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LEAH WAITED FOR HIM all day once she got back to her own reality. He never came home. She looked everywhere but no one had seen him. She dreaded going to bed alone that night. What if she woke in the wrong life? But she was tired and lost without him and finally fell asleep, fretting before it hit. In the morning she woke, looked warily around her, and a sense of elation hit.
She was in their bedroom still! He wasn’t around yet, but today she’d find him because surely he was around here somewhere. She woke and showered, dressed, and then finally went into the main hub to find Shawn and Tempest. Her best friend told her Trance was on the beach at the man-made, salt water lake. Why would he have stayed away from her the entire day and night? Was he angry at her? They’d never had a fight before.
But she never hesitated like she would have in the other life. She headed straight over there.
There he was, walking along the beach.
“Trance!” He turned around as she started running.
She flung herself into his arms, feeling his warmth. His safety. His everything. This man was her entire world.
“Wife,” he murmured against her hair.
Her lips curled. “My husband. Hold me. Just hold me, please.”
“You shouldn’t be here, baby. You know that.” Very gently, he cupped the back of her head, bringing her head gently back so he could look into her eyes.
“I couldn’t stay away, Trance. I love you. I’d rather be here than there.”
He sighed, moving her to a seating bench. He sat down first and had her straddle his lap. She knew why. It forced her to look into his eyes.
The purple eyes with the gold irises. The one who’d never had to wear brown contact lenses.
“Leah, you have to give him a chance.”
“No. I can’t. This”—she waved her hand around—“what we have here is perfect. Nothing can compare.”
“You can have this out there.”
“No. Stop talking about the other world.” This was dangerously close to the behavior the outside Trance used. Forcing her to talk about wary feelings and stuff. Her husband on this side simply loved her. Supported her.
“I want you to be happy. I want us to be happy.”
“Then that’s here, Trance. Can’t you see that? We’re happier here than out there.”
His voice was harsh. “So I’m supposed to live with you in a coma? Because that’s what you’ve done to yourself. You popped so many goddamn pills you can’t even breathe. They’ve got you plugged into breathing tubes.”
She had a vague, confusing memory of her sleeping tabs flitting from her shaking fingers. “I—I couldn’t sleep. I don’t think I meant to take so many. You know I’ve been forgetful lately. Maybe I lost track of whether or not I took a dose and then doubled up. And then I wanted it to work faster so I took one more—”
“Leah.” His voice was ragged. “I don’t want to have to do this.”
“Then don’t,” she said. Something hard clenched in her chest. “Whatever it is, just don’t.”
His eyes were anguished. “I have to.” He took a deep breath. “You resent him. The other me on the outside. He’s not perfect. He’s invasive to the point he can make a person go into a trance if he wants them in a fucking dream. He lied, letting you assume he could invade telepathic links instead of your memories. He’s an asshole. He’s been cocky. But you need to know we’re the same person.”
“No. You—you are perfect. My husband is perfect.”
“You’re mad at him. He told you something you don’t want to hear and it pissed you off.”
“Yes, but I’m not mad at you. Never at you.”
“I am him.” He leaned in. “Baby, you know what the one constant is?”
“What?”
“You. You are the same out there and you’re the same in here, correct?”
Yes. In both places, her awake life and her dream life, she was the same. Scared. Stressed. Hiding. A little rabbit. She didn’t like that person.
Slowly she nodded.
“Then why wouldn’t I be real, too?”
She moaned because the walls of her reality were crashing down. “No. I can’t accept it.”
His voice was harsh. “You don’t have a choice. He’s devastated. Looking down at you while you’re in a coma. Begging you to wake.”
“I didn’t mean it!”
“I know.” He brought her head down to curl into his neck. “I know. But baby, we gotta get you out of here before you lose both worlds. Eventually your exhausted brain will give out...and you’ll be unable to dream. You’ll be a vegetable. Neither of us will have you then.”
“I don’t know...I don’t know how to deal with him. Out there. He knows things about me...” She curled her fist into the shirt at his chest.
“It’s okay. Trust him. Treat him like you do me. We’re one and the same...no matter how stupid I am on the outside and how perfect I am in here.”
She giggled softly. He was. He really was.
HER OWN SOFT LAUGHTER woke her. And it woke Trance, who scrambled up from the chair next to her bed to stand by her side. Somewhere behind her, a machine blipped faster as the dredges of sleep left her. Computer arms removed the breathing mask from the lower half of her face. Brief sadness hit, knowing she’d just left him behind.
He peered into her face. “Leah?”
“Hi.”
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I think so.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I kept it a secret. I didn’t tell you fully about my power. I let you assume I could hear private telepathic links, never once using the word dreams.” The corners of his full lips turned down. He looked so dejected.
She reached up to cup his face. “Shh. You have nothing to be sorry over. It’s me. I’m sorry. I put you through the wringer over it and I shouldn’t have. I acted like everyone else who finds out about your ability. Rejecting you immediately.”
“No. You just didn’t want to leave your perfect dream world. Your marriage.”
“Yeah, it was pretty perfect, Trance. Can you blame me?”
His breath caught. He looked hopeful...and terrified.
She took a deep breath. “I want that world here. I want it with you. I love you so much.”
“I love you, too,” he groaned, his mouth covering hers. He pulled away to speak.
“You’ll marry me? Change your name this time?” He teased, nuzzling her nose with his.
“Leilani Xeno Sapien? I like it.”
Another deep kiss later, he pulled away. “What changed your mind? I destroyed your dream world.”
“You didn’t destroy it. You made me realize it wasn’t my fantasy. It was yours. You pulled me into your dream. And if you could give me a life that perfect, you’re a prize I don’t want to let go of, Trance Xeno Sapien. Ever.”
“I’m going to give you all of that and more, wife.”
She laughed. “My man.”
