“Who is that, Aunt Jules?”
It’s Cooper, and he’s pointing at ... oh, shit. Noel is sound asleep beside me. We vowed to not fall asleep and then we both did. Now I have to figure out how to handle it.
“Oh. That’s, uh ... that’s my friend Noel.”
“Your friend?”
“Yeah, he’s a work friend. He wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving, so he came over.”
Coop, who accepts us telling him that Santa and the Tooth Fairy are watching his every move, doesn’t buy what I’m saying. “But why is he in your bed?”
“We were both tired and we fell asleep. Go play on your tablet and I’ll be out soon to make cinnamon rolls.”
Noel sits up in bed, looking around my room in the daylight.
“Hey,” he says, his voice deep.
“Do you want to play cars?” Coop asks him.
Noel arches his brows and looks at me, unsure what to say.
“Go play on your tablet,” I tell Coop again. “If you don’t go now, I’ll give Eli the cinnamon roll with the most frosting.”
That gets through to him. He practically runs from the room.
“I’m sorry,” Noel whispers as soon as we’re alone. “I can’t believe I fell asleep.”
“It’s okay. At least we weren’t naked.”
“I’ll get out of here.” He gets out of bed.
Shit. Blair’s going to kill me. But not before she embarrasses me in front of Noel again like she did with that stalker daddy comment.
“No.” I get out of bed and take my robe off. We talked for hours, and at some point, I fell asleep on top of my bed in my bathrobe. “Don’t race out of here like we did something wrong. Just play it cool and stay for a few minutes.”
“You sure?” He picks his shoes up.
“Yeah. Take the bathroom if you need it because I’ll be longer than you.”
He takes less than a minute, and then he leaves my room and I go into the bathroom and rush through my bare-minimum morning routine.
Shit, shit, shit. I dab serum under my eyes with one hand while brushing my teeth with the other. Blair could be out there showing him middle school pictures of me. I was in my chunky headband and colorful eyeshadow era, and I was awkward as fuck.
Once I’m done in the bathroom, I rush to my closet and change into black leggings and a purple T-shirt that says, “Main Character.” I slip back into my Grinch slippers and hurry toward the kitchen.
“Let’s go play in my room.” Coop is leading Noel away by the hand.
“He can’t stay long,” I say.
Noel grins at me. “He was telling me about his racetrack. I want to see it.”
I think I might be pregnant now, just from seeing Coop’s little hand in Noel’s huge one. I just nod, not trusting anything I might say.
Since I smell coffee, I know Blair’s up. When I walk into the kitchen, she’s grinning. She approaches me at the coffeepot, speaking in a low tone. “Thanks for the warning.”
“It wasn’t planned. He was going to leave, but we fell asleep.”
“Your hand is unsteady, let me.” She takes the coffeepot from my hand.
