Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43536 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43536 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
“You were crying in your sleep,” I said gruffly. “I came in to wake you. I didn’t come in here to—”
“I know,” she said, “Thank you for waking me. It was an awful dream. I think that’s why I—held on to you. It won’t happen again. I don’t want to lose your friendship. Yours or Leo’s.”
“What we have is too special to risk,” I said, hoping she understood what I meant—that I was attracted to her, but I didn’t want to lose the ease and closeness the three of us had.
“Good night, Rafe,” she said. She wouldn’t lift her face to look at me. “And for what it’s worth, no one’s ever kissed me like that. Not ever.”
I swallowed hard. I couldn’t think of anything to say to that, and I sure as hell couldn’t let myself touch her again. I tightened the towel around my hips and walked out. Back to another cold shower.
7
Leo
At the diner, she blushed when Rafe took a drink of her Diet Coke. And again, when he reached for one of her fries. She seemed bashful around him all of a sudden, after weeks of sprawling out over both of us on the couch or shoving him over to take a bite of his hamburger in the booth at the diner. She was acting weird around him.
I would’ve thought it was nothing, but he wasn’t exactly his normal too-serious self around her anymore either. Mostly he looked at her like he was a starving man and she was a ten-course banquet. The rest of the time he looked like he’d been whipped and didn’t dare look up. When she’d yanked her plate away from him after he reached for a fry, he’d had the look of a misbehaving puppy who’d been left outside in the snow.
It was hard enough for me to be her friend and nothing else. But watching Rafe struggle not to flirt with her, watching her avoid touching him at all costs was exhausting. I told them about the fire call we went on the day before when some idiot dumped a whole can of lighter fluid on the grill before dropping a match in there just to try and dispel some of the awkwardness.
“Dumbass was lucky he only lost his eyebrows and burned his forehead. He could’ve been nothing but a pile of teeth after a fireball rolled over him,” I said.
“Pile of teeth? Mmm. Great dinner convo, Leo,” Lexi said.
“People do a lot of stupid crap that gets them killed. It’s like the unofficial motto of the fire department: Rescuing dumbasses who do stupid shit.”
“Aww, you should cross stitch that on a pillow for the couch,” she teased, “My job would be ‘Convincing drunks to try and get their kids back’. How about you, Rafe? ‘Making lazy people fit?’”
“Empowering people to get stronger,” he said.
“Ugh, so sincere all the time,” I groaned, “Why do we even hang out with him?”
“He makes good chili?” Lexi suggested with a shrug. Then she looked at him shyly and blushed when he met her eyes.
I wanted to throw my glass of ice water on them both. They were making googly eyes at each other, and it was ruining my chicken sandwich experience. I eased out of the booth, saying I was tired and going to head into the station a little early for my night shift.
“I’ll go too,” Rafe said, jumping up to follow me, which was weird. “I should get to bed.”
“Well, I’m going to stay here and finish my milkshake. I’ll see you when I get home,” Lexi said with an eye roll.
When we got to the house, I turned to Rafe, “What’s the deal with following me out? It looked like you two needed to be alone.”
He shook his head and rubbed at the back of his neck in exasperation. “That’s the last thing we need. Last week when you had to cover Glen’s shift, she had a nightmare. Woke up screaming, the whole thing. I went in there to wake her up and comfort her. But I got carried away and I kissed her. So, go ahead and punch me. I deserve it. She moved in here so we could protect her and take care of her, and I put the moves on her.”
He hung his head, clearly ashamed. “Bro, it’s nothing I haven’t wanted to do. Living with Lexi has its own set of hardships. Like when she goes to reach for something on a high shelf and her shirt rides up and you see that little sliver of stomach, damn,” I said in full commiseration.
“Yeah. It’s that or when we’re on the couch and she leans back against me or drapes her feet in my lap—God. It’s a miracle our water bill hasn’t quadrupled with the amount of cold showers I’ve been taking,” Rafe said.