Andrew leaned forward around Kate so he could look at both of them, his dark eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What are you two whispering about?”

“Nothing,” Sharon said immediately, at the exact same time that Kate said, “I’ll tell you later.”

Just then, little Melody began to make unhappy noises and Adam immediately whisked her back to Angel’s room, leaving the group to disperse.

Sharon cursed her bad luck when it turned out she and Jake were parked on the same side of the hospital and no one else was. Figured. She kept her smile pasted on her face as she exchanged hugs with the rest of her friends and they went down one hall... and she and Jake turned down the other.

The silence between them wasn’t tense exactly, but it wasn’t comfortable either. She was trying to figure out how to break it when he did, and with the last question she’d ever expected from him.

“Why’d you sneak out this morning?”

Giving him a sidelong look, Sharon couldn’t help but raise her eyebrow. He wasn’t looking down at her, so she couldn’t tell if he could see her expression. Since he about six feet tall and she was closer to five, he might not be able to.

“Uh, cuz awkward morning afters don’t really appeal to me?” she responded, letting the obvious ‘duh’ leak into her voice.

Now he did look at her, a slight frown on his face. It occurred to Sharon that he’d slowed his normal walking pace slightly so that her short legs could keep up. She didn’t know whether or not to feel grateful for that. “You don’t know that it would have been awkward.”

That was just crazy talk.

“You think it wouldn’t have been?” she asked dubiously. He couldn’t possibly be serious; exactly how did he think this morning would have gone?

Jake shrugged. “We could have fucked again, at least.”

She stopped in her tracks, mouth hanging open. Not because she was offended or because she found his actual words shocking, but because she was shocked he was the one who said them. Her nickname for him was Grumpy Cap, because he reminded her of Captain America but way more, well, grumpy. He didn’t curse much, if ever, and he was rarely crude that she’d ever heard. That was her tactic, and one she often used for getting under his skin.

Turning, he took in her expression as his blue eyes sparkled with amusement.

Putting her hands on her hips, Sharon narrowed her eyes at him. “Who are you and what have you done with Grumpy Cap?”

He laughed. Sharon couldn’t help but stare. Maybe he was always grumpy because he just hadn’t gotten laid in a while and now he could stop being such a stick in the mud? In that case, he definitely needed to get laid more often.