Page 52 of The Best Friend Power Play

No response.

I move closer to the bathroom door. "Culver!"

How can he not hear me? The room isn't that big. Unless he's gone out to get something?

I crack open the door just a fraction and call out again.

No answer.

Okay, he must have stepped out. My sleep shirt and pajama shorts are in my line of sight, perched on top of my suitcase. A quick dash, and I'll be back here before he returns from wherever he's gone off to.

I swing the door wide open, race out of the bathroom and—stop dead in my tracks.

Culver's impressive frame is hunched over the couch in the corner of the room. He lets fly with a string of expletives, arms flailing about. He grumbles some more then swings around to face me…me, who's wearing nothing but a towel.

His face looks like a clown at the county fair, eyes wide and mouth open in surprise. He yanks his AirPods out of his ears. "Hey."

"Hey yourself."

His eyes roam up and down my body, and then, as if catching himself, he abruptly shifts to face the wall. "We, uh, need to stop meeting like this."

I grin at his joke. "At least I'm wearing a towel to cover myself, unlike a certain someone I know."

He drops his gaze to the ground. "Why are you wearing a towel?"

Is it my imagination or has his voice gone all husky?

"I left my pajamas out here."

"Oh. Okay."

I quickly race across the room and pluck them from the top of my suitcase. "What were you doing before I interrupted? It sounded intense."

He turns to the couch, his back to me. His impressively wide-shouldered back that tapers down in a V-shape to his waist.

"Fighting with a pull-out couch that is not living up to its name."

"I'll be back in a moment to give you a hand, if you like."

He turns his head slightly to the side. "Hey, Hannah?"

"Yeah?"

"You can…Nah. Forget it."

"What?"

He's quiet for a while, his shoulders rising and falling with every breath he takes. He flicks his arm toward his open suitcase. "You can wear one of my shirts if you like."

I'm taken aback.

He wants me to wear one of his shirts?

"Forget it. It's stup?—"

"Can I wear this one?"

I lift up a black Luke Combs graphic tee.

---