“Dolly.” I huff out a breath, sure now that I’ve kept her up too late since she’s not making any more sense than she claims Cypress did. “Maybe you ought to get to bed and we can talk about this later. It has to be past midnight. You should get some sleep. I’ll clean up in here.”
For a moment, she looks like she wants to disagree, but the telltale grimace when she shifts in her chair again seems to convince her. For now.
“Well, someone raised you right at least.” She sighs, missing how I wince before she lets me help her to her feet and walk her toward her room. “Suppose I can see a little more why he’s so taken with you.”
I roll my eyes. “All these books in here are giving you too many ideas, Dolly.”
“Mm.” When we reach her door, she unlinks her arm from mine, leaning on her cane as she eyes me. “Let me know if you want to borrow one. Seems you could use some of those ideas.”
“I don’t—”
“Aiden,” she says, her voice suddenly stern in a way that makes me fall quiet. “I understand. Really, I do. You’ve had not only a long road but a hard one, and up until now, you’ve done what it takes to survive, but…maybe while you’re busy keeping Cypress alive, you could try to keep yourself alive, too, hm?” She pats my chest again as she adds, “Oh, and when you go searchin’, you might want to check the roof.”
“The roof?” I ask, looking up as if that’ll help me understand the jump from the prior discussion to this one. “Why? It need fixin’?”
“Lord help me.” She shakes her head and opens the door to herbedroom, muttering to herself as she walks inside, “Really must be his looks.”
I’m quiet as I let myself inside, passing Dolly’s bedroom and allowing myself a glance down the hall toward Aiden’s room in the back before heading up the stairs. My intention not to wake either of them, though perhaps Aiden more so.
I’d been so set on finding him, knowing he faced far more of a risk dealing with Tom than I did dealing with a dead body. Though he had insisted on being the one to do so, it hadn’t sat right, giving him another mess to clean up on my account. Bringing morecomplicationsto his door…
How many more times will he tolerate it before he decides he’s had enough? Cuts his losses and moves on as he’d been planning to do with Maddock? If I’d been able to find him, would he have already told me as much?
When I reach the bedroom at the top of the stairs, I close the door behind me before grabbing the bedroll at the foot of the bed and a few blankets, putting both over my shoulder before walking to the window and pushing it up.
It squeaks loudly, and I pause for a moment, wishing I’d remembered to put some oil on it earlier today as I listen for the sound of stirring downstairs. Grateful that I hear none, I finally ease myself out onto the window ledge, turn to grab the lip of the roof, and pull myself up, crawling along the gentle pitch to reach the flat expanse at the top. There’s not a ton of room up here, but I have no trouble unfurling my bedroll and the blankets before stretching myself out and staring at the clear sky. Looking to the stars for answers that they don’t have.
What if he tells me in the morning that he’s done? Worse, what if he leaves without even bothering to let me know? What if—
I hear the distinctive sound of the window squeaking again as it’s pushed farther up, the creak of the ledge as someone puts weight on it, a low grunt of exertion, and then… “Jesus Christ.”
I sit up, staring at the edge of the roof, and I’m still not sure I trust my eyes when I see Aiden’s hat appear, shortly followed by the rest of him as he scrambles more than climbs to the top.
“You need a hand?” I ask him, biting the inside of my cheek when he glances over his shoulder toward the ground below. “I could—”
“No,” he says, holding up a hand to stop me before smacking it back down on the roof. “You try to help and I’m liable to end up going over.”
“I’d go after you,” I offer. “If that’s any comfort.”
He takes his eyes briefly off the shingles to look at me. “Sort of is, I suppose.” He huffs. “I’ll be there. Just give me a minute.”
Of course I do. Several, in fact, though he finally reaches me after feeling the need to crawl the rest of the journey on all fours, breathing fast and shaking a little as he peers back in the direction he came from.
“Can’t honestly tell me…” he says, studying the flat square of roof we’re sharing and scooting a bit closer to me. “You actually prefer this to a bed?”
I shrug. “Better view.”
“Yeah.” His eyes flick toward the stars before he slowly surveys the ever-evolving Texas landscape rolling out all around us, plains giving way to pockets of trees, to rock formations and to a well-known canyon in the distance. “Suppose it is.”
He tucks his knees up near his chest before cautiously putting his hands behind him, bracing himself as he leans back in what must be an attempt at relaxation.
“You don’t have to stay,” I offer, trying not to laugh at his expense. “I can come down.”
“No,” he says quickly. “No, I’m not sure I want to think about how we get back down. Not yet. Getting down at Dolly’s place was bad enough.”
“All right,” I say, leaning back in an imitation of his own posture, except I leave my legs sprawled out in front of me. After another moment, he notices and does the same.
“Did you…” I start to ask, worried about what could have possibly brought him up here. “Did everything go as planned?”