Page 72 of Holly Jolly Heat
"She's also chaos incarnate. You'd love her." I leaned against Lucas's shoulder, feeling Ro's hand settle on my back. "She told me to stop running and just let myself fall."
"Did you?" Dex asked. "Let yourself fall?"
"I'm trying. This—" I gestured at us, "—this is me trying."
"It's a good start," Ro said.
We sat in comfortable silence, and I felt my eyes getting heavy. The emotional exhaustion, the late hour, the relief of finally surrendering, it all caught up with me at once.
"You should sleep," Dex said quietly. "It's almost four AM."
"Don't want to," I mumbled against Lucas's shoulder. "If I go upstairs alone, my brain will start spinning again. Start finding all the reasons this won't work."
"Then don't go upstairs alone," Lucas said.
I pulled back, looking at him. "What?"
"Sleep down here. With us. All of us." He glanced at Ro and Dex, checking. They nodded. "We'll pile blankets and pillows on the floor. Make a nest—not a heat nest, just a comfort nest. Stay together."
Pack sleepover. In my mother's living room. Where anyone could walk in and see us.
I should say no. Should maintain some boundaries. Should retreat to my room and process alone like I always had.
"Okay," I heard myself say. "Yes. I want that."
Lucas grinned and immediately started pulling cushions off the couch. Ro went to get blankets from the hall closet. Dex rearranged furniture to create more floor space.
They built a nest with practiced efficiency—clearly something they'd done before as a pack of three. But now they were making space for four.
For me.
"Come on," Lucas said, settling into the blankets and holding out a hand. "Your nest awaits."
I took his hand and let him pull me down into the soft pile of blankets and pillows. Ro settled on my other side. Dex took position by my feet—protective even in sleep.
And surrounded by my pack, wrapped in their scents, safe and claimed and home, I finally let myself rest.
"We're really doing this," I whispered into the dark.
"We're really doing this," Lucas confirmed.
"Tomorrow we figure out the details," Ro added.
"Tonight we just be," Dex finished.
I closed my eyes, feeling Lucas's steady heartbeat under my ear, Ro's hand drawing patterns on my back, Dex's solid presence keeping watch.
I was pack.
And maybe, just maybe, that was going to be okay.
TEN
Ro
I woke up to the best view I'd ever filmed.
Michelle, asleep between Lucas and me, her dark hair spread across the pillow we'd improvised from couch cushions, her face peaceful in a way I'd never seen during waking hours. Lucas was curled around her from one side, his arm thrown protectively across her waist. I was on her other side, close enough to feel her warmth, to smell the way our scents had mixed overnight into something completely unified.
