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said, “ It’s okay.   I’ve got her.”
    He gently pulled her back down in the bed and stretched out beside her.   As he cradled her against his chest, the horror of the nightmare began to fade.  
    “I thought I was going to die,” she gasped.   “Everything kept going faster and faster and there was nothing we could do.   I was going to jump, but I didn’t have time.”  
    “Nikki, did you see who was riding with you?”   Jake’s voice was quiet, but Nikki sensed the tension in his words.
    “No.   I could see myself, but I never saw anyone else.”
    He sighed.   Nikki buried her face in his soft flannel shirt, unwilling to let him go.   For reasons that she couldn’t understand, much less explain, she knew she was safe with Jake.   She’d known it since he wrote his name across the top of his hand to sooth her.   And as he reached to smooth her hair, something inside her turned.   This was a man she’d fallen in love with before and at that moment, she knew it would be easy to do it again.   Nikki wasn’t ready to let go of him yet, not when she didn’t even know what was tearing them apart.
    ***
    Jake held her for a long time.   He tried to tell himself it was because Nikki needed it, but the truth was he needed it, too.   The tension of the past two weeks drained him, and he grew weary of the war they waged.   They had stumbled too far into a strange, dangerous place where even a simple word could have irreversible consequences.   He had loved her since the first time they met and, even as one part of him wanted to lash out and hurt her, another part wanted to sacrifice his pride – sacrifice anything – just to hold onto her.
    A soft rap sounded on the door.   Jake released Nikki and sat up in the bed as his mother came in.   She looked surprised, but not altogether displeased to see him so close to Nikki.
    “Hey,” he said, feeling like a high school boy caught making out in his bedroom.
    Catherine shot Jake a worried glance when he had to reintroduce her to Nikki.   She pulled him aside as the nurse took Nikki’s vitals to ask him about it.
    Jake turned his back toward Nikki’s bed so she couldn’t hear his whisper.   “It scares me, too, Mom.   Luke said that she might do that for a while.   She’s had to be reintroduced to him about five times already.”
    “The poor thing,” Catherine murmured.   The nurse left and Catherine painted on a bright smile.   Jake could tell that Nikki was embarrassed at forgetting Catherine’s name, but, to her credit, Catherine soon put her at ease.      
    “Jake, go home,” his mother said.   “I’m staying with Nikki tonight.”
    “That’s okay, Mom.   I’ll just go grab a shower and come back.”   He glanced at Nikki and she shook her head.
    “Listen to your mother.   Go home and rest.”   Nikki gave him a gentle smile.   “You’ve been very kind to stay like you have, but you need a break from this place.   We’ll be fine.”
    Jake reluctantly agreed.   He needed to get away from those sad eyes for just a little while.
    But he couldn’t get away, not really.   All the way home, thoughts of Nikki plagued him.   What was he going to do now?   He wanted to hate her, but how could he when he had no idea how to stop loving her first?
    Jake was glad to see his house.   He had loved this place at first sight, though Nikki had longed for something more modern.   It was an eighty-year-old Victorian, not very different from all the other houses in the neighborhood , but it seemed to have a character of its own.   He once had big plans for this house, and the family he’d hoped to fill it with.   After scooping up the paper on the welcome mat and unlocking the door, Jake walked through the foyer and into the den.   He sank into the plush green sofa, wanting to scan the paper before he got in the shower.
    The twisted carnage of his Dodge Ram was on the front page.   Jake stared at it in shock.
    How had