“I’m strangely okay with that.” His free hand reaches up to brush the hair from my forehead, and my eyes close automatically as I nudge him for more. His fingers in my hair are so damn relaxing, and if it was up to me, he’d never leave. Ever. He’d stay here and be as constantly bored as I am. “You’re a lot more alert today.”

I nod, blinking my eyes back open, and as he takes his hand from my hair, I pull the other closer, hugging it to my chest. “Yeah. Feel good. One hundred percent. I think they can discharge me now.”

“Nice try.”

“Was it?”

“Not even a little bit.” Some of the sweetness he’s radiating dims as he swipes his tongue over his lips, doubt slowly creeping in. “I, ah … I’m sorry about your bracelet.”

My bitterness about it tries to take over. “Yeah. Guess I was probably getting too old for it or something. Luther did me a favor.”

“Did he?”

“Some people would say so.”

“Are you some people?”

Of course he calls my bluff, and of course I can’t lie to him. “I should be.”

His lips twitch, and then he reaches down into his pocket. When he lifts his hand where I can see it again, he’s holding his fist out to me.

I frown as I glance from it to him and back again. “You want a fist bump?”

“No.” He laughs. “This is … well, you’re not Perry without a happy charm.”

A happy charm?

The monitor beeping beside me gets louder as St. Clare turns over his hand and peels his fingers back. There, resting in his palm is … I shake my head, sure I must be hallucinating.

He’s not smiling anymore. He pulls my arm toward him, and then, like he’s slipping the final piece into a puzzle, he stretches the bracelet over my hand and settles it on my wrist.

“That’s … that’s …” Shit, am I even breathing?

“Yours,” he finishes, thumb running over the small plastic beads. “I found all the pieces I could, and some of them are busted up a little, and the smiley face had to be glued back together, but there were two that were too broken to save.” He swallows loudly. “Sorry. But it was small on you anyway, so I thought … I thought that maybe it was time to … to add some more happy charms to your life.”

I lift my wrist, slowly turning the bracelet. The strawberry is scratched but mostly okay, and it’s a similar story in varying shades for all the old beads. Then I get to the other side.

My thumb runs over the bull head, then the colorful neon swirl, the lime wedge, and finally, a little gun with a heart shooting out of it.