Page 47 of Catching Sparkles

“Couch,” he said in a soft voice, waking up briefly as I made my way inside. Like I’d have had the balls to charge into his bedroom, anyway. But when I went to lower him down onto it, he shook his head and whimpered, his hand tightening into a fist on the front of my shirt. “Lay down with me.”

“R-really?” I stammered out. Maybe he was delirious from exhaustion and didn’t exactly know what he was asking for.

“Mhm. Need you.”

The words had my throat tightening, but I couldn’t deny him when he’d said it like that. I just hoped he wouldn’t forget asking for it when he woke up.

“I’m sorry for freaking out on you,” he muttered as I carefully settled on his pink couch, glad it was so big and comfortable as he slipped under my arm to snuggle into my side.

“What!?” I asked, eyes widening as I realized he’d beaten me to the punch and totally ruined any attempt I’d planned on making to grovel for his forgiveness. “No! I’m the one who’s sorry. I-I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I didn’t mean it like how it sounded. I just-”

“It’s okay,” he said, before promptly falling back asleep on me, his warm breath rushing out where he was resting his head on my chest.

“Fuck,” I hissed out, staring up at the ceiling, not sure whether to be glad he didn’t hate me, or ashamed that I hadn’t really earned his compassion. But it felt so good having his body against mine, and being back in this ridiculous, unapologetically frilly place. I’d missed it so much, and I’d only been here a single time. I’d missed him so much.

I didn’t even want to think about how long it had been since I’d cuddled with someone like this, with their whole body just resting on mine. Hailey and I had decided on separate bedrooms only two years into our marriage. I hadn’t really minded, since sleeping next to someone I wasn’t fucking and didn’t feel comfortable reaching out for was uncomfortable and awkward anyway. But I hadn’t known how much I would start to crave physical contact with other humans. And I was fairly sure I’d never enjoyed physical contact with any human as much as I enjoyed it with Kendall.

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, digging it out as carefully as I could without disturbing his sleeping form and nearly cringed when I saw it was Benjamin calling.

“Hello?” I answered, praying he wouldn’t notice how quietly I was talking and start to speculate as to why.

“Where are you?” He asked, confused. “Where’s Kendall?”

“Uh…” Fuck. “He was feeling kind of messed up about everything, so I took him home.”

“Oh. Is he okay?”

“Yeah. I mean, kind of. He wasn’t really in the state of mind to drive, so…”

“Oh yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for looking out,” he said, sounding innocently grateful that I’d been willing to do a favor for his best friend.

“Yeah. Of course.”

“Are you going to walk back or should we swing over to grab you?”

“We just got here but I’ll walk back over.” It was less than two miles, so that was a totally reasonable thing to say. Probably. I hoped.

“Alright,” he responded agreeably. “Thanks again for taking care of him. Mr. Austin and Dad kind of had a big argument.” I glanced over to Kendall to see if he was listening to Benjamin’s voice through the receiver, but he was still fast asleep. The thought that he was so comfortable and relaxed with me was intoxicating.

“Ah.”

“Yeah, and so Deputy Henderson got involved and everything, and he made Kendall’s dad leave. He was really pissed off.”

“Jesus. What a fucking mess.”

“Yeah. Anyway, see you in a few.”

“Yeah. See you.”

I had no clue what excuse I was going to use when I didn’t show back up to the picnic in a few, but that was a problem I didn’t want to think about yet.

The weight of Kendall’s body pressed against me, coupled with the cool air and peaceful silence of the room, eventually had me feeling floaty and boneless until I slipped into sleep along with him.

I WOKE UP some time later, a mild sense of panic rising up in me until I fumbled for my phone and realized I’d only been out about half an hour. The jerky movements I’d made to check roused Kendall, who lightly groaned at my side, nuzzling his face into my shoulder before his eyes fluttered open.

“Shit. Sorry,” I apologized. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“No, it’s okay,” he said, and even with the short nap I could see he was way more lucid now. He cleared his throat a little as he attempted to push himself up and off me but couldn’t quite manage it in the tight space against the back of the sofa, a pink blush washing over his pretty features. “You didn’t really have to stay, you know.”