that she could lie with her head on the pillow and her arms stretched over her head. “Damn, you look hot,” he said, as his hands went to the waistband of her pants. He unbuttoned and unzipped them and she lifted her hips slightly to help him pull them off of her. She was wearing a lacy thong and, sadly enough, that’s how she knew for sure she was dreaming. She didn’t own anything like that, she never had. But, dream or not, she was not about to put the brakes on what was about to happen. Levi was moving slowly; each movement he made was a deliberate one. He pulled off that thong slowly and held it up on his fingers and looked at it, before dropping it to the floor. Then he scooted up off the bed and slowly began to remove his own clothes. When he pulled his shirt off over his head, her eyes went to the tattoo on his neck, the one that said “Krissy.” For a second she thought about telling him they needed to stop, but that same warm feeling that she had the night Krissy touched her when she was dying suddenly flooded her veins. She took it as a sign…but then again, she would have taken anything as a sign right then. She wanted the beautiful man standing naked beside the bed and she knew that she had to have him. She knew from recent experience that it would probably be well worth the guilt she’d feel later. She changed that to definitely when Levi leaned over her and their lips met. Her heart was pounding so hard that she was afraid that it might jump right out of her chest. His lips were so soft, but his kiss wasn’t. His tongue explored her mouth like it was on a mission and his teeth grazed her lips every now and again. Zoe kissed him back, giving just as wildly as she was getting. She wanted to touch him, but she left her hands up where he’d told her to leave them. She arched her back so that their chests touched, and just that simple contact caused her entire body to convulse. By the time Levi pulled out of the kiss, she was practically in a lust-induced haze, and that’s why she was startled at first when she felt him using his face to gently nudge her thighs apart. She opened her eyes and looked down at him. He was breathing her in…like he was committing her to memory. She smiled and closed her eyes again. This was far from the first time she’d dreamt about Levi making love to her…but this was the first time she’d had the dream where they had really known each other. Maybe it wasn’t a dream. Maybe it was real. Maybe Nana was right and he really could see something in her to like…She knew one thing for sure, if this was a dream, she never wanted to wake up.