But he knew she didn’t mean stay forever. He knew she meant for now, for while she felt like this, for the term of that silent deal they’d made only a moment ago. And he figured that was safe enough. He figured he was strong enough for that.

One night, and then he’d go back to normal.

“Yeah,” he said, bending down and tucking the blanket around her, barely stopping himself from setting his lips against her brow. Not that, he warned himself, before straightening again. “I’ll stay.”

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The first time Nora woke up, he was in her kitchen.

He’d been to the pharmacy, a small white paper bag tipped on its side on the counter, but he’d also stopped by the grocery, picking up a small crate of clementines and a loaf of bread and three different kinds of ready-made soup, one of which she found him heating on the stovetop. When she shuffled into the kitchen, she could tell by the notch between his eyebrows and the tense set of his jaw that she looked about as good as she felt (which was to say: hideous!), and so when he set the bottle of Tylenol in front of her and uncapped her new prescription decongestant, she took it with the full glass of water he said she had to drink and she didn’t complain at all. She ate a bowl of soup, and they talked about her work and his, anything that wouldn’t get them talking about the building. When she’d finished eating, Will had pointed her back to the couch and told her to put something entertaining on TV for them to watch, but she’d fallen asleep again before he’d finished clearing plates.

The second time, he was out in the hallway.