KIT

“Everything okay?”

Elle opens the door to my room as I’m walking out of the bathroom from taking a shower. There are two women standing there.

“Hey, ladies,” Elle says, glancing over her shoulder. “This is my cousin, Kit. Kit, this is Raine and Millie. I told you about them earlier.”

“Hey,” Raine says. “Butch sent us up here. He thinks you might be hypothermic. I have some medical training. Want me to check you out?”

“Thank you, but I’m not hypothermic. I think he’s overreacting.”

“Butch never overreacts,” Millie says. “In fact just the opposite. Why don’t you let Raine check you out? He’ll obsess on it if you don’t.”

“I thought you said he didn’t overreact,” I say as I pull the thick, fluffy robe tighter around me.

“He doesn’t overreact,” Raine says, “but obsessing is a whole other thing. He’s great at that and he won’t stop until he knows you’re okay. I think he feels responsible.”

“Yeah, it’s weird,” Millie says. “He never feels guilty. Did he push you into the lake or something?”

“Not exactly, but he screamed and startled me. I lost my balance and fell in.”

“Why did he scream?” Millie says, laughing. “That’s not much like him either.”

“Because I was trying to pet a raccoon.” I point at the plates Millie’s holding. “Is that food? I’m starving.”

“Yeah, Nash sent this up for you.” She hands each of us a plate.

“Butch said you were shaking,” Raine says. “Can I take your blood pressure at least?”

“I wasn’t shaking because I was cold. I was shaking because your friend Butch is fucking hot. And he smells so delicious that I almost passed out.”

“Okay!” Millie says, slapping the table as she sits down. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Are you into Butch?”

“Are there women who aren’t?”

Millie’s and Raine’s hands shoot up.

“Seriously? How? Are we looking at the same guy?”

“No, he’s hot,” Millie says, kicking her flip flops off and pulling her legs up on the chair. She rests her head on her knees. “Like physically, really, really hot, but I friend zoned him two seconds after I met him. I can’t see him like that. He’s like a big brother to me. And to Raine, right?”

“Yeah, definitely. He’s firmly in the friend zone,” Raine says. “It’s like if your brother’s best friend was hot, but you couldn’t look at him that way because you grew up with him and saw all of the idiot stuff he did.”

“I could date my brother’s best friend if he looked like Butch,” I say, letting out a long whistle. “Jesus, he’s so— Gah! I don’t even know. Like almost obnoxiously manly, but in a really virile, sexy way. Right, Elle?”

“Yeah, he’s good looking,” she says, crawling into bed next to me. “But more your good looking than my good looking. I know how you crave the alpha beasts.”

I look at Millie and Raine who are now both sitting at the table. “You’re not going to tell him this, are you? Like female code and everything.”

“We’re not going to tell him anything,” Millie says, pulling the blanket off the back of her chair and wrapping it around her body. “His head doesn’t need to be any bigger than it already is.”

“Which head are we talking about?” I say, tapping my fingers together. “Have you seen other parts of him that you’d like to tell me about?”

“Ooo, Kit. Stop,” Millie says, sticking her tongue out. “Raine and I haven’t seen any covered body parts and we don’t want to think about them.”

“I definitely don’t want to think about them, but . . .” Raine says, covering her eyes.

“What?” Millie grabs her arm and yanks it down. “Oh my God! Have you seen Butch’s penis?”