“What the fuck?” I demanded. “Is everything okay? Is it Hayes?”
“Yes!” Kel pushed a hand through his hair. “Yes, it’s Hayes. My dude, I haven’t slept. I can’t eat. I can’t even drink coffee without puking, and you know I can’t survive without caffeine.” He held out a hand to show me how it trembled.
“Kel,” I demanded. “What happened to Hayes?”
“Oh, man.” He ran both hands over his face. “He’s just…ugh. He’sperfect.”
I blinked at him. “He… what?”
Kel shook his head. “I just… I woke up early this morning, and Hayes was laying there next to me, sleeping, and I just… I couldn’t…”
His eyes met mine, and then he stopped and cocked his head as if actually seeing me for the first time.
“Brewer, my dude, what are you wearing?”
I glanced down at myself. Delaney’s U Conn T-shirt was stretched so tight across my chest, the outline of my nipples was clearly visible in the cold air, and so short it might as well have been Bear Chest night at the Hive.
I hunched my shoulders. “Who cares? Answer me, Kel! Is Hayes okay? Is he sick? Is he injured?”
Kel wrinkled his nose. “What? No! He’s completely fine.”
“Thank fuck,” I breathed. Then I shot him an angry glare. “Then why the hell are you ringing the bell like that this early?”
“Because I need to talk to you, man?—”
“Brewer?”
I turned to see Teeny and Delaney standing behind me in the hallway. Delaney had pulled my sweatshirt on over his sleep shorts again. His glasses were slightly askew, and his feet were bare.
Every cell of my body screamedfuck yes.
“Oh. Hey, Kel,” Delaney said uncertainly. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“No,”Kel insisted.
An icy breeze blew through the open door, and Delaney shivered. Without a thought, I pulled him against my side and dropped an arm over his shoulders. For a second, Delaney relaxed against me.
“Ohhh.” Kel’s eyes widened, and he pointed a finger between the two of us. “Shit. You two were ‘sleeping independently’ again, weren’t you?”
Delaney reacted instantly, stepping away from me with a guilty, apologetic look.
“Stop it right now,” he told Kel defiantly. “Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong. I was cold, and Brewer was being… courteous. That’s all. We have a professional, client-contractor relationship because Brewer is a professional…professional.”
If I hadn’t already known I’d fallen hard for Delaney Monroe, I would have known it then, watching him stare Kel down with fire in his eyes in order to protect my reputation… all the while, draped in my Portland Builders Con sweatshirt and sporting unmistakable sex hair.
Suddenly, all my questions about the future didn’t seem insurmountable. We’d figure it out.
I had no idea what Kel meant by “sleeping independently,” but that didn’t matter either. I pulled Delaney against me again, ignoring his halfhearted protest.
“We sleep dependently,” I told Kel. “Very dependently.”
Delaney blinked up at me from behind his glasses. “We do?” he whispered.
“Don’t we?” I challenged.
Delaney took a deep, shuddering breath. “We do,” he agreed.
