“Just check it,” I insist, wiggling my wrists under his palms. “It might be important.”
Jace looks reluctant, but he releases me. Rocking back to sit on his heels, he reaches over onto the nightstand for his phone. He rolls his eyes before flicking them to mine. His lips purse. “It’s your damn brother.”
I stifle a laugh, covering my mouth as I slowly sit up in bed, resting back against the pillows and the headboard. “Maybe it’s important?”
“Doubtful,” he mumbles as he slides his finger across the screen and taps on the speakerphone button. “Hello?”
“Hey, hey. I texted you a few times, but you didn’t answer,” Noah says cheerfully. “Figured I’d just call you.”
“Did it occur to you that maybe I didn’t answer because I was sleeping?”
Noah is silent for a second. “Ah, shit. I didn’t think about that.”
“It’s like seven in the morning. Not everyone wakes with the sun.”
“You sound pretty awake though,” Noah counters and I let out a laugh as Jace glares at his phone in his hand. “Is that my sister?”
Heat spreads across my cheeks. “Yep,” I say, popping theP.
“Oh god, that’s why you’re already awake,” Noah says, his voice bordering on embarrassment. “You know what, we can talk later.”
“You didn’t interrupt anything,” I chuckle, shaking my head as Jace arches a brow. I press my finger to my lips. Noah does not need nor does he want any details.
He may have come around to the idea of us being together, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t still a weird shift that requires some adjustment time.
“Okay, anyway,” he says, letting out a sigh. “I don’t know if you’re planning on coming home or not tonight, Will, but Jace—I wanted to see if you want to come over for a fire tonight.”
Jace’s eyebrows tug together. “This is the burning question that couldn’t wait?”
“In my defense, seven o’clock isn’tthatearly and I also thought it was a little later than that,” Noah quickly says.
Jace lets out a sigh, looking at me as he shrugs his shoulders. He lifts one eyebrow in question and I nod my head. “Yeah, we’ll be there.”
It’s only been a little over a week since Jace and I made things official. We are nowhere near the point of moving in together or spending every night together. A small part of me is worried he’ll get sick of seeing me all the time.
Climbing out of bed, I pad across the cold hardwood floors to duck into the bathroom. The door shuts softly behind me and I use the restroom, then find the toothbrush Jace keeps here for me after washing my hands.
Jace is still on the phone with my brother when I crawl back into bed, tucking myself under the covers in the center of the bed. He disappears into the bathroom, phone still to his ear.
He’s not gone for long. He tosses his phone onto the nightstand and slides in next to me when he returns. For a moment, the look on his face is soft and tender, love andadoration written in his eyes. Then mischief lifts his mouth into a smirk and his arm snakes around my body, pulling me flush to him.
“Now, where were we?”
A soft smile pulls on my lips as I slide my hands around the back of his neck, pulling his face to mine. “Here,” I murmur just before his minty lips crash into mine.
The fire crackles, and a swirl of smoke drifts up into the night sky. Wrapping the blanket tighter around my body, I lean back against Jace’s chest. He wraps his arms around me and holds me close. “Are you cold?”
“No, I’m good now,” I say, softly, as contentment washes over me.
Finn sits opposite us, sipping a mug of spiked hot chocolate as he stares at the burning logs.
Noah tosses another log onto the fire, sending embers up toward the sky, and stacks more next to the pit. He slowly turns to Jace and me and stares for a moment before he finally speaks. “You know, I thought this would be weird, but I think the two of you not being together may have been weirder.”
Finn stifles a laugh. “What?”
“There was always tension in the air whenever they were around each other.” Noah arches a brow at Finn. “You never noticed it?”
My oldest brother shrugs his shoulders and Jace chuckles, my body bouncing softly against his chest. “I never really paid attention.” Finn looks up at me. “You happy, kid?”
