While You're Awake Read Online Free

the
ceiling and over the walls, but everything seemed safe. For now.
    With a sigh, she lay back
down, but sleep wouldn’t return. Her finger throbbed. Her heartbeat thudded.
With her ear turned to her pillow, her pulse and breathing sounded like an
obnoxious rock beat at a concert she’d rather not attend.
    After several minutes of
trying to claim the sleep her body and mind desperately craved, she gave up.
She rolled gracelessly to her side and pushed herself to her feet.
    On the dining room table
she found her purse, with her cell phone and a note beside it.
    Hey Tired Girl. Sorry
I didn’t say goodbye but you needed the sleep. You’ll probably still be out
when I return, but just in case I’ll be back after work (about 9) so I can take
you to your car. I put my number in your phone if you need to reach me. Get
some sleep! See you soon.
    The oddest little flutter
darted through her belly, then vanished. The letter, combined with the ghost of
odd sensations, left her wide-awake, though. Probably that sip of coffee
kicking in, too. She suddenly wished she’d had the chance to drink the whole
cup.
    As it was, she had to
find a way to occupy herself while she waited for Angel Boy—she had to give him a nickname, if he was going to call her something like “Tired Girl”—and the
return of her laptop, which was sitting inside her car at the coffee shop.
    The buzzing began as soon
as she started tackling the dirty dishes in the sink.
    ∞∞∞
    Keegan returned to Ava’s
place expecting the little house to be dark and quiet in the coming night.
Instead, light glared at him from several rooms, and OneRepublic played loud
enough for him to recognize the song “If I Lose Myself” through the closed
doors and windows.
    So much for the girl getting
some much-needed sleep.
    He hopped out of the
truck, the slam of the car door punctuating the beat of the music. He had to
knock twice before the volume lowered and footsteps approached the other side.
The click of the lock preceded the slow turn of the knob, and finally Ava’s
blue gaze appeared in the space between the door and the jamb.
    “Hey,” he offered, noting
the shadows beneath her eyes that seemed even more pronounced in the glare from
her lit-up home.
    “Hey,” she replied
without moving back to let him in or forward to follow him to his truck.
    Silence gave way to a
subdued crescendo in the music and the catchy bridge. He tapped his fingers on
his thighs, caught up in the familiar lyrics about overcoming. Tired Girl noticed
the movement and her lips lifted the tiniest bit in the corners. He grinned
back.
    “So…should we go pick up
your car?”
    “Sure.” Her words were
positive, although her tone sounded hollow. Had to be a symptom of the
exhaustion that weighed down her slender shoulders. “Let me just grab my keys.”
    She didn’t invite him in,
but she didn’t close the door behind her. And hey, he had been inside already
today. With a gentle shove of the door, he entered the living area.
    And stopped in his
tracks.
    Keegan’s brow furrowed as
his mind went into overtime, trying to make sense of the black fuzz littering
the carpet and the sill of the nearest window. One of the spots moved, the
half-hearted crawl of something on its last legs.
    His boots ate up the
space and brought him to crouch next to the dying honey bee. He stretched out a
hand, intending to scoop up the poor creature. But a gasp brought his head up.
    Panic shone through Ava’s
wide eyes and vibrated through the hand clutching her keys. She stood rooted by
a small kitchen table, trembling.
    Keegan knew that species
of fear. His heart started racing in response.
    Breathe. High
school was a long time in the past. He could handle bees.
    “It’s all right.” The
insect’s fuzzy legs tickled his palm as he nudged it onto his hand and got to
his feet. “It’s pretty lethargic. It’s not going to sting anyone.”
    Tired Girl shook her
head, and he startled as he noticed tears on