We round the corner, and she whispers, “I’ve missed you two so much,” and I’m gone.

I lean down, and our mouths crash together, her lips opening immediately for my tongue. Her hot little body presses into mine, molding herself around me as her arms loop around my neck. My hand slides under the back of her T-shirt, her skin so hot it feels like sparks.

She wrenches away from me, trying to catch her breath. “We can’t.”

“I know.”

Our eyes lock and I can feel her in my heart. Shit. I really am gone, aren’t I? “I miss you, too.”

She husks out a laugh and straightens her shirt before opening the fridge. “This has been a seriously long week, and I looked forward to tonight the whole time—but it’s worse. To be here but be lying. To be so close you and not be able to...touch you. What are we even doing, Fletcher?”

I reach out and push her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. “Shane would say you’re overthinking.”

She nods.

“We’ll figure it out, Pen. I promise.”

She nods again. “I believe you.”

And that fills my chest up with something altogether new.

She trusts me. She believes me.

I’m going to have to make this work.

Later that night, in the dark, Shane speaks into the silence, giving up on pretending to be asleep any more. “You got to kiss her in the kitchen, didn’t you?”

“Yep. Sorry, man.”

“No, it’s cool. I would’ve.”

Silence.

Shane sighs. “I’m so fucking horny.”

I laugh. “Me too. The kiss made it worse.”

“Fuck. This is like freshman year at the dorm. Laying in a twin bed next to you and being weird because I didn’t want you to know my dick was hard. Remember the first time we just admitted we needed to stroke the weasel?”

“That was so awkward.”

“Until it wasn’t.”

Until it wasn’t.

I have no idea if other guys just did it with their roommates in the same room. It was pretty difficult to find privacy ever that year. And when it got to be too much, we just...handled our problems. Literally. And after the first time, it wasn’t as awkward. We just...did it when we needed to. “It seems like a long time ago, but it’s only been two years. A lot’s changed.”

He hisses out a breath. “Yeah. But what hasn’t changed is I still need to come.”

“So do it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”