Page 120 of Breakaway Hearts

The fridge is filled with individually packed drinks, seals unbroken. The menu doesn’t contain any onions, and I got pumpkin pie for dessert from the little bakery she thinks is so cute.

I’m getting refills on drinks from the garage fridge when Jason arrives with Madison, so I walk in, arms full, and see her lingering by him, looking only slightly less uncomfortable than she did at our house party.

She smiles when she sees me and it hits me right in the chest.

God, I like this girl.

More than I’ve liked anyone in a long time. Like Cami in the beginning, when she was still acting like she enjoyed hockey…and me.

“You made it,” I say, unable to hide my smile, especially when her eyes are soft as they take in my fitted t-shirt. A blush creeps up her cheeks, letting me know how she really feels.

“I was promised really yummy food,” she says with a shrug, as if I didn’t even factor in.

“The yummiest,” I assure her, taking insane pleasure in her smile.

“Does Donovan live here too? Jason said it would probably just be us and the guys who live here.”

“His roommate dropped out to try and make it as a singer in Nashville, so he’s crashing in Noah’s room until he admits it’s not temporary and he’s here for the year.”

“How many rooms are there?”

“Five,” I tell her, then realize, “I never gave you a tour.”

“It was pretty busy. Then you were incapacitated. Then I was unconscious,” she says with a tone I can’t quite decipher. “Jay showed me the basement.”

“Just missing the upstairs, then?”

“I don’t think I need to see your friends’ bedrooms,” she argues, wrapping her arms around herself like she’s cold.

My instinct is to wrap my arms around her, but I don’t think she’d appreciate that in front of everyone. “I can grab you a sweater,” I offer.

I look pointedly at Madison, who scrunches her eyebrows before she gets it.

I expect her to be all, ‘no, not with all these people who’ll think we’re sleeping together’, to which I would not point out that these people already *know*, unless they’re idiots, but she bites her bottom lip and sighs, like this is a bad idea she keeps on following. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if she said we couldn’t do that anymore. She’d want to mean it, and I’d hold her to it until she begged me to reconsider.

Instead, she follows me up the staircase.

“Colt’s room is right off the front door,” I say, pointing to the bottom of the stairs, not that I think she cares. This is Noah/Donovan’s. Sav would spend hours on the reading bench.”

Madison nods and slips her head in a bit so we both see the guitar he has perched on it.

“Maybe Donovan will serenade the block.”

“I’ll let you know if he does,” I assure her before moving on. “Mike clearly doesn’t trust our dinner guests,” I say of his locked door.

“This would be David’s, then?”

I nod, but his door is also shut, just without the obvious lock.

“And who sleeps here?” she asks when we get to mine, which I’m glad I tidied.

“Historically, not you.” I get her to smile, but it’s…apologetic? “This is my lonely room where I⁠—”

“I’m sure it needed a break after all the activity of the past few years,” she defends herself. “And if you want to sleep with other people, don’t let me stop you.”

She sounds equal parts teasing and pissed. I can tease her back, or admit that I haven’t brought any other women up here, except for Savannah and my sisters, but instead, I tell her, “I don’t want to sleep with anyone else.”

I make sure my eyes are on her body as I say it, not that it’s a hardship, but I know looking her in the eyes would make it mean more than she’s ready for.