Page 78 of Not A Whisper

"Yes, Mom."

She looks at me and I grin back at her. Luane chuckles. "Take care. We'll see you soon. Thank you so much for loving our boys so much. I've never seen them so happy. You're good for them. I hope they're treating you just as wonderfully as you do them."

I open my mouth to tell her how devious her child is but Jason's already there, cutting me off.

“Whatever she’s about to say, don’t believe a thing. She’s drunk.”

I snicker at the same time Grant adds, "If we haven't made her happy yet, we will!"

"G'night!" I call over my shoulder.

"You're a mess," Grant chuckles into my ear as his lips brush against the shell of it.

I lean toward him, letting him take more of my weight. "I'm pretty sureyouwere the one handing me the shots."

"What did she say?" Jason asks.

Grant shrugs. "Who knows."

They get me to the truck and into the back where I lay across the bench seat. My eyelids drift shut, too heavy to keep open. The doors open and shut. A cool breeze by my ankle stirs me enough to crack open one eye. Trip smirks at me as he joins me in the back. He takes my legs and lays them over his lap. I blow him a kiss before letting my eyelid fall shut.

"All set?" Grant asks. I'm not sure who he's talking to, but I lift my thumb.

Trip chuckles. "Dollface says she's good. The parents aregood too. They said to have fun. We're good to head to the airport."

Wait what? "Airport? Why are we going to the airport?"

"Sh, you're drunk. Go to sleep," Trip orders, squeezing my thigh in warning.

Fine. If he insists... With a heavy sigh, I let go of my question and succumb to the heavy weight of exhaustion as it washes over me.

Twenty

It should be illegal to have this much sunlight pouring into a room at one time.

Groaning, I roll over and cover my head with a pillow. Or try to. A weight holds down the one under me. Fine, if that won’t work, I’ll use something else. I try to grab the comforter and yank it up over my head instead. I'm met with the same resistance. With a determined growl, I roll, ready to just lay face down. Only to be met with no room to do so.

What the hell is going on here?

With a heavy sigh, I force my eyes open and sit up. I blink the room into focus. It's hard, given howblindingthe sunlight is. When the space finally does appear, I'm thrown for a loop. Where the hell am I? In a hotel room,thatI get. But... where? And how did I get here? Better yet, who paid for this monstrosity of a space?

Soft snores capture my attention. Looking around me, I find myself in a bed so big it can’t possibly be real. In it with me are Grant, Trip, and Jason, who are sound asleep. They’re each in various forms of undress and spread out comfortably allaround me. Except for Jason, who seems to have wanted to lie practically on top of me.

The confusion is pushed aside for a moment as I stare at my guys.

My heart swells as I smile down at them. Out of all the surprises I could've woken up to this morning, the best one is that we're together. We've never all slept in the same bed together. There's simply not enough room. But inthisbed, there's probably even room for two more people.

Not that I need anyone else.

Pulling my gaze away from them, I look around again.

Curiosity gets the best of me, and I carefully dislodge myself from blankets and limbs. My feet hit the cool tile floor and I shiver. When I’m out of bed, I look down to find myself in someone’s shirt and nothing else. Of course they’d forgo giving me underwear. I roll my eyes as I look around.

There arepillarsin this hotel room.

To the right is a set of double doors. One door is cracked wide enough that I can tell it’s the bathroom. I’ll explore that later. I prod forward, shivering as the cold from the tile inches up my ankles into my legs.

This place is like an apartment. On the far side, likewayfar side, of the hotel room is a U-shaped couch so big that even if you removed all the walls within my apartment, it still wouldn’t fit. The glass coffee table charades as some wild modern piece of art and there’s a faux bear skin rug resting in front of the fireplace. As the room wraps around, I find a fancy looking bar and sleek black dining room table.

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