Iris hasn’t moved. She’s still standing near her boots, looking a little lost. “I don’t know what I did to get so lucky, but thank you for all this, Brax. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t such a great guy.”
“You would’ve figured something out,” I tell her, but I don’t know what the hell that would’ve been. Maybe she would’ve gotten a ride from someone in a few hours, but she would’ve had nowhere to wait while they drove across town on the snow-covered roads.
“I don’t think so,” she whispers, swaying a little, which I assume is from the alcohol finally making its home in her bloodstream.
“Are you going to be okay here?” I ask her. I know she’s a grown woman, but this is a foreign apartment to her on a side of town I doubt she usually comes to.
“I think so.” Her tone doesn’t convince me.
I want to get home to my bed, but there’s something inside me that has me pausing. “Do you want me to stay?”
She glances down at the hardwood floor. “No, you don’t have to do that.”
That doesn’t mean she doesn’t want me to. I’vespent my life reading between the lines when Tilly and Tate give responses.
“Would you feel more comfortable if I stayed with you tonight? I can sleep on the couch.”
“I don’t want to put you out.”
Again, she’s not saying she’ll be fine.
“A big, comfy couch without walking home in a blizzard is not putting me out.”
Iris twists her hands together like she’s nervous. “Umm,” she mumbles.
“I’ll stay if you’re comfortable. You’re saving me from a very cold walk. I could freeze to death out there.”
“That would be awful.”
“Yeah.” I smile at her.
“Please stay,” she asks, finally telling me what she wants, even if I guilted her into it because she was worried about my well-being. “I don’t want you to freeze to death.”
“Thank you,” I tell her.
“I appreciate you staying. Why don’t you take the bed, and I’ll take the couch?”
I shake my head. “That’s not how it works, and if I’m honest, I’ve slept on this couch before. It’s comfortable.”
Iris raises an eyebrow. “You have?”
I nod. “A few times, but don’t tell Tate.”
Iris chuckles. “My lips are sealed.”
Now, it’s my turn to yawn. It’s been a long day,and I’m whipped from the ridiculous crowd we had at the bar for the game. “If you need anything, just shake me awake.”
“I’d never,” she says as she starts to move toward the bedroom where I pointed earlier. “Night, Brax.”
“Good night, Iris. Sweet dreams.”
She gives me a small smile over her shoulder before she disappears into the bedroom.
I stare down at the couch and wish I could strip down to nothing because I can’t sleep well when I have clothes on. But if Iris wakes up and finds me naked…
I shake my head.
No, dummy.
