“What do you want?” she whispers.

I palm the side of her face and stare at her. She’s so f**king beautiful that I can barely think when I’m this close to her. “I want you to love me back,” I admit.

“Done,” she says. A blush creeps up her cheeks, and I thought she couldn’t look any prettier than she did a minute ago. But I was wrong.

“Done?” I parrot. God, now I sound like Link.

She heaves a sigh. “Done. Gone. Don’t want to be away from you. Can’t breathe when I think about you leaving. Want to be with you all the time, gone. Done.” She blinks, and then she says, “You’re inside me, Pete. And I want to keep you there.”

Fuck. That’s the best f**king thing I’ve ever heard in my life. And I can’t even put two thoughts together to tell her.

Suddenly, I hear boots stomping in my direction, and I spring back from on top of Reagan when I see her father striding toward us with that hatchet. He stops and glares at me. “Pete, can you do me a favor?” he asks. He doesn’t look very happy, but then he never does when he’s around me.

“What do you need, sir?” I ask.

“Reagan is determined to drive back to the city tonight, and it’ll be late when she gets there.” He jerks a thumb toward where Phil is standing. “So I asked Phil if you could ride with her instead of on the bus, in case she breaks down or something.”

Reagan grins, and I want to, too, but I force myself not to. “Phil said it’s okay?” I ask. I look toward where Phil is standing, and he walks over.

“You’d have to be in your apartment by midnight tonight,” Phil says. “I’ll know if you’re not.” He motions toward my tracking bracelet.

“I’ll take him straight home,” Reagan chirps. She’s grinning, and I want to grin with her.

“What about the youth boys?” I ask.

“You can see them the next day at group. At eleven, if you want to be there.” He arches his brow at me.

“I’ll be there,” I say. I want to see those boys. If I can help even one of them, I’ll feel better about my own past.

“Thanks, Pete,” her dad says. He claps me on the shoulder and squeezes a little too hard. I take it as a warning, which I think is how he meant it. He walks away, leaving me with Reagan.

“It’s going to be really late when you drop me off,” I say.

She nods. “I know.”

“I don’t want you to go home to an empty apartment all by yourself. I’ll send one of my brothers with you when you drop me off.” I wish I could go with her and walk her to her door and do all the gentlemanly stuff I’ve never wanted to do before.

“I’ll have Maggie with me,” she reminds me.

“Still,” I say. I brush her hair back from her ear. “Want to have a sleepover at my house?” I ask.

Her eyes widen, and she licks her lips. She’s interested. I can tell.

“I’ll sleep on the couch,” I say. It’ll f**king kill me, but I’ll do it.

She shakes her head. “I’m not going to stay if you’re going to sleep on the couch.”

My hear trips in my chest.

“I’m not going to run you out of your own bed,” she says, laughing nervously. Her eyes search mine, and I hope she doesn’t look too deeply because I’m not sure what she’ll find. “I’ll stay if you’ll sleep there with me,” she says. Her voice quivers.

“Okay,” I say quietly. But my gut is doing somersaults. She steps onto her tiptoes and kisses me quickly.

“I have to go take care of a few things,” she whispers. She kisses me again, a little slower this time. We’re going to have a sleepover. Her and her dog.

“Maggie can stay, too,” I say. I’m an idiot, but I can’t even think right now.

“I’ll tell her,” she whispers playfully. “She’s going to be so excited.”

Not nearly as excited as I am.

Reagan

Pete’s kind of quiet on the way home. He fiddles with the radio and pets Maggie. Sometimes his hand reaches for mine, and he squeezes it to reassure me.

“Are you sure your family is going to be all right with me staying with you guys tonight?” I ask.

He nods. “I’m sure. Sam’s at school and Logan lives with Emily at her apartment, although I don’t know why. They’re at our apartment a lot more than hers, according to Matt. Sam and I share a room, and since he’s not there, you can sleep in my bed, and I’ll sleep in his.”

Well, damn. I was kind of hoping we could sleep together.

“Or we could sleep in Logan’s room, since there’s a double in there. I just didn’t want to presume that you’d want to sleep with me.” He pays a lot of attention to Maggie’s ears instead of looking at me when he says it.

“I like option two,” I say quietly. I pretend to mess with the windshield washer, even though it doesn’t need washing.

“Oh yeah?” he says quietly. He grins. “I was hoping you’d say that.” He winces a little. “I do have to warn you that our apartment is nothing like your house. It’s not in that great an area of town. And it’s kind of small.”

“None of that matters to me, Pete,” I say. I’m telling the truth. I just want to be with him. He could live in a cardboard box, and he’d still make it amazing. I jerk my thumb toward Maggie. “Maggie can be a bit of a snob, though. So you might have to give her lots of dog treats to keep her happy.”