Page 6 of Spring Breakup
“And you need those sixteen inches in order to sleep with… next to me?”
“Extra inches aren’t necessary. Most people don’t know how to use them correctly anyway.”
Dean willed himself not to jump headfirst into flirtatious banter. He wasn’t falling for it. He neededfriendship. He needed Rosie and Leo. He did not need to lead on sweet, sappy, heartbroken Tyler Vlachos.
“Youcould sleep on the loveseat,” Tyler said before Dean was able to make his mouth work again.
“Do either of us have to sleep on the fucking loveseat?”
“It’s not actually a loveseat. It’s a chaise lounge.”
Dean almost asked what the difference was because he was certain Tyler had some bizarre answer. But Dean couldn’t handle Tyler being all smart and cute and weird, so he left the room instead.
He was pretty excellent at walking away. He’d had a lifetime of examples to learn from.
ChapterFour
Tyler woke up with a start,his heart pounding. He was alone. Dean Humphries was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t in bed or on the chaise.
Tyler checked the time on his phone. It was midnight. He’d gone to bed early, the long travel day plus an emotional week catching up with him before everyone else was ready to call it a night.
He didn’t like not knowing where Dean was. His brain shot through a million terrible scenarios. None of them were good. They varied from low stakes—Dean, Rosie, and Leo had stayed up to talk about Tyler behind his back—to high stakes—an ax murderer had pulled Dean through the window and chopped him up.
He hadn’t been looking forward to sharing a bed with Dean.
Okay, there was a small, secret thrill to the idea that they might migrate toward each other in their sleep. Tyler imagined being aggravated by Dean cuddling with him. He imagined Dean’s huff when their skin brushed. He imagined them both secretly liking it but pretending it was awful when they woke up entwined.
Shit, Tyler needed to jerk off or something.
He got dressed and peeked into the living room. It was empty. He moved around the downstairs, doing a quick survey.
Dean wasn’t in their room, the bathroom, kitchen, or living room. Tyler assumed Rosie and Leo were upstairs together. He heard quiet conversation through the ceiling, but there was no reason for Dean to go into their bedroom.
Maybe Dean was in the sauna or hot tub.
Tyler just had toknow.
He pulled his coat on, shoved his feet into his boots, and slipped outside. Dean wasn’t in the hot tub. It had the cover on.
Tyler walked down the stairs of the porch and glanced up at the cabin’s second floor. There was a dim light on in the upstairs bedroom, but Tyler couldn’t see anyone through the paneled glass door that led out onto the balcony.
He decided to check the barrel sauna to be sure. Once he was sure, he’d be able to go back to sleep without worrying that Dean had sleepwalked into the woods and been stomped by a moose.
Tyler left their cabin’s private alcove to reach the sauna. He knocked. No answer. It was pitch black and empty on the inside.
“Everything okay?” a deep voice asked. Tyler yelped and about jumped out of his skin.
He spun around and saw Brooks and a huge, lumberjack of a man coming down the steps of her cabin.
“Hi. Yes. It’s fine.”
“Tyler, right?” Brooks said.
“Yes.”
“This is my brother Wrangell. We’re walking over to the lake to see if we can see the lights. Want to join us?” she asked. Brooks was wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt, and Tyler wondered how she wasn’t freezing her butt off. It had to be below freezing. Wrangell at least had on a thick flannel shirt and beanie.
“What lights?”
