“Oh, yeah.” I hold his eyes. “Big news, that one. For me.”
“Huh.”
“The lunatic told my dad the whole truth, too. To his face. Flew all the way out there to do it.” I tip my head. “He’s a real piece of work.” I nod. “Like you said.”
“And what are you?” he asks, quiet, looking up at me from the floor.
“Oh, I’m totally part of the problem.” I hold back my grin. “Showed up here last night, made myself right at home, and fell asleep in a strange man’s bed.”
The grin breaks wide open. “You did that, huh?”
“Oh yeah. I’m just as crazy as he is. Maybe worse.”
He stares up at me for a long moment. “So,” he says. “What do you say?”
I pretend to weigh it and shrug. “Good morning, Stanley the Cup.”
He shakes his head. “Try again, princess.”
“Get out of here.”
He smirks. “Try again.”
We stare at each other in the dark. I whisper, “Kiss me.”
He smiles and doesn’t move. “I need to brush my teeth first.”
“Me too.”
“You’re not going home right now.”
“Then how am I supposed to—”
“I’ll lend you mouthwash.”
I chuckle into the blanket. “I don’t think you can lend mouthwash, Ermington. I think that one’s just giving.”
He flicks his head toward the bathroom. I follow this man into the bathroom before the sun has risen.
He flicks the light on, and we crowd into the little bathroom. It’s domestic and ridiculous and intimate in a way that undoes me harder than the kiss would have — him brushing his teeth in boxers with his hair wrecked, me gargling his mouthwash at his elbow in yesterday’s clothes, the two of us in one mirror like we’ve done it a thousand times and mean to do it a thousand more.
He spits, rinses, sets the brush down, and finds my eyes in the mirror.
“Tell me what you want, Linwood.”
I spit out the mouthwash while my heart races like I’ve just done cardio.
“I’ve had a lot of time to think about that,” I say. “And right now? Right now, I want to go back to your room.”
I turn off the light and walk back to his bedroom. He follows, and we shut the door on the rest of the house.
I look at the clock on his desk. “Why are we up at four in the morning?”
“We needed time to talk.”
“So you woke us up extra early?”
“Time is precious, Linwood.”
