Before the Fall

That night, Faye was fast asleep when Logan called. Rather than letting it ring, Nace answered, himself. “Hello, Logan.” He smiled a little. That was exactly what Faye always said. Admittedly, she was usually much happier to be taking a call from Logan.

“Nace? Where’s Faye? Give her the phone,” Logan demanded.

“I would, but she’s fast asleep and I don’t want to wake her. She’s had a… long day, I guess you could say.” Nace glanced over at Faye and shuddered to think how close he’d been to losing her. Much longer out there and she wouldn’t have made it.

“Why? What happened? What did you do to her? Don’t mess with me, Hillard, or I swear, I’ll-” Nace cut him off and explained what had happened that day.

“How…? But… She’s okay, right? She’ll get better?” Logan spluttered.

“Yeah, she’ll be just fine. I’m taking care of her,” Nace answered. The aggressive ‘back off’ tone was absolutely not planned, but the effect was nice, he thought.

“Thanks. I never thought I’d say this, but you might not be so bad,” was Logan’s eventual response. Nace wondered whether the conversation could get any stranger, and he really doubted it.

But he was wrong. “You care about her,” Logan said. It was a statement, not a question.

“I do. I… love her,” Nace confessed.

“Does she know?” Logan asked quietly.

“I’m an idiot. The reason she bolted from the house was that I asked her to stay. Nothing I can say will change her mind. She doesn’t care.” Nace would have laughed at the situation- talking with a guy, one he didn’t particularly care for, about his feelings hadn’t been on the day’s agenda. But then, nothing that had happened had been planned.

“She does. I know she does. She stopped putting on that ‘everything is okay’ act she used to have while we were in California. I mean, she tried for the first few days, but then she dropped it. While she was with you, she stopped needing to pretend. And I could tell she was missing you while we were away. She was moody- she’s never been moody! The old Faye would have been shocked and offended by the very idea of it. But she got very moody whenever I mentioned us getting an apartment. Which, I remind you, was her idea in the first place.”

Nace’s outlook brightened considerably. “But if you hurt her, I swear, I’ll crush you,” Logan added casually. Nace could tell he meant it, too.

“Got it. Don’t worry. If anyone gets hurt, it’ll be me. Think you might be able to talk her into even thinking about staying?” Nace hated to beg, especially to beg Logan, but he was desperate. She wasn’t going consider it on her own. He knew that the way she saw it, staying with him wasn’t even a vague option.

“I’ll see what I can do. But I’m not going to talk her into doing something she doesn’t want to do. Faye can take care of herself. Or at least, she mostly can. I cover whatever she can’t. That system’s worked for years. It’s not about to change.”

“It already has. I saved her today. You might not want to hear this, and I certainly don’t want to think about it, but if she’d spent much longer out there, she would have died.” Nace hung up and barely resisted the urge to throw her phone into the wall.

When he glanced over at her, her eyes were open. “Shit,” he whispered.

“I don’t suppose you just woke up,” he said after a long moment. Faye shook her head. “Sorry, I thought you were asleep.”

“I could tell,” she said. She was smiling. That had to be good, right? “You love me?”

Nace ran a hand through his hair, pulling at the ends of it a little bit. Inwardly, he cursed his stupidity. But at least it would be out in the open now. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

“Oh.” Faye looked thoughtful, but Nace could tell that she was keeping tight control on whatever emotions were brewing behind those pretty eyes. “It can’t change anything,” she said blankly. His heart sank, and he reminded himself that he’d expected no less.

“I guess I already knew that.”