Page 53 of The Triple Play

The house was quiet as I padded down the hall, pulling on my shirt and boxer briefs as I walked. The hall light was still on from last night, and I flipped the switch as I passed it, checking the thermostat with bleary eyes before stepping through to the kitchen and down our personal hallway.

I slipped into my room and ducked into the en-suite, shutting the door behind me, and leaned onto the sink, staring at myself in the mirror.

There were shadows under my eyes. Not the standard ones I always wore, but new ones. The kind you earned from something new weighing on you like an anchor.

It wasn’t exactly a bad anchor, though.

I brushed my teeth, splashed my face with cold water, and ran a damp hand through my sleep-wrecked hair. My shirt was wrinkled from it lying crumpled on the floor all night, and I considered changing, but I didn’t have the energy to. Especially not when the scent of her lingered on it.

What I desperately needed was coffee, but Xavi was still fast asleep and he was the only one who knew how to work the damn espresso machine. But I also knew we needed to talk, without Annie, about what happened last night. So I had two good excuses to wake the guys.

I pulled on a pair of pajama pants and stumbled groggily back into the hall, passing Colton and Xavi’s rooms, and back across the house to the guest room. The door creaked lightly as I pushed it open, but they were still out, all three of them. Annie was curled up with her back against Xavi’s front, her arm taking up half the space I’d left behind, and Colton had moved a little closer in, his hand resting on top of Annie’s like it was the most natural thing in the world, the three of them so deep in sleep as if the world hadn’t somehow changed overnight.

But it had. At least, it felt like it had.

I crossed to the bed, coming up behind Xavi, and grasped his shoulder, shaking him lightly. “Xav,” I whispered, trying not to stir him too much so I wouldn’t end up waking Annie. “Xav, up and at ‘em.”

His eyes blinked open slowly, confused and bleary, his forehead tucked against the back of Annie’s head. He shifted slightly, looking up at me, then closed his eyes and turned his head back into her in defiance.

Fucks sake.

“Xav,” I whispered again. “Come on, you can come back to bed in a few if you want to.”

He took a deep breath in before exhaling and slowly detaching himself from Annie, his movements careful but annoyed. He pushed back to the edge of the bed and I moved, walking to the other side, and prayed to whatever god existed that Colton wouldn’t be a nightmare this morning.

I shook Colton a little rougher, his body far enough from Annie’s that I wasn’t too worried, and he grunted his disapproval, his hand slapping at mine. “Fuck off,” he grumbled.

My eyes darted to Annie, but she was still completely out. “Colton, up,” I whispered. “Don’t wake Annie.”

He scrubbed at his eyes and looked across the bed at her, his tensed body softening just a hair, and let out an exasperated sigh as he glanced over his shoulder at me. “Why do I have to get up?”

“Because the three of us should chat before she’s awake,” I said quietly, my patience waning. “I’ll make you breakfast to sweeten the deal.”

He narrowed his gaze. “Pancakes.”

“Fine.”

“With chocolate chips.”

“Are you a child, now?”

“Fine, I’ll add my own chocolate chips,” he murmured, throwing the covers off himself and scooching to the edge of the bed.

Xavi stretched on the other side of the room, his boxers on, his hoodie hanging limply around his bare chest. Colton pushed up and out of the bed, still naked as the day he was born, and I rolled my eyes, throwing his sweatpants at him in a desperate, silent plea for him to put onsomething.

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The kitchen smelled of freshly ground coffee and sizzling batter. I stood in front of the stove, my eyes glued to the pancake on the pan, waiting patiently for the little bubbles to form on the wet side. Xavi hovered a few feet away, his hair pointing in every which direction and his hoodie’s sleeves rolled up to his elbows as he pulled a few shots of espresso. Colton, on the other hand, was half draped across the breakfast bar behind me, his ass firmly planted on a barstool, his head resting on his folded arms like he could fall asleep right there.

Wouldn’t be the first time.

I grumbled a few choice words as I reached for the chocolate chips, dipping my hand into the bag of semi-sweets and dropping a few of them onto the batter side of the pancake before flipping it.

“Are you complaining?” Colton muttered, and I turned to face him, watching as his head lifted just a hair off his arm.

I stared at him unblinking as I dumped half the bag of chocolate chips into the batter with theatrical reluctance. “Your high-maintenance sweet tooth is a menace.”

He grunted and let his head fall back onto his folded arms, his voice muffled. “If I didn’t have a sweet tooth, you’d have no Girl Scout cookies to steal from me in the dead of night when you think I won’t notice.”

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