Then, deadpan: “She snores in your bed.”
That threw me. “What?”
“She snores,” he repeated. “Like, full-on body-rattling, pillow-vibrating snoring. You’ve heard it, right? I certainly have from out on the couch.”
I blinked, trying to shift gears. “Yeah, I mean—yeah. She does. Sometimes.”
“She doesn’t do that unless she’s out cold,” Shane said. “And she doesn’t sleep like that unless she feels safe.”
He let that land. I still wasn’t quite getting it.
“She’s been crashing at your place every night,” he added. “You know how long it’s been since she slept that deep? Since she let herself?”
I thought about the way she curled against me at night. The way her body relaxed, heavy and warm, her hand always finding mine under the sheets. That first night she’d stayed over, she’d told me she didn’t relax like that, but I’d written it off as flattery.
“I didn’t know it meant anything,” I said.
“It means everything,” Shane said, his voice softer now. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. The sex, the flirting, the jokes—that’s all normal. That’s baseline Noelle. But sleep? Vulnerability? Letting someoneseeher like that?”
He shook his head. “She’s in deep, man. Probably deeper than she knows what to do with. So if she’s weird about it…don’t push. Just stay steady.”
I looked back over toward the porch, where Noelle was now perched on the railing with June, both of them sipping from matching tumblers and watching the crowd. She caught me looking again and winked. Just a quick flick of her lashes and a crooked grin.
God, I loved her.
Shane clapped me on the back. “Just thought you should know what you’re dealing with.”
“Yeah,” I said, quiet. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. Just, y’know…” He gestured vaguely toward the sky. “Keep the planets aligned or whatever. I like her happy.”
“Me too.”
We stood there a minute more, and I let the moment settle. Then I nodded toward the grill. “You want a hot dog?”
Shane cocked an eyebrow. “Is that a euphemism?”
“Thought you weren’t interested.”
He shook his head. “I would never step into my best friend’s territory. I think she’s planted her flag, buddy.”
And damn it…she had.
Now I just had to figure out how to tell her without scaring her away.
CHAPTER 17
Noelle
The fire crackledlow in the firepit, casting long shadows across the grass and licking lazy sparks into the air. The smell of charred wood clung to my hoodie, my legs tucked under me on a faded blanket that probably predated the Clinton administration. My beer was half-warm, but I wasn’t about to get up—not with the way Beau’s thigh pressed against mine, his arm around me.
Willow had grabbed a bag of marshmallows to pass around, but had forgotten the graham crackers, so we were eating them right off the skewers. Shane currently had one over the fire, flames catching as a drop of mallow melted into the fire.
“You’re burning it,” I muttered.
He turned the stick like that might fix it. “It’s caramelizing.”
“It’s not an onion,” I said. “You don’t caramelize a marshmallow.”
