I’m not sure what possesses me to obey his silent command, but I do. I get in, and he pulls the covers around me.

“Arms in or out?”

“In.” He starts to tuck the blankets in around me, starting at my legs and moving up until I’m in a cocoon. “Snug as a bug in a rug,” I say, hoping to lighten the mood.

He laughs. “I’ve learned that girls like to be held tight, and since it’s a bad idea to sleep in here, this is the next best thing.”

“Thank you again,” I say, my arms unable to move a smidge.

Grayson doesn’t acknowledge it. He just presses his lips to my forehead, and I wish it was my lips. “I mean it, if you need me, I’m right down the hall.”

And I’ll be forcing myself to stay right here.

Delia and I are walking arm and arm down the shoreline. I couldn’t be in the house anymore. Everyone was still asleep when I snuck into her room, waking her and forcing her to come with me.

“So, the nightmare was bad?”

I nod. “It was like I was on the outside of it though.”

“Is that normal?”

“Not even a little.”

“Okay, why do you think it was different then?”

“I kissed Grayson,” I admit.

Delia stops in her tracks, causing me to jerk back. “You what?”

I get her moving again as I fill her in on all the things that happened once she and Jack took off.

“As your best friend, I feel it’s my duty to tell you that you’re a goddamn idiot.”

“Well, thanks. I already knew this.”

Delia huffs and then pulls my arm to stop me. “No, not because you kissed him, but because the two of you are so damn obvious about what you feel for each other. Grayson stares at you all the damn time. When you move, it’s like he subconsciously tracks you, always watching, which is how it was when we were kids.”

“It wasn’t like that.”

“Okay, if you say so.”

I try to think back, but I don’t remember us being that intense.

“We spent two years apart,” I remind her. “We weren’t like that then.”

Delia laughs while shaking her head. “The hell you weren’t. If anything, it was even worse. You were in school, and he would come home every weekend. I would lose you because, if Gray was around, you most definitely were not. If he didn’t come home, you were at his dorm.”

“Yes, but we weren’t like . . . in sync.”

“You two were like magnets moving in unison. It was really amazing if I’m honest about it. It’s why so many people were in shock when you ended things. But the bigger question is, what does it mean for you now? You’re both older, lived a lot, and are single.”