Stella?
My heart seized as I jackknifed off the couch and bent to shake Lee’s shoulder.
“Hey,” I said, gulping air while I tried to keep my voice even. “We fell asleep.”
Lee stirred, his handsome face twisting while he stretched the arm that had been around me only secondsago, the arm I could still feel along my back, and he rubbed his eyelids.
“Shit, I guess we did. What time is it?” His voice was still raspy and delicious, making my full-body fight-or-flight reaction that much worse.
“Eleven. I can take Bennie to school tomorrow if you want to sleep in. It’s my lunch shift day so I have to be there anyway.”
“No. I’ll take a walk with you. For the fandom,” he teased, his eyes still hooded.
“Well, sure. You can’t disappoint them,” I said, trying to joke, but the nervous edge to my voice was obvious—or would have been if Lee had been more alert.
I studied him when he stood from the couch, stretching his arms behind his back as his shirt rode up, teasing a glimpse of his stomach. I spotted an ab or two, my mind piecing together what the rest of him looked like under that cotton, from what I’d felt against me. He was hard but cozy, perfect to get lost in if I weren’t careful.
But I had to be.
“Good night. Wishing you lots of good sleep in your own bed.” I turned and climbed the steps as fast as I could without looking like I was sprinting.
“I can’t wait,” Lee said from right behind me, keeping step with me even though he still seemed groggy.
“Nothing is worse than hotel sheets. They look like they’d be soft and fluffy. but they’re brittle,” I rambled, easing toward my room.
“Brittle is the right word. Even in the good rooms we’re in.” Lee came up to me, pressing a quick kiss to my cheek. “Good night, Stell.”
My feet rooted to the carpet while he lumbered to hisroom, pinching his neck before disappearing behind the door.
I stepped into my bedroom and shut the door, leaning back as I slid to the floor.
I was the only Stella I knew, but maybe Lee knew others. Reconciling that he’d said my name andbabydidn’t compute. Maybe Lee had been dreaming of two things at once. Anything was more plausible than his fantasizing about me in his sleep and begging me not to go.
I dropped my head into my hands and pinched the bridge of my nose, already dreading a night of shitty sleep as I overthought those ten minutes—how good they felt and how much I wanted to be the one whom Lee was dreaming about—until sunrise.
SEVENTEEN
STELLA
Even though I’d been up for the past hour, I groaned as the alarm blaring from my phone pierced my eardrums. I rolled over, feeling around on my nightstand until it stopped.
I didn’t have to be up yet, but I was too restless to stay in bed. It wasn’t a school day, but I had to make sure Bennie ate breakfast before we headed to the Bats game later this afternoon.
The sun was already bright at seven a.m., bleeding through my pink curtains enough to hurt my eyes. The breeze was still cool, even though the temperature was supposed to peak in the low seventies this afternoon.
It was a perfect day for a ball game—and to get out of the house and hopefully out of my head.
The Bats were in the middle of a stretch of home games, and we’d settled into a sort of routine over the past week. Most of the games had been at night, with a couple of day games in between. Lee and I were mostly two ships passing in the day and night, but we’d linger in his living room together for an hour or two when he was home and after Bennie had gone to bed.
Lee didn’t have to be at Wayne Field until later this morning and had come home late, so I expected him to sleep in. Bennie had been excited enough about today to make it impossible to get her to bed, but in the weeks I’d taken care of her, she’d never woken up on her own, despite how hard she worked to delay her bedtime.
How I wished for that same kind of blissful, unburdened sleep.
The soundest I’d slept in weeks was on the couch, in Lee’s arms, before I’d woken up and come to my panicked senses.
Lee had seemed to have no recollection of calling my name in his sleep and pairing it withbaby.
Unfortunately for me, I heard his slip flop around my head for days. I’d made sure to sit in the recliner instead of on the couch when we watched TV together, in case I fell asleep and drifted away from my spot and into his arms again.
