Rise: Populations Crumble, Book 2 by Gandy, A. (read book .txt) 📕

corner of my mouth quirks up as I remember yesterday when I’d discovered that tidbit. I’d crushed him, but he took it with grace.

The fact is, the longer we live together, the more I find myself drawn to him, like a moth drawn to a flame. The only question is, am I going to end up burnt up and destroyed, just like one of those moths? He’s lied to me once; how can I trust that he won’t again? And can I trust him beyond friendship, with a real marriage, and everything that comes with that?

The shower door claps shut down the hall, and I realize then that I’ve been standing, frozen in the doorway with my own thoughts. I force my feet to move, and go draw a bath in the other bathroom. One day at a time.

✽✽✽

It takes me forever to fall asleep, and then it’s a restless night of tossing and turning, in and out of the covers. Finally I drift off, and when I wake, I grow slowly aware of a warm and firm shoulder under my cheek and hands.

With a blink, I take a deep breath and the scent of Patrick floods my nose. Stiffening, it hits me. I am wrapped around Patrick’s chest like a barnacle, and his firm bicep is under my head. His breathing is steady and deep, so I slowly start to extract myself in hopes that he won’t wake up and realize I’d cuddled up against him like a lost puppy in the night.

Before I make it three inches away, he rumbles, “Good morning. Did you finally get some sleep?”

I jump to a sitting position, and the cold air of our room smacks all the parts of me that were so warm pressed against him.

This is so awkward! “Yes, uhm, how about you?” I push the bird’s nest of my hair away from my face, but the determined chestnut strands are still visible from the corner of my eye. I look anywhere but at his face. My eyes land on his chest, where his sleep shirt is pushed partway up and revealing a flat, toned stomach. Quickly I dart them elsewhere, where they land back on his face and his cheesy grin.

“Just fine, thanks. You don’t have to be embarrassed, Sadie. We’re married. If you want to cuddle, it’s allowed.” He lazily sits up and leans in close to me, where I feel like I’ve been rooted to the spot by his magnetism. “Encouraged, even,” he says in a whisper before pressing a warm, languid kiss to the side of my neck and climbing out of bed.

I shamelessly watch as he pads off to the bathroom, but he catches me when he stops to give me a wink before leaving the room. After a moment, when my heart climbs back down my throat to where it belongs, I scurry out of bed and into the bathroom, shutting the door a little too hard behind me. I spin and stare in the large mirror over the sink at my wild eyes and messy mop of hair. What is he trying to do to me?!

I finish my morning routine as slowly as possible, but finally I can’t hide any longer or we’ll be late for our meeting with the medical director. Ugh, Melissa. She’s acted so sunny and shiny until now, but something tells me that’s about to change.

I exit the bathroom dressed in my favorite jeans, flannel, and boots to find a smiling Patrick sipping a cup of coffee. “You ready?”

With a nod, he offers me a hand, and we head to the medical facility.

The tall glass doors open automatically, and warm air filled with a disinfectant tang rushes out and slaps us in the face. I wrinkle my nose at the sharp odor, but quickly put my shoulders back and my game face on as I spot Melissa waiting by the desk. She’s wearing pink scrubs again, but today her shoes have winged unicorns.

I am not scared of anybody who is wearing those shoes, I tell myself as she greets us.

“Patrick, Sadie! So good to see you both this morning. If you’ll follow me to my office, I have a few things I’d like to discuss with you.” She smiles, but the hard set of her jaw belies her jovial words. She spins on her unicorn-adorned heel, and leads us down the hallway to a door we didn’t see on our tour. She holds it for us to enter, and then closes it with a quiet click.

Taking seats in front of her desk, she crosses behind it and sits before clicking rapidly on a tablet. The lights dim, and her entire office wall to the left of us pops up a calendar display with bright pink highlights on it.

“So, it seems we have a small issue.” She cuts right to the chase. “Today is the final day of your fertile week, and we do not have any tracking activity for you two. What’s going on?” She clasps her hands under her chin and pins us to our seats with her stare.

We’re both silent for a beat before Patrick speaks up. “We are taking our time to get to know each other a bit better before taking things to the next level. As you know from our file, our time at the NLC was not exactly restful. There was a kidnapping attempt, and Sadie had seven matches to contend with. Neither one of us wants to rush into this.” His voice is calm, but his tone is no-nonsense.

My heart warms at his words, and the way he includes himself instead of blaming it on me being a chicken.

She taps her index fingers together thoughtfully, and it’s a long moment before she responds. “I see.”

It’s silent for another beat, before she looks down and taps her tablet a few times and the lights go back up to normal.

“I understand that you two had a bumpier ride getting here than some couples,