“You couldn’t tell me anything. So why—”
“Because I was going to tell you everything.”
“But—”
“I would have done anything to help you. Even give up this world if that’s what it took.”
What could Rafe say to that? Jeremy was willing to give up this world to help him sleep a little better at night? Why? He was almost afraid to ask, so he didn’t.
“Thanks for trying,” Rafe said, at a loss for any better words than that.
“Should’ve tried harder.”
“No, I wouldn’t have believed you even if you’d told me everything. And we wouldn’t have been allowed to come back.”
Rafe laid his head down again and Jeremy put his hand in his hair, stroking it softly. Why did this feel so natural to him, so easy? He yawned and rested his arm lower on Jeremy’s stomach before catching himself.
“It’s all right,” Jeremy said. “You can stretch out.”
“I don’t want to hit your bruise.”
“I think it’s better.”
Rafe sat up, then lifted Jeremy’s shirt. The bruise had turned purple.
“It’s not better.” Rafe winced.
“Badge of honor.”
That’s not what Jeremy had called it before. What had he called it? The red storm of Jupiter. Rafe made an orbit of it with his fingertips, as if to quiet the storm.
“No excuses,” Rafe said. “I’m sorry.” Before, when Emilie had made him apologize, he hadn’t meant it. Now he did.
“Forgiven. If it makes you feel any better, that night at Brook Haven, I punched your dad.”
“What? Are you kidding me?”
“Right hook.” Jeremy raised his fist in a power salute.
Rafe remembered something. “He did have a black eye around that time. He said he slipped on ice in the parking lot and hit his forehead.”
“He hit my fist.”
“Did he hit you first?”
“No. He was bellowing at me, and I couldn’t help myself. I clocked him. I clocked him and said, ‘That was for slapping Rafe.’ ”
Rafe looked at him. He could’ve kissed him for doing that. He almost did. As a joke, of course.
“You did that for me?”
“I’d say yes to get on your good side, but the truth is, I did it for me.” He grinned wickedly. The smile faded and he said, “I used to ‘look’ for you in my mind all the time. This gift I have? I could sense where you were. I did that more often than I should admit.”
“Thought you could only use it to find lost people.”
“You didn’t remember this world, but deep down you knew you belonged here. I think you were lost without this place. Admit it. Don’t you feel you belong here?”
He did. But was it because he was in Shanandoah or because he was with Jeremy?
Granny rapped on the door. “I hear talking! I need to hear snoring!”
“Yes, Granny!” they called out. He and Jeremy met eyes and laughed as silently as they could. Jeremy put his finger over his lips.
Rafe moved closer, laid down again on Jeremy’s chest.
“Your heart is going really fast. You okay?” he asked in a whisper.
“I’m good,” Jeremy said. “I’m perfect.”
In seconds, they fell asleep. They woke midmorning and Granny was waiting for them with breakfast. Bread and fresh butter, hot tea, eggs, and cheese. Ravenous, they ate without speaking and didn’t hear the door open and close again until a basket of apples landed on the table.
They looked up at Granny, forks suspended in midair.
“You’re going into the Ghost Town, you need apples,” she said.
“We need…apples?” Jeremy said. “Fiber?”
“Eat one,” she said. Rafe picked an apple out of her woven basket and took a bite. “You taste that?”
