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Unable to stop herself, Addison imagined what her life would be like if she’d grown up in a place this like. If her mom and dad had been together, maybe even married. If she lived in one place with the same people her entire life, instead of bouncing around Santa Fe before being shipped off to her granny’s in New York.
If she’d never been alone. Or terrified. Or starving.
How different would her life look right now? What kind of person would she be?
“I didn’t mean to upset you,” Mason said, watching her with a deep frown.
It took her a second to process what he said. “I’m not upset,” she assured him, smiling. “I just got lost in my thoughts for a second there.”
“Are you sure?” He studied her face, clearly not believing her smile. “If it makes you feel any better, an Airbnb in middle-of-nowhere Missouri costs way less than our hotel did last night.”
That made her chuckle. “I guess that makes sense. Everything’s probably cheaper in the middle of nowhere.” It wasn’t that she cared how he spent his money anyway. She was just already so greatly indebted to him for every single aspect of this trip, staying at a Motel 6 maybe would’ve assuaged her guilt a little bit.
Of course, then she’d have to feel terrible about making Mason sleep at a crappy motel.
“Do you want to see why I picked this place?” he asked, the merest hint of excitement in his voice.
“Absolutely.” When he extended his hand, she took it without hesitation, letting him pull her down the hallway to the bedrooms.
Cracking open the first door, he peeked inside, then kept going a second later. When he did the same at the second door, he stopped dead in his tracks. “Okay, this is it,” he said, taking both her hands, watching her with eyes that sparkled with excitement. “Are you ready?”
She couldn’t have kept a grin off her face even if she wanted to. “What shenanigans are you up to? For you, this is practically giddy.”
With a smile playing at his lips, he backed into the room, letting go of one of her hands to flip the light switch. “Ta-da,” Mason said with a little flourish.
In that moment, Addison fell in love with him a little bit. Her heart didn’t give her any choice.
The long, narrow room sported a pair of matching bunk beds pushed up against opposite walls, a scant three feet of space between them.
“We both have seniority here, which means we both get top bunk,” he announced proudly, puffing out his chest a little bit.
Words completely failed her. Wrapping her arms around his neck, Addison pulled his face down low enough to kiss him, hoping to show him how profoundly grateful she was instead.
The kiss was slow and gentle—nothing like their usual frenzy. When at last they broke apart, she rested her forehead against his chest. “Thank you,” she managed at last. “I can’t tell you what it means to me.”
He pressed his lips against the top of her head. “It means a lot to me, too. Why don’t we get ready for bed? We still have almost thirteen hours to drive tomorrow, so we should get some sleep.”
Twenty minutes later, Addison snuggled up under the fuzzy red-and-black plaid comforter as she stared across the narrow gap. Mason lay on his back in his own bunk, his feet sticking out between the bars at the foot of the bed—perhaps the only flaw in his otherwise glorious plan.
Not that she spent much time looking at his feet. He had the comforter folded down to his waist, revealing his bare chest. Even in the dim light of the nightlight she brought on the trip, he looked good enough to eat. God, she could stare at his beautiful body for hours.
The emergence of his favorite Prada frames when he returned from brushing his teeth only made him sexier. He was gorgeous with the contacts in, of course, but the glasses made him look like a sexy professor. An exceedingly strict professor who would gladly punish a naughty student if she required correction.
Someday, she’d build up the nerve to ask him to bring that little fantasy to life. After all, she’d been having it since the first time she spent the night at his house. Not tonight, though. She had much more important matters on her mind.
“Do you have an older brother?” she asked once they both settled in.
He rolled his head to the side, so he could see her between the bars of the black metal railing. “No, but I have a younger brother. Why do you ask?”
“What you said before,” she started tentatively, hoping she wasn’t reading too much into things. “About this meaning a lot to you, too. I thought maybe you had an older brother, and he never let you have top bunk.”
That earned her one of his backward smiles. “Very astute.”
The praise warmed her from the inside out, and she hid her smile behind her comforter. “What’s the real story?”
He didn’t answer at first, though he didn’t look away either, so she knew the question hadn’t made him angry. At least a couple minutes ticked by before he finally started talking. “I went to a sleepover when I was a kid. My friend had the coolest bunk bed I’d ever seen in my life. A twin bed on top, but a full on the bottom, with actual stairs instead of a ladder.”
Addison smiled. “That sounds magical.”
