Page 73 of Never Really Over

“Are you considering it?” I ask her, even though I know the answer. I need to hear it from her lips.

She watches me closely. “I am. Might be stupid, but it goes beyond consideration straight into hope. I’m hoping for this.”

I smile and give her neck a little squeeze. “I’m right there with you.”

“I have a confession,” she says quickly.

A knot in my stomach immediately forms but I don’t allow myself to physically show her how terrified those four words make me feel. “Uh oh.”

“I stole Poppy’s wish.”

My eyebrows furrow. “Come again?”

“When you were blowing out her candle, I made her wish for myself. I know, I know, I’m an awful person.”

A smile stretches across my face. I have a feeling I know what her wish was, because I wished for the same. “I’m sure she’ll forgive you. As long as you get your wish.”

* * *

The next few hours,we sit around the fire and chat. The older kids are surely zonked out by now, all in my fully furnished basement, and our old asses are starting to yawn. The little kids were sound asleep when a few of us went in to check and get the older kids situated. They were crashing from a sugar high combined with several hours of hard playing and fun, so I’m sure they’ll all sleep pretty good tonight. They were also pretty damn giddy about having a big sleepover together. The kids have grown up with each other and are thick as thieves, much like their parents, so they love this.

We’d corralled all the puppies — what were we all thinking? — into the garage with some blankets to sleep on and food that Tori’s brother left along with a couple water dishes. I’m sure I’ll find poop and pee in the garage tomorrow, but it’s safer than letting them sit outside by themselves all night or having five puppies in the house. That would be a disaster.

“Time to call it?” Tim asks the group.

A chorus of yeahs all around so we head inside. We check on the kids and take turns in both bathrooms. I don’t have much for the ladies here as far as whatever they use on their faces at night, but no one seems to mind. Luckily, I recently stocked up on a bunch of toothbrushes that I picked up at Costco and have a few extra contact cases and solution for those who need it.

I pass out t-shirts to the women, knowing they’ll come down to their knees, and the sight of Layla in one of my shirts has me growing harder by the second. Her long blonde hair is out of the messy bun she put it in earlier and is now cascading over her shoulders and down her back.

Fresh faced and a little shy, I don’t remember her ever being as beautiful as she is to me right now.

“Where do you want me?”

That’s a loaded question if I ever heard one.

I raise an eyebrow and she blushes. “Colt!” she whisper-shouts. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

I smirk. “You’re the one who started it.”

She rolls her eyes. “Seriously, where do you want me to sleep tonight?”

I know she’s asking for the same reason I’m stalling in giving her an answer. I want her in my bed and that’s where she wants to be, too.

Instead of answering, I tug her behind me to my bedroom. The rest of them can figure out who’s sleeping where. I have enough mattresses, that we were thankfully smart enough to blow up before we started the bonfire, beds, and a big couch that they can all stretch out somewhere. My house might not be huge, but it’s big enough.

“Are you sure?”

“I am.”

I want to tell her that I’ll be a perfect gentleman but I’m a man who won’t make promises I can’t keep.

I shut the door quietly behind us and use the bathroom to give her a minute to snoop in my room without me around. I know Layla and I can guarantee the moment my bathroom door shut she started walking around to look at the pictures I have in there and possibly even check out my closet.

The thought makes me smile as I brush my teeth.

I don’t know if I’d rather come out to see her lying in my bed or snooping. Either would make me happy.

I open the door to see she’s in bed.

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