“You’re drooling.”
Her gaze moved to Kellan as he spoke.
What?
Then his words infiltrated her brain.
Oh. God.
She wasn’t, was she? She couldn’t be drooling. She tried to move her hand up to brush it over her mouth, but then she realized that her arms were trapped in Eli’s oversized sweater.
“I am not,” she muttered as she attempted to get her arms into the holes. Unfortunately, the sweater wasn’t cooperating.
“Urgh! Why is this thing so hard to get on?” she cried.
“Here, let me help you,” Eli said calmly as Kellan grabbed the towel she’d dropped.
She watched nervously as he approached Horse, barely noticing that Eli was basically dressing her.
Eli slid her hands through each hole and she headed toward Kellan.
“Be careful. I don’t think he’ll like you touching him.”
To her shock, though, Horse didn’t complain as Kellan wrapped the towel around him, lifting him out of the bath. But as soon as his feet were on the floor, he padded over to her, pressing into her so heavily that she nearly toppled.
Eli placed his hand on her back to keep her from falling and Horse growled at him.
“Horse,” she said in exasperation as she started to dry him. “Really? Eli wasn’t hurting me. And you just let Kellan touch you.”
“Maybe he prefers me to Eli,” Kellan said dryly. “Most people do.”
Was that . . . was that a joke?
“Did you just make a joke?” she asked.
“He can’t have,” Eli replied. “He doesn’t know how to joke.”
Yeah, that’s what she’d thought.
But that meant he was delusional.
“Sometimes it’s best not to say anything,” Eli advised, as though he could read her mind.
Kellan sighed, rolling his eyes. “I know how to joke.”
“Uh-huh. Sure you do,” Eli said.
“Anyway, I don’t think it’s us touching him that he has a problem with. It’s us touching you,” Kellan told her.
Oh. That was actually a good point.
A wave of exhaustion ran through her. What she really needed to do was get some sleep.
“Thanks for coming to help. And again, I’m sorry that we woke you up.”
Eli frowned. “You’re sure you don’t need us to stay?”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. We’re just going to sleep now. Right, Horse?”
