As I got to my feet, I stumbled and Cole caught me. “Hey,” he said. “You sure you’re okay?”
I leaned against him. “I’m so tired,” I said. Then I thought of my grandmother this morning and the expectation that I’d come to her when summoned. I groaned at the idea of explaining my absence and spending the afternoon with her. I knew I couldn’t take it.
“What?” Cole asked me.
“All I want to do is go back to bed, but I can’t go home. My grandmother’s on the warpath.”
Cole grinned. “You can come over to my house and sleep.”
I rolled my eyes at him. That was a line if ever I’d heard one.
He laughed. “Not like that,” he said. “You can take a nap on the couch. My mom’s at work, and I’ve got a couple of lawns to cut. You can have the house to yourself.”
I looked gratefully at him. “You’d really let me do that?”
“Sure,” he said. “Besides, it’s the only way to test if Amber heard you or not, right? If you get a few hours of sleep without having a nightmare, then coming here to talk to her was the right thing to do.”
We began to walk back toward Cole’s car. “You have no idea how much I appreciate it,” I told him. “Thanks.”
Cole left me at his place with a blanket, pillow, and Bailey curled up on a rug next to the couch. He told me to text him if I needed him, gave me a quick tour of the house, and offered full run of anything in the pantry or fridge. Again I was struck by his thoughtful kindness. Tanner had never once been so considerate. I wondered if I shouldn’t respond to Sophie’s text with a thank you for helping me dodge a bullet, because the more I thought about my heartbreak over losing Tanner, the less I actually felt it.
After Cole headed off to cut his lawns, I walked around his house for a bit, not trying to be nosy, but curious about the place he called home.
His mom had amazing taste. The living room was open and cozy, with light-mint-green walls, white overstuffed furniture, and dark wood accents. There were punches of color from bright pink-and-yellow throw pillows, and a bold fuchsia-colored vase on the mantel, but mostly the tones were cool and soothing.
Cole’s room, which I only peeked into, was painted a slate blue, with red-and-navy plaid curtains, an azure comforter, and light brown wood accents. His choice of décor didn’t surprise me, because it was pretty typical for a guy’s room, but the place was neat as a pin, and that did surprise me a little.
It wasn’t long after settling on the couch that my lids got heavy and I drifted off to sleep, hopeful that I wouldn’t be awakened by any more nightmares.
That hope was short-lived. Cole found me around eleven thirty, bent at the waist, gasping for air. The dream had come again with a vengeance, only this time, there’d been something more. Something that hadn’t been in any of the dreams before.
Cole brought me some water as I wiped my cheeks and tried to steady my nerves. I fought back against the first hints of a panic attack and managed to keep it together—but just barely.
“Was it the dream?” he asked, sitting down on an ottoman across from me.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Damn,” he said. “So, I guess the gravesite thing didn’t work, huh?”
I took an unsteady sip of water. “Not so much.”
Hanging my head, I tried not to cry, but it was too overwhelming. The nightmare was unrelenting and my nerves were coming undone. How was I going to make it another two weeks to talk to Dr. Van Dean again if I was already this much of a mess?
“What can I do?” Cole asked gently.
I shook my head. “There’s nothing more we can do,” I said miserably. “She won’t let go. For whatever reason, Amber wants to torture me with this dream and she won’t let up. This time she combined both nightmares and gave me a whiff of something….”
“A whiff? What whiff?”
“I don’t know. There was a smell, like something in the air. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but something smelled off.”
“Off how?”
I rubbed my tired eyes. In my mind, I tried to recall it, but the room was filled with the scent of fresh-cut grass, and I realized that Cole’s clothes were spattered with clippings from the lawns he’d mown.
But then it struck me. The reason that I’d become aware of something off about the scent I’d smelled in the dream. It had been like a scent found only indoors had been outside. I said as much to Cole, and he scratched his head.
“That’s weird,” he said.
“Right?”
“And you’re sure that’s new?”
“I’m sure. I don’t ever remember smelling anything in the nightmare before.”
“Huh,” he said, and I could see that he was thinking about the significance.
“I have no idea what it could mean,” I said. “It was just so weird, and it’s the last thing I remember before that arm came around my chest and the knife went into my heart.”
Cole winced. “God, Lily,” he said, looking at me with haunted eyes. “Is it really like that every time?”
“Lately,” I said.
He shook his head. “That sucks.”