"I won't."

"I mean it," I warned. "If you've got a problem, then talk it out with me. Don't treat me like I'm just another girl. If we're friends that means I'm not on the other side of your walls. Don't close me out. I'm not the enemy."

"You're the only one who's ever been on the inside of those walls, Molly."

Right back atcha…

"And that stuff you aren't ready to tell me?" I watched him carefully. "You're sure I can't convince you to just get it off your chest now?"

He shook his head slowly. "I'm not ready."

I sighed. "You promise you'll tell me everything when you're ready?"

He nodded. "I promise."

"Okay. Good." Nodding, I held a hand out to him. "Then we'll start over one last time."

"Seriously?" Grinning, he cocked a brow. "You want a handshake after – how did you put it? Oh yeah, after I put my penis inside of your –"

"Okay, la, la, la! We don't have to talk about that!" I cut in, clamping a hand over his mouth. "Let's put last weekend's debauchery down to helping a girl tick some firsts off her bucket list and leave it there, 'kay?"

Chuckling, he peeled my hand away from his mouth. "Whatever you say, Dolly."

Padding back to bed, I climbed under the covers and reached for my now semi-melted tub of ice-cream before deciding against it. "If you don't need to go home right away, you can stay and watch a movie with me?"

"I don't need to go home ever," came his quick response, as he followed me to the bed. "I can stay the night… if you want?"

I knew why he didn't want to go home tonight, why he had never wanted to go home growing up, but that didn't mean that I could handle this dangerous game of back and forth with him. I wasn't prepared for it. For him.

"Please?"

Goddamn my stupid heart but it cracked at the sound of his pleading tone. "Wren's still picking on you, huh?"

His jaw ticked and he looked away. "Ain't nothing I can't handle."

"Talk to me."

"Look, I can crash at Rourke's if you're not comfortable with me being here," came his pained response.

"No…" Exhaling heavily, I pulled back the covers and patted the spot on the mattress next to me. "You can stay."

"You sure?"

No, this is a terrible idea. "Uh-huh."

Relief flickered in his eyes and he didn't waste any time kicking off his boots before climbing into bed, fully clothed.

"Feeling hungry?" I asked, pointing to the tub of Ben & Jerrys on my nightstand.

"Nah," he replied, his big shoulder brushing against mine. "I'm feeling just fine now."

That makes one of us, I thought to myself as I reset the movie to the beginning and snuggled under my duvet. "Remember we used to do this all the time when we were kids?"

"I remember you bailing me out when Wren got a little too carried away with the old corporal punishment," he replied, stretching out beside me.