waking

6.Chapter 6 Kiss Him

Naomi tried to collect herself and gently wrapped her arms around him, careful not to lift her head to see Shawn’s intense, scarred face. She just kept her gaze down, silently waiting for the doctor’s next move.

“Need a smooch to make sure all’s good?” Oscar jested, noticing Shawn hadn’t shrugged Naomi off, and jotted something in the chart. “Ms. Edwards, have you been kissed before?”

Naomi hesitated and then whispered back, “No.”

Shawn didn’t show it, but his thoughts raced back to her straightforward answer from last night—”never”.

From early on, Shawn couldn’t stand being touched, a condition called haphephobia. Even Cheryl Larson, who’d hung around him before, could barely get close without making him queasy. But Naomi, the girl who stumbled into his life out of nowhere, was somehow different.

“Ms. Edwards, if you’re cool with it, go ahead and kiss Shawn,” Oscar said, watching Shawn’s unreadable face turn puzzled. It was new—seeing his buddy look so thrown for a loop.

Shawn’s face, now marked by nasty scars from a car crash, would freak out even tough guys, let alone someone like Naomi, who looked like she’d never been near anything rough in her life. But to everyone’s surprise, Naomi stood on her toes and softly, almost sadly, kissed one of Shawn’s scars.

The room went quiet. Shawn was just as stunned. His striking eyes, hidden from no one, locked onto Naomi. Her clear, straightforward eyes looked right back at him.

Then suddenly, Shawn shoved her back. “Get out.”

Oscar was quick to usher Naomi out the door without a word.

Left outside with the door shut, Naomi was baffled, wondering, ‘I only did what was asked. Why did Shawn snap?’ But the bigger picture was clear. She was here to stick close to Shawn, to show thanks. No matter how moody he got, she wasn’t bailing. After all, he’d saved her life not once, but twice.

She pulled a sketchpad from her bag and plopped down on a chair outside the office, diving into a new comic concept.

Ever since Shawn had saved her following her rebirth, she’d started cooking up a story. It was about her and Shawn, told in her own way, hoping he’d see someday that she was dead set on sticking by him from the start.

Healing skin and bones was one thing. Mending a busted heart was another story.

Inside, Oscar handed Shawn a glass of wine. “How did that feel?”

Shawn downed it and pondered. “No recoil, no cringe. Her lips were soft; even had a hint of mint.”

Oscar noted it down. “Did you ever feel that with Cheryl?” he pressed.

“Nope.” Shawn almost sneered. Before the car crash, Cheryl had played the sweet, patient girlfriend. But she couldn’t handle closeness; Shawn couldn’t stomach it. After the wreck, when Cheryl saw him all busted up in the ICU, she thought about ditching him. The thought grew even stronger when she found out he was scarred and couldn’t get around like before.

Still, the Larson family was hungry for the Fischer family’s wealth and prestige, egging Cheryl on to show “deep love” when the chips were down. Barbara Fischer, Shawn’s grandma, even demanded a quick wedding. But when Cheryl got a look at Shawn’s messed-up face, she freaked, ducked out, and went MIA.

Barbara was livid. She cut off every bit of help her family had given to the Larson family and blackballed Cheryl in the process. After cooling down a bit, she started setting Shawn up with date after date, hoping to lift his spirits post-accident and heartbreak. One by one, women would walk into the setup, all smiles, only to bolt in horror after getting a look at Shawn’s scars and his intimidating stare.

But Barbara kept at it, thinking the bait wasn’t juicy enough. She upped the reward and the line of hopefuls grew longer. Shawn was so over it that he went out of the hospital back to his place and put a stop to Barbara’s matchmaking games for the time being.

The day he hit up Frostpeak Mountain was also when he remembered his mom’s passing. Right after paying his respects, Naomi literally fell from the sky and onto him. He was ticked off, sure, but there was also something kind of nice about the unexpected softness of her landing on him. He let her stick around briefly before snapping at her to hop off.

He figured it was just a fluke, but Naomi didn’t flinch at the rough scars on his face; she actually appeared hell-bent on hanging around him.

So he thought it was another one of his grandma’s tricks, but Naomi didn’t make him want to hurl. Oddly enough, he was okay with her sticking around.

Oscar had been on Shawn’s health case for ages, always bringing updates to the Fischer residence. Maybe now Shawn could catch a break from her grandma’s non-stop meddling.

“Still wrestling with sleep?” Oscar asked.

“Yeah.”

Oscar thought for a second and tossed out, “What if Ms. Edwards crashes with you at night? You can’t live on sleeping pills. Don’t knock it. I’m the doctor. Plus, might get your grandma to chill, right?”

Shawn stewed in silence before he caved in. “Fine.”

Meanwhile, Naomi was wrapping up her fresh comic idea. She switched up her password and threw up a chapter from her previous work in progress.

She and Rosalind used to share this online space. Rosalind liked soaking up fan love but had zero artistic chops, so she coaxed Naomi into sharing an account. Naomi drew, and Rosalind played the crowd.

Back in the day, Naomi missed what Rosalind was really after. After one comic wrapped, Rosalind swiped the password and hogged all the credit, soaking up the fame for Naomi’s all-nighters. She published Naomi’s pieces, snagged the awards, and lapped up the cheers at fan signings—all under Naomi’s pen name.

When Naomi called her out, she got trash-talked, and even Freddy told her to step off—it was just a comic, and since Naomi mooched off the Edwards family, she owed her sister her work.

It crushed Naomi, not getting why it was all on her when Rosalind was the thief. It took a whole other life for her to catch on to the con.