“Thanks, Patrick. You’re my favorite twin.” I winked at him and set my keys on the side table.
“Why are you so late?” Michael asked, getting up and coming to me for a hug. We always hugged. I hated other people touching me, but it was our routine.
“Hannah was running late because of her ex.” I set my apron on a hook and tossed the rest of my stuff into my room. “Did my lovely roommate give you all a tour, or did you sit here in silence?”
Michael laughed. “No tour.”
“Okay then.” I kicked my bedroom door open and walked in. “Pretty simple. Two bedrooms. We each get our own bathroom, which is nice.”
Not just Michael, but the twins also followed us into my room and took up way too much space. They were large men and had no qualms about looking at my one picture on the wall of our family and checking out the view of the window. “You can almost see the quad from here,” Paxton said.
“Yeah, it’s a great location,” I said to Paxton. He frowned as he stared at my lack of decorations before knocking on the wall I shared with Jonah. “What are you doing?”
“You share a bedroom wall?” he asked, making my brother tense and Patrick grin.
“Yeah, but it’s not like either one of us makes a lot of noise.” I huffed and tried to remember they cared about me. They weren’t all here to annoy me. I would never forget how the twins came to the house and helped us after the accident his sophomore year. Some things made you friends, others made you family, and how they helped us with the funeral made them the latter.
“Hmm,” Paxton said, frowning in the direction of J.D.’s room. “What if he’s hooking up?”
“What ifIam?” I fired back, and he held up his hands, giving my brother a sheepish look.
My brother made ablegsound. “Gross, stop it. I don’t wanna hear about it.”
“Then tell your teammate to not be an idiot. We have a list of rules about hook-ups, if that makes you feel better.”
“Jesus, you have a list of rules?” he laughed and walked out into the living room to stare at J.D. The twins followed, and it gave me joy to realize they wouldn’t come back here after this. Michael would see it was fine and safe and be done with it.
“Where are these rules?”
J.D. got up from the couch, all tense and quiet, and kept his face neutral as he padded to the kitchen and held up the sheet of paper I wrote on ten days ago.Ten days. That’s how long I’ve lasted without kissing him. Wow.
My brother read them out loud, and a huge smile broke out across his face. “Okay, this shit is hilarious. The urge to punch J.D. has lessened. This kinda works.”
“What kinda works?” I asked, hands on my hips and my battle stance ready to argue if he said something annoying.
“You two rooming together.” He opened the fridge and got a bottle of water. “Not gonna lie, I was worried I’d find something I didn’t like.”
Shit.My throat got tight, and I swallowed. “Like what?”
“I don’t know, chemistry or something. You both look annoyed with the other. Makes me feel better. Not that it matters. Pretty sure it’s sacrilege to mess around with your sibling’s teammate.” He didn’t glare at J.D. at all. He smirked, and Patrick said something under his breath I didn’t catch. I shifted my weight on my feet.
I sighed and caught Jonah’s stare for a second. He lookedpissed,and I forced myself to focus on my brother. “Stop making it weird. Jonah and I are friends. We get along.”
“Jonah?” He raised his brows so high they disappeared into his hairline. “Did you call him Jonah?”
“I heard her say it. Full name,” Patrick said, raising his voice and being real dramatic about it.
“Jonah, that’s interesting,” Paxton added.
“I’m not a hockey bro, so yeah, I’m going to use his real name,” I fired back, already regretting inviting my brother over. “Wednesdays are for reading and catching up on classwork. Let’s leave Jonah alone so he can study.”
My brother narrowed his eyes at me then Jonah before he let out a long breath. “Shit, we’re being tools.”
“Pretty much.” I put my hands on my hips and glared at all three of them. “You leaving now?”
My brother winced and squeezed the back of his neck for a second. “Okay, so you guys get alongandthis helps you from the dorm nonsense? It’s weird, you know? Mybabysister living with some teammate.”
“Notsomerandom guy,” I said, raising my voice. “Your teammate and a guy I trust. Now, you either relax and chill with me or get out. Same for you two.” I pointed at the twins and waited. A part of me wanted them to leave so I could check in with Jonah and see how he was handling this. He hadn’t said a damn word, and I could almost feel the tension radiating off him. But hanging out with these three also made me laugh a lot.
