“Sure.” Colton sighed as he stood. “I’ve got to be going anyway. As soon as we hear anything back on your phone or learn anything else, you two will be the first to know.” He started for the door, then stopped and looked at me. “You should stay with my brother. I’m not saying that because he’s good company. He leaves wet towels on the floor, but I’ll sleep better knowing you are with him.”

As Colton left, I glanced at Reece. “You leave wet towels on the floor?”

He actually looked sheepish. “Maybe. Sometimes.”

I cocked a brow.

“Okay. After every shower, but for you, I’ll pick up the towels,” he offered.

“I don’t know. Wet towels are gross.”

He chuckled, but the humor fled when his eyes met mine. “I know it seems like a huge step with you staying with me, but it’s temporary, babe.”

I got that, but staying with him felt like a slippery slope into . . . well, a lot of things. I was all about starting over with him. I was all about the friendship and the sex. I was even cool with dating him, but I wanted to keep all the chambers of my heart out of it, because I knew . . .

I knew I could lose him and that terrified me.

But he was right. Staying with my parents would be a major pain and staying with Katie would probably be a train wreck of crazy. The fun kind, but also the kind where you ended the night with a trip to jail.

God, I was stupid, but I found myself nodding nonetheless.

I managed to hold off on telling my parents what was going on, which was great news. I knew they’d freak, rightfully so, but I also had a long shift ahead of me and way too much going on in my head. Since I had to get to the bar and Reece needed to work, we really didn’t have time for that conversation, so that meant that was how I’d be spending my Sunday. With my car still over at my apartment, Reece drove me to work in his car.

And that was different.

Not including my brothers, I’d never been driven to work by a guy before. Getting out of the car had also been a new experience for me. I’d wiggled my fingers at Reece and thanked him.

That hadn’t been sufficient.

“Whoa.” He’d caught my arm before I could step out of the truck. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Um? To work?”

“Not like that.”

Confused, I’d opened my mouth to ask for a little more detail, but then he’d tugged me toward me. “We don’t say good-­bye to one another,” he’d claimed. “We kiss.”

And we did.