As we start up the driveway, all three women are standing shoulder to shoulder on their front porch, waving like proud aunties seeing us off to college.
Knox and I wave back, and when our eyes meet, there’s a warmth in his gaze that makes my heart stumble over its own beat. “Let’s go in and get us settled.”
Knox moves Stripe and Shadow into the playpen, careful and quiet, while I ready their bottles, hands moving on autopilot, heart anything but.
I steal a glance his way, and a tenderness blooms in my chest, so big, it almost aches.
I have no idea what comes next. It’s peak tourist season. Every hotel in town is booked. We’ve checked.
All I know is I’m not ready for New York.
Not ready to part ways with those kittens.
Not ready to say goodbye to Knox.
But I can’t ask him to?—
“Hey.” His voice is tranquil behind me.
I spin around, setting the bottles onto the counter, then wipe my palms down the sides of my shorts. “Hey…”
Knox watches me for a long moment, eyes searching mine. “You can stay here as long as you want. Unless you’d rather head to New York?”
“No.” My answer spills easily. “I’d very much like to stay.”
“Good,” he says, a smile pulling at his lips. “Let’s get your stuff upstairs. And pick your room.”
Upstairs, he walks me down the hall, pausing at one door. “Twin bed, garden view.”
Then he gestures to the next. “Guest room. Queen bed. Bigger closet.”
I glance into both, then look toward the closed door at the end of the hall.
“And yours?” I ask though I already know. His house mirrors Ms. Palmer’s. But asking feels like a step I need to take.
“Last one on the left.”
A quiet beat stretches between us before I face him fully. “Can I sleep with you?”
His brows lift, caught off guard.
“I mean…” I shrug, aiming for casual, but my smirk betrays me. “As of five days ago, we became a bubble couple.”
Something flickers behind his eyes. Heat? Hesitation?Want?
He steps closer, gaze steady. “Cami…”
“We don’t have to do anything,” I say. “It’s just…I won’t sleep knowing you’re so close.”
Eyes narrowed, he studies me, jaw flexing like he’s weighing reasons to say no and reasons to say yes.
Then, a slow smile tugs at his lips.
“Well, when you put it like that…” He reaches for my hand, threading his fingers through mine. “Come on, then. But fair warning: I’m a cover hog, and my alarm’s set way too early for lazy summer mornings.”
I giggle like a giddy college girl who just got asked to homecoming, the tension melting from my shoulders. “I can live with that.”
We walk the short distance down the hall, fingers still laced, each step shrinking the space between what I want and what I’m allowed to take.
