So, she yawned and said instead, “I want to stay in this bed forever.”
Jack laughed, put an arm behind her head, and pulled her closer to his body. He was warm and half-naked, just the way she liked him.
“Oh, but with an expensive whiskey in one hand and cheap chips in the other,” she added. “Though I might develop a drinking problem.”
“Hm, and it would be a shame to waste the whiskey, because I think we’d spill it,” Jack murmured, burying his face in the crook of her neck to kiss the spot where her pulse was beating, which immediately quickened.
She giggled as his stubble tickled her skin and tilted her head so he could kiss her elsewhere. “I don’t mind. I don’t mind dirty sheets or doing the laundry,” she replied lightly.
She felt Jack smile against her collarbone before kissing her jaw and then her lips gently. “You like expensive whiskey, but you have no problem doing the laundry,” he said, shaking his head and running his free hand through her hair. “You know I always thought you were contradictory…but I was wrong. You’re just a whole person.”
“Whole?” she repeated quietly, squeezing his fingers between hers. “What makes me whole?”
“You don’t hold back any side of yourself. You’re honest. I think that’s what people confuse withcrazy. Most people have an obvious side and a hidden side. But you…you show everything. And they can’t handle that. It makes you incredibly brave.”
She laughed softly. She liked that he believed that, even if it wasn’t true. “I’m not brave, just a terrible liar.”
“No,” he said seriously. “That’s not what it is. You haven’t changed. Even though the whole world demanded it of you. That’s…brave. And strong. Stronger than I was.”
“That’s bullshit. You had a much harder start than I did. You had no one to care about you. The odds were against you. And look where you’ve ended up now. You have a team that loves you. Siblings that love you. A jobyoulove. That’s more than most accomplish. You should be proud. Youmadeyourselfwholewhile I’ve always been whole, just a little bruised.”
“No," he murmured thoughtfully. “I’m the Saint and the delinquent youth. I’m a brother and not a brother at the same time. I have a father who doesn’t know who I am and therefore isn’t a father. And I’m too much of a hockey player and too little of anything else. I’m two halves that don’t fit together.”
Penny looked at him somberly and shook her head. “No. You’re two halves that both belongto me. And just because nobody knows that Dax and Anna are your siblings doesn’t make you any less of a family. And who can say what too much hockey is? You can talk about whatever you want! You can be whoever you want. How can all the puzzle pieces that make you not belong together if they make you the person you are?” She stroked his cheek with her thumb. “I don’t think you should become anyone else, because then this would be half as much fun.”
She grinned, pulled his head toward her, and kissed him – slowly, because they had all the time in the world. Her hand was in his hair, her leg between his, and a contented sigh on her lips as Jack returned the kiss. He opened his mouth over hers and pushed the bathrobe down her bare shoulder before he pushed a hand in it and…
…there was a knock on the door.
“Jack? Open up,” came a deep, impatient voice.
Penny bolted upright and glanced anxiously at the door. “Who is that?” she whispered.
“Jack, you missed breakfast and coach’s announcement! Open up.”
“Go away, Moreau!” Jack replied, annoyed.
Oh. Lucas Moreau, their goalie. She’d never heard him string together so many words at once, in the last few weeks.
“Can’t. I’m supposed to get you.”
“Get me? To go where?” Jack called, irritated.
“I’ll tell you if you open the damn door!”
Jack groaned softly and rubbed his face. “It doesn’t look like he’s leaving,” he muttered. “Go hide in the bathroom.”
She opened her mouth in disbelief. “What? No!”
“Yes. And leave the light off.”
“No! Then it’s dark and stuffy.”
“I know. I had to hide in your bathroom, remember?”
“Yes, but you are you and I am me.”
He snorted. “I thought you liked equality!”
