Page 85 of The Casualty of Us
My eyes drop to where a pair of dark sweatpants are hanging low on his hips before I jerk them back up to frown. “I could’ve been naked.”
“Uh.” He stops, his head tipping to the side in the moonlight. “Are you?”
I push the covers back just enough to reveal the blue top of the pajama set I’m wearing. “No, and don’t think I can’t hear the hopefulness.”
“Damn.” He starts moving again, closing the distance to my bed, and I track him with my stomach flipping over itself.Not stopping and instead turning into a full-on flutter when he comes to stop on the side closest to me and nudges the mattress with his knee. “Got room for one more?”
I blink at him, more than a little caught off guard but also knowing I’m not going to say no. Not after everything this year, and especially not tonight.
Because I replied, didn’t I?
“Yeah,” I whisper, clearing my throat and dropping my eyes to scoot over while pulling back the covers. “Come on in.”
A long moment passes before he sits down, pulling his legs up and sliding them under the covers as I resituate myself. Rolling onto my side, I nestle into the pillow while bringing my eyes back in time to catch him lying down. He pulls the covers back up over us as he does and turns his head my way immediately. Hazel locking with the blue and leaving a tension spiking between us that pushes me to guess…
“You stole Ollie’s key.”
Trying to fill it with something instead of giving in.
“Yeah,” he sighs back. “Couldn’t sleep and figured you were up too.”
“That’s a given.” I lift my lips with a quick grin. “Why can’t you sleep?”
He shrugs. “Anxious, I guess.”
“About the summer?”
“Yeah.” He nods, tilting his head back toward the ceiling suddenly. “It’ll be the most time we’ve ever spent together.”
My brows fall with concern at his obvious nerves, and it has me pressing gently. “But you like your dad, right?” Not liking the idea of sending him off to someone completely incompetent. “He’s not like your mom?”
Plus, rock stars are supposed to have babysitters too. Lots of them.
Surely he can spare a few for his progeny.
“Yeah, yeah.” He reaches up, running his hand through the top of his hair. “It’s just usually in shorter doses where he can get back to his regularly scheduled life.”
He’s scared.
And honestly…I don’t blame him, but that’s also not going to help him right now.
“Hayes,” I start softly, reaching a hand out from under the covers to flick him on the nose and waiting until his surprised eyes find mine to grab the one in his hair. “He wouldn’t have invited you if he didn’t want you there, silly.” There’s nothing but confidence in my voice when I wind our fingers together and give him a squeeze. “Now stop being a sad little rock star baby and tell me something.”
He scoffs up something that might be a laugh, but it’s enough for now. “What’s that?”
“What’s your favorite color?”
“My favorite color?” he echoes with obvious amusement.
“I don’t know.” I give him a small shrug. “Don’t you think it’s weird we’ve gone an entire year without knowing each other’s favorite colors?”
A long moment passes before he rolls over, bringing our hands up between us and exhaling slowly. “Blue.” The single word is quickly followed up by a tease that has his voice dropping. “My favorite color is blue, Ophelia Sage, what about you?”
I purse my lips at the full name but let it go, telling him truthfully instead, “Depends on my mood, but usually green.”
“Light green?”
“No.” I wrinkle my nose. “Forest green.”
