Page 24 of Naughty Nicky

“Two years.”

“And you haven’t told your best friend you’re a few hours away?” I can’t believe that for a second. “Wait, are you two no longer friends?”

Nick runs his hands through his hair and stares up at the ceiling. “This is why I should have just chosen dare again.”

“Well, you need to answer at least one of my questions.”

“I did!”

“Hardly.”

I groan in frustration. Why won’t he tell me anything? And why does Wes have no idea he’s here?

I sip my hot chocolate. It’s barely lukewarm now, and it has lost its luster much like this conversation. “Well, if you aren’t going to tell me anything, you might as well go to bed so I can curl up on this couch and get some sleep.”

I stand up and walk to the kitchen. I know I don’t deserve to know anything about Nick Snow, but I felt like we bonded somewhat tonight. I thought he would give me something rather than keeping that stone wall up around him. I mean I guess he gave me something. Well two things. But I want to know more. I don’t know how many days I’ll be here. But I know I want to get something personal out of him.

I finish washing my mug and set it to dry on the drying rack. I turn around and nearly jump out of my skin again when I find him just a couple feet away holding his own empty mug.

“You can sleep in the bed; I’ll take the couch.”

I grab his mug from him and turn back to the sink to wash it. “You don’t have to do that,” I say over my shoulder. “I’ve slept on plenty of couches.”

“It’s drafty in here, though. The bedroom is warmer. It’s the least I could do.”

I turn off the water after setting his mug down. “You’ve already given me somewhere to stay that isn’t inside of a car on the side of the road.”

He laughs. “You have a point.”

I walk past him and head for the couch.

“I mean it, Pen, sleep in the bedroom.”

I don’t want to argue with him, and his bed did look a hell of a lot more comfortable than that couch. “Fine,” I concede.

He follows me down the hall, and I get a very different idea of how this night could go. But I quickly turn off the stupid high school crush dreams.

I look for the light switch on the wall but it’s hard to find in the dark space. I feel him behind me though, his hand reaching out to the wall where I couldn’t find the switch.

“I can grab you new sheets if you want.”

I turn to face him. “Do you have cooties?”

He laughs again. “Are we eight?”

“I think it was a fair question.”

He shakes his head at me with a soft smile on his face. “Last I checked, I was cootie-free.”

“Good. Then I don’t need new sheets.”

I walk over to the bed and pull the covers back, the bed looking more inviting by the second. I pull off the hoodie and then slip out of my sweats and toss them both on the chair by the window. Thankfully the T-shirt he gave me is long enough that it hits just above my knees since I threw my underwear into the pile of clothes for him to dry.

“What are you doing?”

“Huh?”

He gestures to the clothing I’ve taken off.

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