Within These Walls (The Walls Duet #1)(33)

Pink stained her cheeks, and she nodded. “What was that, Jude?”

I raised my eyebrow in amusement. “That was a kiss. Did I not do it right? Because I’d be happy to try again.”

“No!” she yelped. “I mean, yes! Crap!”

A sly smirk spread across my face. “It’s okay, Lailah. Breathe.”

Her eyes fluttered closed, and she took a deep breath, letting it slowly fill her chest. I couldn’t stop myself. I leaned down and briefly touched my lips to hers.

“Everything needs a beginning,” I said, lifting my eyes to hers. “This is ours.”

“But I’m leaving.”

“Yes, and I will miss seeing your beautiful face here, but I don’t live here.”

Something must have clicked just then because a goofy grin slowly spread across her face, and she blushed again.

“You don’t even know where I live. Oh God! You’ll have to meet my mom!”

The angry blonde I’d seen in the hall with Marcus suddenly flashed through my mind, and honestly, the thought of meeting her was a little frightening.

Lailah laughed, the sound of amusement echoing each note. “You’re nervous!”

“Maybe a little, but I’ll be okay,” I assured her.

She gave me a doubtful look, but I wrapped my arms tighter around her waist and squeezed with assurance.

“Besides, we’ll have to figure it out if we want to start working on that list of yours. I think a trip to the ocean is in order.”

Her eyes lit up at the idea. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on that list and start crossing out each and every one of those one-hundred-and-forty-three mysterious adventures.

“So, what do we do now?” She nervously bit her bottom lip.

I leaned in close, millimeters from her lips. She sucked in a breath, and her eyes widened in anticipation. A grin I couldn’t stop swept across my face as I placed a chaste kiss on her cheek before taking a step back.

“I’m going to go try to explain my extremely long absence from my duties to my supervisor,” I said.

A faint blush appeared on her cheeks.

“And then I will need to play a little catch-up. I’ll take my lunch break in a while, though and sneak back in here. It is your last night, and I do have a duty to deliver your dessert.”

“Yes, you do,” she answered.

I took a step back toward the door, keeping my eyes trained on her, until my outstretched hand felt the cool metal of the door handle. I turned to make my exit, still smiling like a fool.

Then, she called out, “Jude?”

“Yeah?” I answered, whipping back around.

“Just bring one pudding tonight. We’ll share again,” she shyly suggested, red blotches staining her already pink cheeks.

“You got it.”

God bless the creator of pudding.





“Tell me something about you, something I don’t know,” I said.

We were leaning back against her pillow, sharing the single pudding cup I’d brought, as requested.

I’d raced through the rest of my duties, making sure I had everything ticked off and accounted for before going to lunch. I hadn’t wanted to be negligent, but I also hadn’t wanted Lailah to wait up until after midnight for me. I’d clocked out and grabbed a quick sandwich and a cup of pudding from the cafeteria before racing back upstairs and wolfing down my sandwich almost whole. If the nurses had noticed me visiting Lailah’s room more than needed, no one said anything. I wondered if that was Dr. Marcus’s doing.

When I’d slipped back in here, I hadn’t bothered with the chair or the end of the bed this time. I needed to be near her. Side by side with our legs entwined, we shared one spoon and started a game of twenty questions.

“Um…what do you want to know?” she asked, dipping the spoon into the creamy, dark dessert.

“Anything.”

She thought about it for a moment and finally answered, “Ever since I was young, I’ve always wanted a sibling. I didn’t really care if it was a brother or sister. I just wanted to spend time with someone my age. I guess that comes from being alone all the time,” she said. “Do you have any siblings?”

I nodded. “A brother.”

“Older or younger?”

“Older.”

“Do you like him?” she asked.

I let out a thoughtful breath. “Like is a strong word. Tolerate is probably more appropriate. But it’s been a long time since I’ve seen him.”

“How come?” She took a small bite of chocolate between her lips.

I watched the spoon dip into her mouth and reappear as I thought about how to answer.

How much should I tell her?

I’m neither weak nor fragile. Don’t think for one single second that I can’t handle anything you can.

She’d been treated like a porcelain doll her entire life. If I did the same, I’d be no different than anyone else in her life, and I wanted to be different. I wanted to be the one she could trust.

My conscience took that moment in time to remind me in detailed flashbacks of a younger, broken, and more desperate version of myself begging for Megan’s father not to give up her organs.

I told that * to take a hike.

The past couldn’t be undone. There was nothing I could do to change what had happened in the hallways of this hospital three years ago. The only thing I could do was make the life of the woman next to me better in every way possible.