Page 33 of Acting Merry
He looks at me expectantly.
“Do we need to…adapt anything?”
One of his brows lifts. “Like what?”
“Like…I don’t know. I’m just…checking in, I guess.”
The corner of his mouth quirks. “I mean, you could be alittleless all over me…”
“Oh, be quiet,” I say. “I’m serious.”
His smile fades a little as he looks at me. “I think we’ve been doing a pretty great job. What do you think?”
“I think,” I say, “that if you behaved with Bree anything like you’ve behaved with me tonight, I feel for her a lot more than I did before. You’re scary good at this.”
Is this my pathetic attempt to find out if there’s any part of this that’snotfake?
I dunno. Maybe.
His eyes fix on mine. I can’t tell what he’s thinking, though.
The door opens. “Um, hi, hello.” Tess closes the door a bit as the temperature bites her. “Dylan noticed you guys on the porch. What gives?”
“Well,” I say, “while we were all enjoying 72 degrees and blankets inside, the earth entered the next Ice Age. All the melt from earlier has frozen.”
“I’m already afraid of the dark,” Cole says. “Add in black ice? It’s a no-go.”
“I’m absolutely crushed to hear this news,” Tess says, grinning like Buddy the Elf. She opens the door wider and yells over her shoulder, “They’re staying, everyone!”
The rejoicing is unanimous, though maybe not evenly felt. Brady and Megan smile and welcome us back, but they can’t quite match the excitement levels of the others. I get it. Having me here isn’t ideal for them, either. But it’s just for the night.
The cabin has four bedrooms, which is why it’s always been perfect for our friend group. From what I can gather as we discuss sleeping arrangements, Brady and Megan had been planning to take two of the four bedrooms before Cole and I decided to stay.
“I can crash on the couch,” Brady says.
“Or I can,” Cole offers.
“There’s an air mattress in the upstairs closet,” Hannah throws out there.
“Oh, I can’t do air mattresses.” Brady puts a hand on his back. “My back hates those things.”
I glance at Cole because whose backdoesn’t? And Cole’s just took a hit from the ice.
I feel like I should advocate for him here—that’s the role of a fake girlfriend, right?—but he shakes his head gently at me likeit’s okay.
“I’ve got the air mattress,” he says.
“Thanks, man,” Brady says. “I’ll give you my serving of bacon at breakfast tomorrow morning.”
“Done,” Cole says.
“There’s plenty of room on the floor for the air mattress in the far bedroom upstairs.” Hannah nods at Cole and me. “You guys can take that room if you’re really okay with sleeping on it, Cole.”
“Yep,” he says. “My back loves it.”
I suppress a smile.
Despite my plan for our unplanned sleepover to consist mostly of sleeping, no one’s quite ready to go to bed. We all end up snacking and chatting around the kitchen island. Cole stands behind me, arms wrapped around me, chin on my shoulder, which means I get to feel every laugh that shakes his shoulders. When he talks, I don’t just hear the words; I experience the vibration of his voice in his chest.
