Another high-rise building, another hotel room suspended high above the Earth.
Another sleepless night, sitting up in the bed, feeling the floor shiver below him.
Jonas could feel people walking on other floors, feel the building tremble around them. Even the Bellagio had been built with earthquake-proof elasticity.
He stared at the dark television screen, unwilling to disturb Rhiannon asleep under the sheets, but he couldn’t lie down. When he was flat on his back, the floor vibrated more, rattling his bones.
He sighed.
Beside him, Rhiannon sat up, and the sheets moved under his legs. “You awake?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Building moving?”
“Yeah.”
She cuddled close, her soft flesh molding to his back. Jonas closed his eyes, trying to feel nothing but her. Her long hair curled around his arm, and the sweet scent of watermelons rose in the cold air.
“Are you thinking about them?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he admitted.
Against his back, Rhiannon went very still, too still. Her voice was small as she whispered in the dark, “I was in the foster system, too.”
“How many?” he asked. He knew that she would understand what he meant.
“Five long-term ones. I don’t know how many dozen overnighters and short-term places.”
He turned and took her into his arms, cradling her, sheltering her, and stroked her hair.
“I lost a sister, too,” she said. The stricken breathiness of her voice reminded him of when she sang some of the most emotional lines of “Alwaysland.”
He asked, “What happened?”
In the dark, he could feel her breathing shallowly in his arms like she was panting through pain. “My mother was drunk. I ran and hid, but Reilly wouldn’t hide. I was too afraid to chase after her and haul her back under the bed after the third time. I thought my mom wouldn’t hurt a baby.”
Ah, this was why she flinched at any suggestion of violence, and he berated himself for ever being so insensitive as to say anything around her. You never know what kind of pain people are holding in. “How old was your sister?”
“Three.”
“And you?”
“Five.”
“So young.”
“I still miss them both.”
He curled around her, drawing her back down to the bed. His heart ached in his chest, a reflection of the pain in her voice, but there was nothing he could do except hold her in his arms until she slept while the hotel trembled in the gale.
Jonas still couldn’t sleep, but he lay still, prone on the sheets, vulnerable to the ceiling or the dresser that might fall on them.
A lifetime lived in foster care boggled his mind. He felt the scars of losing his family and being tossed into the ruthless system with people who wanted to care but couldn’t help him beyond making sure that he had been assigned a bed somewhere, and he couldn’t imagine the sadness that must have dogged Rhiannon her whole life.
He wanted to make that sadness go away, to surround her with what he remembered: the casual trust and care of his family.
Jonas held her, trying to make her feel safe if only for that minute.