Find Me (Life After the Outbreak, Book 2) (25 page)

She looked to Will for permission before taking it. He gave her a slight nod, and she took Dan’s hand. Her lips curved up into a shy smile, and her cheeks flushed pink. I rolled my eyes at the exchange. He even had the tweens batting their eyelashes at him.
 

“Nice to meet you, Izzy.” Dan winked and released the girl’s small hand.

She didn’t respond. Instead, she quickly shuffled behind Will for safety.
 

Will ran his ran over her head, then patted her back a few times. “She’s not really a talker.”

Dan smiled at her and walked over to a nearby tree to lean on. "Will, do you have a place to spend the night?"

There was still another hour or so of daylight, but it was an exhausting day, both physically and emotionally. I could not wait for it to be over.

"Sort of. Not the best place, but we can keep watch. No food though. You have anything?"

"Nah." Dan shook his head. "But I can go out and look for something after we get the girls settled. Andi looks wiped."

Will and Izzy spent the previous night holed up in an old Post Office. The windows had long ago been broken out but were boarded up, and there was only one way in or out. That made it easier to keep watch and make sure no one, breathing or not, made their way in as we slept.
 

Will hadn't intended on staying more than a night, but Izzy was nursing a sprained ankle, and he figured it would be better to wait a few days until she was healed before they set out.
 

After Will got Izzy settled with her leg propped up in the back room, and Dan set out to find us some dinner, Will and I finally got a chance to talk.

"What are you planning on doing with the kid?" I asked and hopped up on a counter against the wall to rest.

Will peered out the front door to make sure no one was out there. "Well, I was planning on taking her back to the military base. I can't exactly leave her all alone out here."
 

"Oh."

"Oh? That's all you have to say?" He walked over to me and stood between my knees.

"I don't know. It's just … that place. I'm still not sure about it, you know."

He squeezed himself closer and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Did something else happen while I was gone?"

I looped my fingers in his belt and slid toward the edge of the counter so I was right up against him. "No, but there are too many unanswered questions, and after what I saw, I would be too afraid to even ask. There might be another option for Izzy, though. I met a couple that had a pretty decent set up. There was a girl with them just a year or two older than Izzy. I think it might be a good place for her, and it's not too far from here, so we wouldn't have to go all the way back to the base then back out here."

His hands slid up my back and up through my hair. "I'm guessing you've made up your mind about not returning to the base then."

I nodded and my breathing picked up. He inched closer, dragging out the inevitable. Patience was not one of my virtues, and it had been too long since I felt his lips on mine. I reached up, pulled his neck down, and clamped my hands in place. There was no way I was waiting any longer.

"Such an impatient little thing you are," Will said against my lips before gliding his tongue along them.

There was no way I was letting him tease me. I knew he wanted it just as much as I did. I pulled him hard against me, pressing his lips against mine. My hands slid up and found his hair. It was a tangled mess, but wrapped around my fingers, it was perfect. His lips were rough and chapped, and he needed to shave. My face would be red and sore from where he scratched against it, but I never wanted the kiss to end.
 

In one hot instant, the clothes between us were too much. I wanted to pull them off and feel his skin against mine. The thought shocked me like I was jabbed with a hot poker and I jumped back, breaking the kiss.
 

Will was confused. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I …”

… Wanna rip your clothes off and feel your bare skin.

"Umm …” I let my eyes fall. The last thing I was going to do was tell him what I was thinking in that moment. "Nothing."

Will shot me a disappointed smile. "Okay. For now."

He walked back over to the door and peered around.
 

I kicked my sneakers off my feet and let them fall to the floor. "So, what happened? How did you get separated?"
 

"The usual stuff. You don't really want to talk about that, do you?" He turned and raised one eyebrow in my direction.

My imagination had come up with so many scenarios already over what could have happened to him. I was afraid whatever he told me could possibly be even worse.

"Probably not." I took a breath and closed my eyes. "I thought you were dead … or undead."

Will walked back over and hopped up on the counter next to me. "And you still came looking for me, risking your own ass?"

"I had to know. Don't tell me you wouldn't have done exactly the same thing if it was me."

"Baby, there's no way I would have let you go out there without me in the first place. But, yes. I would have gone looking for you no matter what. Look, I get why you did. That doesn't mean it wasn't reckless or stupid. I want you alive."

I leaned my head against his arm and took in his scent. "No more than I want you alive."

Will laughed. “Oh, I don't know about that. You wrote me off as zombie food pretty quick."

"Idiot." I huffed. "You would have thought the same thing too, if it were me. Anyway, I wasn't the only one who thought your chances were slim."

"It's my fault she's dead." His voice cracked and he frowned.
 

"It's not your fault, Will. If anything, it's mine."

"Yours? How could it possibly be your fault? She was out there looking for me. If I didn't get separated from the group, or could have made it back on my own, she would still be alive." Will shook his head. "No, Andi. It's because of me."

"When those other guys came back and you weren't with them, I begged her to come with me to look for you. Not only did she refuse, she banned me from going. Like, seriously, she told the guys at the gate not to let me out. I was trying to find another way out to go on my own."

"Well, that's even more idiotic." Will huffed.

"Regardless, it was me that pushed to go look for you. I was horrible to her about it. If I just listened to her and waited, you would have made it back, and she would still be alive." I tried not to think about it that way, but it was true.

"That doesn't make it your fault. Janet knew how to say no if she didn't think it was the right thing to do." Will shifted and leaned back on his elbows. He had tears in his eyes, but he fought them back.
 

“By that reasoning, it can’t be your fault either then.” I raised an eyebrow and smirked.

Will sighed and hopped off the counter to stand in front of me again. "I guess I can’t argue with that, and I guess we can't change what happened. I wish we could, but we can't." He pushed my hair behind my ear and smiled. "I love you, ya know?"

I leaned down and kissed him. "You better."

Dan made it back with a couple of snakes that I couldn't even bring myself to look at. I was hungry, and food was food, but that didn't mean I wanted to look at the slimy reptiles that would become my dinner. He cooked them on a small camp stove that he carried in his oversized backpack. Izzy was a little too eager to help out, probably because she had a crush on Dan, but he was sweet about it. Although Izzy stayed quiet, Dan chatted nonstop the whole time to her.

We had been getting lucky with the places we slept, most of which had mattresses on the floor at the very least. The Post Office wasn't nearly as comfortable of a place to sleep, but we would have to make do with two sleeping bags between us. Both Will and Dan carried one with their packs, so we'd manage.

One of us needed to keep watch anyway, so one sleeping bag went to Izzy, and the other could be shared. I knew the guys would insist on splitting the watches between them, so whichever one wasn't up could share with me.
 

Dan looked over at me sitting in Will's lap after dinner, and for the first time, I thought I saw a hint of jealousy on his face. "I'll take the first watch if that's okay with you, Will?"

"Good with me." Will slid me off his lap and set up the sleeping bag for the two of us.

We decided to stay in the Post Office lobby near the front door so we'd all be together. I for one, certainly had enough of being separated. As much as I would have liked to be alone with Will, I didn't want to leave Dan. I was ecstatic to find him again and I wanted to keep him in my life.

It was a tight squeeze for Will and me in the sleeping bag, but that only made it better. After thinking he was gone from my life, I wanted to be as close as I could possibly be. Just feeling him next to me made me feel safer.
 

Dan set up a stool near the door and settled in for his watch. I felt a little guilty knowing how he felt about me as I snuggled against Will for the night. One deep breath into Will's chest and I was intoxicated by his scent enough to lose any thoughts of anything other than the fact that I was there with him. A few deep breaths into him and I was out like a light.

 
The next time I woke up was when Will and Dan switched places. Will eyed Dan with his lips pressed together as Dan climbed into the sleeping bag with me. Dan looked like he was avoiding eye contact with Will for some reason. It was an odd exchange. Will was certainly showing some signs of jealousy, something I thought we got past a while back, so it didn't really make sense.

"Something going on with you two?" I whispered to Dan once we settled in.
 

"No. What do you mean?" Dan squirmed around. His muscular frame didn't leave much room for two in the sleeping bag.
 

I rolled onto my side with my back pressed up against his front, to give us the most possible room. "You’re acting weird, and Will is all jealous again. Did he say something to you?"

Dan took a deep breath. "Andi, this position is not going to work. And no, he didn't say anything. Everything is fine. Except this." He tried to turn himself over so I wasn't up against him, but it wasn't working.

"It was fine how we were. Stop squirming."

Dan took another deep breath and let it out very slowly. "I promise you, it was not fine. If you press yourself up against me like that again, Will is going to have something to be jealous about."

I opened my mouth to tell him he was an idiot, then it dawned on me what he was talking about. A hot blush spread across my cheeks, and I was glad he couldn't see me at that moment. I tried to twist myself around so that I was lying on my back or something, anything other than how we were, but I wasn't even sure what position wouldn't be a problem.

"My God, woman, stop moving. Please." Dan unzipped the sleeping bag halfway and flipped me around so I was facing him, but he was on his back. He zipped us back up and patted his chest for me to lay my head on.

"Better?"

He shrugged his chin back to look down at me. "Is that a trick question?"

"Um, no? I don't get it."

Dan laughed.
 

I slapped my hand onto his hard chest. "Stop that. What do you mean ‘trick question?’”

"Sure, it's better if I want to keep Will from kicking my ass, but Angel, having you pressed up against me like that isn't something I really want to end."

"You two are supposed to be getting some sleep over there," Will called over. He looked annoyed, and I was suddenly very grateful that he couldn't hear our conversation.

The next time I woke up, daylight was peeking through the door, and I could hear Will talking to
 
Izzy.

"Iz, I'll take you to the military base if that's what you want, or we can go to the place Andi mentioned. It's up to you. I trust her, so if she thinks you will be better off there, it’s probably the best place." Will peered out the door and scanned the area.
 

She nodded her head in our direction and raised both eyebrows. I closed my eyes so they wouldn't know I was listening.
 

Will let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I trust her. Him, maybe not so much, but Andi, absolutely."

A twinge of guilt rolled over me, and Dan tightened his arm around my waist.

"I wouldn't trust me either, if I were him," Dan whispered into my ear.

I tapped him on the side of the face and tried to turn myself around and reach the zipper to release us from our cocoon. My struggle was amusing to Dan. His laughing got the attention of Will, who came over to unzip the bag and glare at Dan.

Yeah, the jealousy is back.

"Sleep well, babe?" Will smiled and kissed the top of my head.

"Better than in a long while." I smiled back and leaned my head against him for a much needed hug. Part of me wanted to hop up and wrap my legs around him and hold on forever. I knew what it felt like to lose him, and I never wanted to feel that again.