Page 74 of Runaway Bride and Prejudice

“Nope. He hates them.”

A lovely and grim reminder that I am the last man who would earn Coach Davis’s approval.

“But I think maybe I’d like to get one sometime. Would you go with me?”

The question hangs there for a moment, looming in the air between us. It’s the first real mention we’ve had of being home. Together. Of what whatever this is—the teasing, easy friends that also includes snuggling and a very heated attraction—lasting beyond the plane ride home.

“Yes,” I tell her. “Anytime.”

She smiles. “Before we venture out for the day, can I borrow your phone? I was thinking about drafting a blog post.”

I grin. “You feel ready to put your notebook thoughts out into the world?”

“Yeah. I’ve got that impatient feeling, like the words are trying to push their way out.”

“Good. You can have my phone. I’ll go work out. But be thinking about what you want to do today.”

“Okay,” she says easily. “You too. Because we’re in this together.”

I really, really like the sound of that.

She’s still writing when I get back from working out, barely lifting a hand in greeting as her thumbs fly over the screen. When I emerge from the shower in shorts and an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, she’s still going.

I lean in the doorway, just watching her. She’s sitting cross-legged on the floor, still in her Batman pajamas. Her elbows rest on the coffee table, and her gaze is locked on my phone as she taps something out with both thumbs, the tiniest crease between her brows.

Beautiful. The kind of unsettling beauty that leaves me off-kilter and struggling for breath.

Amelia must sense me in the doorway because she looks up from my phone, smiles, then her eyes go a little unfocused as she scans my torso, on display under my unbuttoned shirt.

I grin. “Take a picture; it’ll last longer.”

“I don’t have my phone. But I can—” She pauses, frowning down at my phone in her hands, then drops it. The sound of it hitting the tile makes me flinch.

“Whoops,” she says. “Sorry.”

Amelia and I both jump when a female voice speaks from my phone. My sister’s voice. “Robbie? Do you have awomanwith you? Scandal!”

Amelia’s eyebrows shoot up practically to her hairline. I make a mental note to plan my sisters’ demise. I’m not sure if they called and Amelia inadvertently answered, or if she somehow called while fumbling with my phone.

Doesn’t really matter now because we are on speakerphone with one or possibly more of my sisters, since they tend to travel in packs.

“Hey, Lex.” I clear my throat and button one button, like my sister can see me through the phone.

“And Grey,” another voice chirps. “I’m here too. But seriously—who is that? Identify yourself, woman!”

The two of them break into laughter. Amelia’s eyes go wide, and I give what I hope is a reassuring smile as I cross the room and pluck the phone from her hand, noting a tiny crack in the glass protector.

“Now, now, now,” I tell my sisters. “That information’s going to cost you. What’s the current standing?”

Alexandra groans. I know it’s Lex not Grey because Grey never grumbles. She’s a spinning pinwheel of joy even when we’re settling scores. I plop down on the couch, and Amelia climbs up next to me, keeping space between us until I narrow my eyes and then she scoots closer.

Not close enough. But I’m not sure we’re at the point where I can just haul her into my lap. Yet.

“You’re ahead by forty,” Grey says cheerfully.

“Hm,” I say, watching Amelia watch me. “Then how about another thirty for information.”

“Thirty?!” Alexandra practically shouts. “Outrageous.”

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