Page 75 of Should the Sky Fall

“It looks good,” Dawson repeats, sounding flustered. He must be annoyed with all of Cal’s questions. “Really. It suits you.”

“Alright,” Cal says, unconvinced. If he ends up hating it, he can always get rid of it.

“Gonna turn in?”

“In a bit. I haven’t done my exercises yet,” Cal says with disdain, making Dawson laugh.

“Go easy on yourself. We’ve done quite a bit of walking today.”

“Right.” Cal throws a glance over his shoulder at the bedroom, then looks at Dawson. Is it weird that he doesn’t want to say goodnight yet? He’s going to see Dawson in the morning. So why is he reluctant to call it a night? “I guess I’ll see you in the morning.”

Dawson nods. “I’ll be up for a little longer. There’s some stuff I need to sort out.” He waves the phone at him. “You sleep on the right, by the way.”

“Right. Got it.” Feeling like he needs to tell Dawson how much his help means to him, he says, “Thank you. I know I’ve been saying it a lot, but I mean it. I don’t know how I’d manage without you.”

Color rises to Dawson’s cheeks, and he stutters. “Y-yeah, of course. Anytime.”

“So…goodnight?”

“Goodnight.”

He just stands there for a moment, waiting for God knows what. Probably for lightning to strike or something. Realizing he’s making Dawson uncomfortable, if the nervous shifting is anything to go by, he mumbles goodnight again and turns to leave. Hopefully, the exercise will help him focus on something other than the obsessive need to have Dawson by his side at all times.

It’s not likely, but he can still hope.

Chapter 14

What.On.Earth.Wasthat? Did he land in an alternate universe? Has he been abducted by aliens? No, wait. Maybehewas in an accident and now he’s lying in the hospital, hooked to a bunch of machines and being pumped full of painkillers and whatever chemical cocktail causes scarily real hallucinations.

Because there’s no way this is his life now. There’s no way that this…thismanis his husband. He thought that his visits at the hospital had prepared him for what it was going to be like from now on. Ever since he woke up, Cal’s been nothing like the man Dawson remembers, but he assumed that would change once he brought Cal home. He’d expected some confusion and frustration. Maybe some of that anger and moodiness the doctors talked about—that would be a blast from the past, anyway.

What he hadn’t expected was...this. This guy who is probably huffing and puffing from exertion in the other room before going to bed. This person who wants to learn to do laundry, who enjoys Disney movies, who likes to watch Dawson cook—and likes the food he makes!

Maybe it was Cal who got abducted by aliens. Maybe they experimented on him, swapped his brain. That’s possible, right? Or he could be a changeling. Weirder stuff has happened. Someone could’ve swapped Cal for his good twin while nobody was looking.

Dawson collapses onto the sofa, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes. Yeah, it’s more likely he’s hallucinating. Or maybe he died and is in hell. Not that there’s anything particularly hellish about this. Stressful and confusing, yes, but compared to what his life has been, it’s not too bad.

Sighing, he opens his phone, going through the messages from the day. Kieran’s been bombarding him the whole arvo and left several voice messages. Dawson was so mired in the bizarreness of it all he hasn’t even thought to check his phone. There’s also a missed call and a message from Olivia. Well, better get it out of the way.

He dials Kieran first.

“Dude!” Kieran shrieks. “I was legit about to summon the cavalry. Where the hell have you been?!”

A tentative smile pulls on Dawson’s lips. That protective little shit. “Sorry. It’s been a day.”

“That bad?”

“No.” It’s true, it wasn’t. It was agoodday. Confusing as fuck, but good. He doesn’t remember the last time he and Cal watched a movie together. And the few times they did, it was never something up Dawson’s alley. “It wasn’t bad. But my god, you’d have to be here to believe this.”

“What happened?”

“I’m like Alice in Wonderland, I swear. You know how I said Cal was really mellow and chill at the hospital.” When Kieran makes a gruff sound of agreement, he continues. “Well, that was just the tip of the iceberg.”

“You gotta be more specific, man. I really don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

Dawson rolls his eyes. “Look, I know that forgetting everything about yourself is bound to change your personality, but I swear if I didn’t know better, I’d say I brought home the wrong person.” Realizing he’s still being pretty vague, he rushes to continue. “We watchedTangled, Kieran.Tangled.He let me pick the movie, twice. Then we watchedJumanji.And helikedit.”

“Get out,” Kieran says after a pause.