I pulled the sheets back up his legs, leaving his ass exposed to the air. He smiled into the pillow with a sigh.
“I’m going to make some coffee,” I told him. “Check to see when Andrew will be up. I want you to stay in bed as long as you want, and then when you’re up, I want to talk about last night.”
While I spoke, I watched Lincoln carefully, monitoring his face for any signs of distress over my statement. None came. If anything, his smile turned to one of peaceful resignation, and it was hard to not feel like I’d won a war. With one last look at his almost-sleeping body, I forced myself to turn away. I was in desperate need of a shower, but coffee was more urgent so Ipulled a pair of dirty underwear off the top of my hamper and stepped into them, hobbling out to the kitchen.
The apartment was dark, but the sky outside the window was light enough I didn’t need anything artificial to see my way around. I allowed myself to dwell awhile on the fantasy of moving Lincoln in with me. Maybe it was too fast, but I would argue with any of my brothers over it if they tried to protest. Marshall had moved quickly with Silas, and I had judged him for it, but now with Lincoln asleep in my bed and his belongings in an apartment across town, I understood the urgency.
It made sense to integrate him, to make his things my things and mine his. There was no part of my life I didn’t want him to have access to and nothing of his I wanted hidden from me. He might have other plans for the last part, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t work through. Resting my hip against the counter in the kitchen, I set a pot of coffee to brew. I didn’t have my phone, and when I shuffled back into the bedroom to get it, Lincoln was sound asleep in the position I’d left him.
Pulling my phone off the charger, I snapped a picture of him before heading back into the living room. I settled onto my couch and scrolled through the news and my social media. It was barely after seven. Andrew wouldn’t be hitting the road for a handful of hours still, but I knew, of anyone, Finn would be awake.
He’d always been an early riser, so I fired him off a quick text.
You up?
His answer came quickly.
Finn
No
Are you lying?
Yes.
I stabbed my finger onto his name and turned on speaker phone, adjusting the volume low so the call didn’t wake Lincoln.
“I am naked, though,” Finn said in lieu of hello.
“I’m in yesterday’s underwear,” I countered.
“That’s the most shocking thing about you,” he said. “To what do I owe the early morning honor, brother?”
In the kitchen, the coffee pot beeped its completion. I went to get a cup before settling back in to talk to Finn.
“Had some time to myself,” I said. “And I wanted to talk.”
“This sounds like an intervention.”
“Is there something happening that needs intervening?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He snorted. “If you could help me stop going back to this couple…”
I hummed a thoughtful sound. “Why don’t you tell me about that, actually. Now that you mention it.”
“I don’t know what there is to say.” Finn groaned and the sheets rustled. He was definitely naked and probably still in bed himself. “Do you have coffee?”
“Of course.”
“Can I come over?”
“You’d drive twenty minutes across town just because I have coffee made?” I cracked my neck, letting my stare settle on the large window on the far wall, the sky quickly getting bluer and bluer with every minute.
“Never mind.”
“Of course you can come over,” I told him. “Lincoln is here, and we’re going to have lunch with Andrew at some point today, though.”
“I can tolerate the first part but have no interest in the latter,” he said. “If I come over, will you put on clean underwear?”
