“I do,” Cade said. “I worked part-time after school for the last three years and then did summer jobs all year long. I work at a café on weekends usually now.”
I didn’t understand the connection. “So?”
“So, I’ve been sending him money the whole time he’s been at college,” Cade said, stifling a laugh. “He really doesn’t tell everyone that his little brother is paying his way?”
“Wait,” I said, trying to get my head around it. “So you sacrifice all that time for him?”
“Caleb’s got the talent,” Cade said. “We’ve always known he had the potential to make it. So me and him made a deal. I gave him the money I’d been saving up for my college years, and he owes me. Big time. If he makes it to a professional contract then he has to pay me back three times over. He got a little sponsorship for social media that he used to pay for his cabin, so he paid for me to come, too.”
“Wow.” I thought about it for a minute. I’m an only child, but I still couldn’t imagine even having a brother or sister who care about me that much.
Who had that much faith in me that I was actually going to do well enough to go professional.
“Fuck, it’s cold,” Cade said, burrowing down into the blankets on his bed. We’d pulled the extras off the shelves and it still wasn’t enough. I figured they were normally enough to keep guests warm when theyweren’tburied completely under snow with no access to the sun at all.
“I know,” I said. “You want me to put more wood on the fire?” It was burning nicely, but it was low.
“No,” Cade said reluctantly. “I don’t want to use up our supply too quickly.”
That made sense, but I didn’t like the idea of leaving him cold. I needed to protect Cade. If I couldn’t get us both out of here, I at least needed to keep him safe and warm.
I chuckled. “We can always burn the lame old board games.”
“And leave us with nothing to do but eat each other?” Cade chuckled darkly.
For a second I stared at him open-mouthed for saying something so brazen. Then I realized and I had to force a chuckle.
He was talking about cannibalism…
Not sex.
Why did my brain go there automatically? Was I that starved of attention that any little hint would set me off, even one from another guy?
And why did it shoot a rush of heat to my lower belly?
I cleared my throat. “You know, talking of using each other’s bodies,” I said, telling myself to shut up because I sounded like I was making another dirty euphemism but somehow unable to stop myself from carrying on anyway. “In these situations, I think the best thing to do is usually to share body heat.”
It was Cade’s turn to stare at me with wide eyes. “What?”
Why had I even suggested that? I was losing it. Definitely losing it. I was no longer in control of my mouth. What would be the next to go? My hands?
My dick?
“Uh, to keep warm,” I said. “We should push our beds together closer to the fire instead of being against the cold walls.”
Yeah. That made sense. The walls were going to be colder because there was all that snow on the other side of them. Right. And the fireplace would be the warmest place in the room, but we’d have to push the beds together if we wanted to take full advantage of it. I’d managed to save myself from my own stupidity. Maybe. I wasn’t even sure if the physics worked, but I could always fall back on being dumb if Cade told me I was wrong.
“Okay,” Cade said, stirring and getting up.
I couldn’t stop myself from staring at him for a second. He probably didn’t even know how well his pajamas showcased his body. The tight t-shirt and pants set he was wearing were tartan patterned, like he’d wanted to fit in with the rustic cabin theme. But they clung to his muscles – the same muscles I hadn’t expected earlier when I touched his arm. He was small and lean, but he did have muscles, little but still impressive bumps over his arms, and a flat stomach. Maybe he didn’t have a six-pack, but he was still fit as hell.
I swallowed, told myself to stop being weird, and got out of bed to move mine over toward him.
We met in the middle of the room, the metal frames of the beds clanging together. I could already feel the heat from the flames better – we were as close as I wanted to go to avoid the risk of a spark shooting out and setting the bedding on fire. This was going to actually work. We both got back under our own covers, staying carefully far away from each other.
“I wonder if we’ll hear anything tomorrow,” I said, just to change the subject and make the awkwardness go away.
“I hope so,” Cade whispered. He was close enough now that I could still hear him very carefully. We were facing each other, firelight dancing in his red hair and catching highlights in his eyes. “I just want to know that they know we’re here.”
