“I’m missing something here,” I murmur, my attention pinging between them.
Logan runs a hand through his hair. It’s messier than normal—little sections sticking up at odd angles from sleeping on it—and he blows out a slow breath. “I had this whole thing planned out, but then with the letter last night…” He turns to me, vulnerability like I’ve never seen etched into the tight lines bracketing his mouth.
“I want you to know that I’d be asking you this, even if the shit with the stalker wasn’t happening. It just… upped the timeline a bit.” Logan glances between me and Reed before his gray gaze settles on me and holds.
“Ask me what?” I whisper.
The bed shakes when his knee starts to bounce, and he blows out a breath. “Move in with me. I want you with me all the time. Both of you. I hate your apartment. It’s not nice enough for you. And it’s not safe. There’s no doorman, no security… Knowing you two are only protected by one flimsy little door and a subpar deadbolt makes my skin crawl.”
I gape at Logan. This was not how I thought my morning would go. Never in a million years did I think Logan would ask me and Reed to move in with him. He’s spent so many years as the consummate bachelor—doing whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to—I thought for sure he’d hold on to the last sphere of his independence for as long as he could.
“So I want you to move in with me. I hired this decorator Griffin recommended, and I think your rooms turned out really nice, but if you don’t like them, we can redo whatever you want. I won’t be mad. I just want you to be comfortable and love them.” Words tumble from his mouth in faster and faster succession, and I realize he’s nervous. Very nervous.
“Wait.” Resting a hand on his thigh, I try to calm him. “You decorated a room for Reed?”
“Not only Reed,” Logan says. “You too. I wasn’t sure if you’d be ready to share a room with me, even if you agreed to share an apartment, and I wasn’t going to assume.”
“I…” I don’t know what to say to that. “You did?”
Logan nods, watching me carefully. Reed is smiling so widely, it looks borderline painful. He’s practically bouncing on the balls of his toes.
“So, what do you think?” Logan asks carefully.
“You want us to move in with you.”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure? It would be a big change, you know?”
Logan’s lips twitch. “I know.”
“Reed leaves his stinky socks all over the house.”
“Hey,” Reed starts.
“Can’t be worse than my hockey gear, babe.”
My heart is a kick drum. “You want a thirteen-year-old in your space?” I have to be sure he understands what he’s offering here. Reed and I are a package deal. We’ll always be a package deal.
Logan’s eyes soften. Turning to my brother, he pats the bed beside us. Reed climbs on, and I’m struck by a memory of him doing this in our parents’ bed when he was a chubby little six-year-old who hadn’t yet been carved into something leaner by loss. When Reed settles, the mirage of the little boy he was gives way to the teenager he is now, and I struggle to swallow past the lump in my throat.
“I get if this is weird for you. And I promise I won’t be offended if you’re not ready or if you don’t want to share your sister with me. But I love you, kid. And if you’ll let me, I’d like to be there for you however you’ll let me.”
“I guess I wouldn’t mind sharing my Blair-Bear with you,” Reed says, drawing out the words like he has to think about it. But his smile gives him away. “And even though it’s totally cringe, and I’ll deny I ever said it if you bring it up with anyone else, I guess I love you too.”
That lump in my throat grows and my eyes water.
Is this real life?
Logan looks like someone just told him he won the lottery. “I’m totally telling everyone.”
“Bro. No.”
“I so am,” Logan says. And then he launches himself at my brother and tackles him in the most aggressive guy-hug I’ve ever seen. At least, I think it’s supposed to be a hug. It quickly devolves into a wrestling match I have to roll to escape.
“Guys.” I narrowly escape a flying elbow. “Children!”
They both stop and look at me with sheepish expressions. Reed shoves Logan, and Logan pushes him back.
