Chapter 9
Beck
Bed. I need my bed.
It took hours to get a flight. Naturally, not a single direct flight was available tonight and because, of course, my fucking luck, I was on standby for four hours before making a flight to New York, where I could take a red-eye to Boston.
At this point I’m too tired to feel anything. I’ve gone numb and my only thoughts now are sleeping for the next twenty-four hours and kind of hoping I wake up from this nightmare.
Opening the door to my apartment, I don’t bother with lights, I don’t even wait for the door to close before I abandon my suitcase, rip off my shirt, and walk right out of my sweats. I want to walk up my stairs directly to my bed and crash.
Opening the door to my pitch-black room, I let muscle memory take me to my side. I set my glasses and phone on the nightstand and fall onto the mattress.
There’s a sharp bark, and before I can even process what I just heard, the side of my face is wet.
“What the fuck!” I jump off the bed just as there’s another bark and a girlish scream. I hit the lamp on the nightstand and find Dottie on my bed. She barks again as her tail and wholebody wiggle in excitement. Pawing her way to the edge, she whines to get more attention.
“What the fuck, Beck!” Jensen yells. “I thought you were supposed to be in Virginia. You scared the shit out of me!”
“Me? Me! This is my fucking house! What the fuck are you doing here?”
I blink a few times as I process what the actual fuck is happening. She might be slightly blurry, but I can tell Jensen looks absolutely horrified right now as she holds her hand over her chest—is she wearing my T-shirt too?
“Callie and Lucie said you were going to be gone for another week! You could have warned me you were coming home after Callie called you!”
Jensen reaches for her pillow and chucks it at me. I catch it despite my exhaustion and toss it back to the top of the bed. None of this is making any sense to me right now. “Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t give you a heads-up when I didn’t know you were going to be here!”
Jensen holds out a shaky hand. “Wait, you didn’t say I could stay? But Callie said…”
The horror on her face is enough to confirm that she was just as blissfully unaware as I was. I mumble several curses and press my palms to my forehead. This day really just won’t stop.
“Callie didn’t mention anything about you staying here. No one mentioned it at all.”
Her jaw drops then she mumbles words in Spanish under her breath and I’m pretty sure I catch “matar”somewhere in there. Before I can ask her to repeat it, she sighs, going back to English. “I’m going to kill them.”
“Get in line.” I let out a deep breath and finally scratch Dottie’s head as she whimpers for attention. I have a million questions right now, but zero energy to ask them. I glance at my alarm clock: 3:47 a.m.
Jensen still didn’t answer why she’s staying here and not her apartment. Not to mention sleeping in my bed with one of my T-shirts on. For all that’s holy, this is an in-the-morning conversation.
I reach for the covers and have Dottie move back to the middle. “Come on, let’s get some sleep. We can talk about this tomorrow.”
“What? Have you lost your mind? I’m not sleeping here now. Come on, Dottie, down.” Jensen hits the mattress with the command, but her dog doesn’t move. Doesn’t even flinch. “Dottie, come.”
Fucking hell. “Get in the bed, Jen. You clearly had no issues sleeping in my bed even though I have two perfectly good guest rooms.” I click off the light, not wanting to argue— I should have known that wouldn’t stop her.
“Beck, you’re not wearing any clothes—I don’t have pants—I’m not sleeping?—”
“Jensen! For all that is holy, get your ass in this bed. Despite how many times I’ve thought about this exact damn thing, I’ve had an extremely shitty day and I’m exhausted. Please, get in this fucking bed and go to sleep.”
There’s roughly three seconds of silence before I hear a sigh, then the sound of covers rustling.
“Thank you,” I whisper when I feel her settle on the bed. I’m way too tired to open my eyes. Although the light is off, I’m sure the moonlight hits Jensen just perfectly on that side. God, I’m going to kill Callie for not telling me she’s here. I can assume the reason for her stay is valid, but a heads-up would have been nice.
I guess that could have been what the phone call was for…she still could have followed up in the text.Hey, heads-up, Jensen’s staying at your place tonight.
“Beck,” Jensen whispers.
“Yeah?” I grumble already halfway lost to sleep.
