“Thanks,” he says as he takes a sip of the ginger ale. I take the towel from his hands and go back to the bathroom, getting it cold again. When I go back in the room, he’s laying down, so I gently put the towel on his forehead and turn to walk out. “Don’t break his heart,” he says.

He’s puking his guts out and all he’s worried about is me breaking Logan’s heart.

“I’m just here for the night,” I say.

He snorts. It comes out more like a snuffle. But I get it. He doesn’t believe me. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says.

I turn out his light as I leave the room, and close the door behind me.

The washer has stopped quite some time before, and I take what’s in the dryer out and see that the pile on top of the washer is growing. I can’t see letting their things get all wrinkled, so I stand there and fold them, and I fold what’s coming out of the dryer, too. I flip my laundry into the dryer, and then I remember the huge pile of laundry in the hallway, so I start a load of their things. Might as well. I’m not doing anything else.

I walk back to the kitchen, and Logan is snoring. His hair hangs all tousled over his forehead, and I wonder if his mother ever used to watch him sleep like this.

The kitchen is a mess, so I grab a trash bag from the pantry and start packing pizza boxes away. Then I put up all the food that’s on the counter, and give it a good scrub. The kitchen is all nice and sparkly before I go back to bed.

I yawn and close the bedroom door behind me. But this time, I don’t feel the need to lock it.

***

The bed dips in the middle of the night, and I startle awake. My heart starts pounding like a jackhammer and I scoot to the edge of the bed. “What are you doing?” I ask.

It’s Logan, and the room is dark, so he can’t see my face or hear my voice. He rolls to his side, away from me, snuggling deeply into the pillow. He makes this adorable smacking noise with his mouth as he settles. He reaches back and jerks the blankets off of me, tugging them onto him.

He doesn’t really think he’s going to sleep in here, does he? I could go and get on the couch, but he’s already snoring. He’s sound asleep. I lean up and look into his face. He doesn’t stir. He’s not going to try to put the moves on me. He’s just going to sleep.

I roll over, curling into myself, because it’s chilly without a blanket. I could go and get the one from the couch, I guess. I know he had one out there. But I’m afraid I’ll wake him if I get up. I grab the edge of the blanket he just stole from me and pull it back over to my side, just enough to cover half of me. He doesn’t move. So, it must be all right.

Logan

I wake up slowly, immediately aware there’s a warm body pressed against mine. I raise my head and look down at the leg thrown across my thighs. There’s a delicate arm wrapped across my chest, and a black head of hair with a blue streak tucked under my chin, right beside my heart.

Her thigh is naked and it feels so f**king good that I don’t want to move. Her shampoo tickles my nose and I wonder how I ended up in bed with her. I know all we did was sleep. My guess is that I got up to pee in the middle of the night and came back to my bed by accident. How she got wrapped around me is another story.

I lay my head back against the pillow and look up at my cracked ceiling. I didn’t mean for this to happen. And I don’t want her to think that I just want her in my bed. That I only want to sleep with her. But I do want to sleep with her. Right now, I want to roll her over and slide the pink panties she made me turn around for last night slowly down her legs. I want to kiss her from the soles of her feet to the insides of her thighs. I look down at her thigh again. I can’t resist it. I reach out and lay my hand on it. She wiggles and presses harder against me, her br**sts cushioned by my chest.

I’m so freaking hard that all the blood in my body is pulsing in my dick. Shit.

The sun is coming up, so my brothers will be moving around soon. They’ll never let me hear the end of it if they find me in here. I started off on the couch, and swore I would stay there.

Shit.

I just wanted to keep her safe and now she’s in bed with me. Or I’m in bed with her.

Involuntarily, I clench her thigh in my grasp. I turn onto my side to face her, and hitch her thigh up higher over my hip. I need to slide out from under her arm. But then her brown eyes blink open. We’re face to face. She doesn’t seem startled. “You stole the covers,” she says.

She has morning breath, and I’ve never wanted to kiss someone so bad in my life. “Why are you in my arms?” I ask.

She looks around like she’s not quite sure, and she bites her lower lip between her teeth again. I pull it out very gently with my thumb and she licks her lips, just like she did last night. “I was cold. And you were warm.”

“I started out on the couch,” I say.

She nods, leaning close to me, burying her face in my chest. She inhales deeply, her breath moving through the thin material of my t-shirt when she exhales. Did she just sniff me?

“You smell good,” she mouths, looking up at me so I can see her lips.

She did just sniff me. I can’t help it. I palm her ass and draw her closer to me. “Do you always wake up so sweet?” I ask. She’s like cotton candy in my arms. She smells soft and clean and she’s not shoving me away.

“I’m not awake yet,” she mouths. She spins over in my arms, facing away from me. My forearm is under her head and her bottom is tucked against my groin. Her head is beneath my chin, and I can’t see her face anymore. But I doubt she’s talking. She’s soft in my arms, and her breath rushes out of her open mouth with every exhale, searing my forearm with her every breath.