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“You just close your eyes and relax, Sasha,” he told me as he pulled away. “Young people do take these things harder. I shouldn’t expect that just because you’ve been through a great deal more than the average girl your age, you’d be as tough as nails.”

I felt his hand on my thigh.

“You’re as soft and delicate as anyone your age, if not more so.”

He squeezed gently. I closed my eyes again and pretended to fall asleep. He was on the phone with his office during the trip most of the time, anyway. Apparently, he had called ahead to the house before he arrived at the school, because both Mrs. Duval and Mrs. Caro were waiting when we drove up, with very worried expressions on their faces.

“Is Jordan back yet?” he asked them immediately.

“No,” Mrs. Duval said. “I didn’t try to reach her. I thought you would. How is she?” she asked, nodding at me.

“She’ll be all right. Just get her up to her room and in bed. I’ll be there in a few minutes to give her the medicine our doctor prescribed for her,” he said. “Where’s Alberto?”

Mrs. Duval told him, and he went looking for him.

Mrs. Duval helped me up to my room and got me undressed and into bed. She brought me a glass of water, and I asked her to hand me the ship in the bottle.

“What is this?” she asked.

“It was a present from Ryder Garfield,” I said. “He had left it in my locker.”

She nodded. I didn’t have to explain any further. If this house had ears, one pair of them were hers and another pair were Mrs. Caro’s. I put it beside me in my bed. She left to look for Donald. He was up a few minutes later.

“Here are your pills,” he said, handing two of them to me.

“Two?”

“It’s what Dr. Battie prescribed after I explained what happened. Go on. You need to rest. Mrs. Duval will look in on you. I can’t believe Jordan hasn’t returned my call yet. I’ve got to get back to my company office for a few hours, but Mrs. Duval will look in on you.”

I took the pills, and then he stroked my hair and smiled down at me.

“Even like this, you look amazingly beautiful, Sasha. Just rest. You’ll be fine,” he said. “You sure you want to leave that bottle there? You might roll over on it or something.”

“I’m sure,” I said.

“Okay.”

I watched him leave and then closed my eyes. The pills were taking effect quickly. After another ten minutes or so, I felt light and comfortable and imagined Ryder lying there beside me. Like a genie, he came out of the bottle.

“Sorry about all this,” he said.

“It was a very selfish thing to do,” I told him.

“Yeah, well, I’ve been brought up by experts when it comes to that.”

“That’s no excuse, and you know it, Ryder. You’re better than they are.”

He was silent a moment. “Only when I’m with you,” he said.

“So?”

“They were sending me away. I wouldn’t have been with you.”

“We would have found a way.”

“Naw. It would have been too difficult. You’d have lost interest and found someone else. Besides, I stopped wishful thinking some time ago.”

“Well, I didn’t.”