“Lane,” louder now.
“Lane!” she shouts suddenly, her voice deep and gravelly andwrong.
I open my eyes with a jump. My pulse is racing, and it takes mea few breathless seconds to figure out what just happened. My hands grasp at my crumpled sheet.
“Lane! Get up, buddy!”
I stare into my pillow, unscrambling my thoughts. I don’t need to flip over. I recognize the sound of Carter barking at me from my bedroom doorway.It was a fucking dream. Just a dream.
I don’t know whether I’m disappointed or relieved, but there’s no time to think. I listen as Carter walks around the bed, his legs swinging into sight.
“Well, would you look at that. Congratulations, brother!”
“It’s not what you think. All we did is sleep.”
“I could tell. Even when you’re sleeping, you guys just can’t play nice, huh?” He eyes the mattress. “You were sleeping back-to-back. Right on the edges of the bed. It’s so…” He sighs and shakes his head. “Platonic.”
Right. Tell that to dream-me.
“Got space for one more?”
“Get lost,” I growl, aiming a pillow at his head.
As Lois stirs, Carter stifles a laugh. I sit up as quietly as I can, and we look at my bedmate.
“Give me that salami,” she mutters sleepily.
I raise an eyebrow and glance at my friend. There are tears shining in his eyes as he bites down on a fist, trying to keep the laughter in. I shush him away.
I slide out of bed and turn back when I get to the doorway, spending just a little too long gazing at Lois as she sleeps. Dream Lois waswild. She turns onto her back, like she can feel my eyes on her, and stretches her arms over her head, flashing me a full view of her breasts.
“Fuck,” I mutter, slipping out of that godforsaken room.
In the kitchen, Carter sits on a stool, a huge smile plastered over his face.
“I missed the episode where you switched the couch over for the bed,” he starts.
“You could have fucking made coffee!”
“I was waiting for you. So you and Lois—”
“Cut it out, man! She was helping me out with the script and fell asleep.”
“And you just let her?”
“I was wiped out, I didn’t even notice,” I snap back, flicking on the coffeepot.
I keep my back to him while I shake my mind free of the last few traces of my dream. I place two mugs between us and sit down across from him, yanking on my boxers, frowning.
“What’s the problem, Laney?”
“Nothing.”
He tilts his head to meet my lowered gaze and clears his throat with a satisfying sound.
“Just as I guessed.” He smiles smugly.
“What?”
