My stomach growled again in response.
“I felt that,” he admitted.
As he stepped closer, I couldn’t tell if he was smiling or if I’d found a fresh way to burden him.
“You’re starving,” he said, setting the bounty down on the nearby table. “I brought offerings.”
Then he unfolded something—careful, like it mattered—and crouched beside the bed.
He slid my glasses onto my face.
The world snapped into place.
Vinny looked like hell.
His shirt was half-unbuttoned and wrinkled beyond belief. Dark circles lived under his eyes like they’d moved in and refused to leave.
Before I could even try to apologize, Benji stirred.
His head lifted slowly from my shoulder—so slowly—until I realized there was a string of drool connecting us.
“Vi?” he rasped, wiping his face.
I nodded.
The drool-string snapped.
Benji blinked at me like I’d just risen from the dead.
“Dios mío,” he breathed. “Ay, you’re going to make me go grey.”
I tried to smile.
Behind me, Skye shifted, finally awake enough to register what was happening. His arm tightened around my waist on instinct, then he froze when he saw my eyes open.
“Oh,” he yawned. “Good.”
Then he laid back down and shut his eyes like this was a normal thing to wake up to.
But his arm loosened.
And now both my hands were free.
I pushed myself up carefully, and it felt like my body protested just for the fun of it.
I lifted one hand to sign.
Vinny caught it and pressed it gently back to my chest.
“Save it,” he murmured. “Let me talk first.”
For a moment we just staredat each other.
Then he nodded toward the food.
“Benji,” he said, “feed her while we talk. Her hunger is distracting me.”
Benji looked far too pleased with that instruction.