AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I snorted, and he grinned up at me.
“Don’t believe me?”
“I’m just saying it’s the movie you usually pick.”
“Well, not tonight. Tonight, I think we’ll watch this.” He had the remote, and he navigated over to the latest streaming service Archie had added to my box. I swore I had them all now, but over the course of the week, he’d just logged me into all of his accounts. It was kind of nice.
“Seriously?” Ian said, and even Archie canted his head back to stare at Coop.
“Yep.” Coop grinned wider, and Jake snickered.
“It’s in French, Coop,” I reminded him, and he winked at me.
“I know,” he murmured, giving me a playful leer. “I love it when you speak French, remember?”
Face hot, I bit back another laugh. Yes, I did remember. It was something he’d admitted to while we’d been making out on this sofa. “All right, Amelie is not me.”
“It’s all good,” Coop assured me as he rubbed my foot under the blanket. “You can repeat any lines we miss.”
Jake snorted, but the protests died off as the movie began. The film was an older one, but it was also delightful. I felt so bad for the main character, but her quirkiness won over the guys, and it wasn’t long before they were laughing along with me as she set out to fix things for people she’d never met.
It was a sweet film.
By the time it was over, we were all yawning and I hurt more than I wanted to admit.
“Pain meds,” Ian said as he and the others were cleaning up. “You’ve eaten and you’re going to bed, right?”
I sighed.
He wasn’t wrong.
“Yeah,” Jake said after studying me for a beat. “Pain meds.” I didn’t argue.
Fifteen minutes later, with my teeth brushed and my face washed and changed into boxers—Archie’s—and a tank top, I crawled into bed. Archie waited until I was settled before he slid in, and then Jake settled on my other side. Coop stretched out on the floor on a pallet he’d made, and Ian was over in his corner with his pillows and stuff.
Jake tucked a pillow under my right wrist and curled sideways before Archie shut off the last light.
It was weird how normal this had gotten. Despite the fact that I was so tired, I almost didn’t want to close my eyes.
“Guys…”
Archie shifted so he could catch my left hand and then interlaced his fingers with mine.
“Thanks.”
Jake pressed a kiss to my temple, and Archie squeezed my hand.
“You’re welcome,” Coop said into the quiet. “We know we’re awesome.”
There was a downbeat, then an upbeat before laughter eddied through the room. A pillow must have been thrown, because the soft thud of it hitting served as the first salvo, then another went flying. The scrabble of the cats racing out made me laugh harder. Then a pillow whacked me in the face in the dark.
“Hey,” Jake growled as he snatched the pillow off of me. The bed depressed and then bounced as he launched off of it. Archie must have caught the next one. I couldn’t hardly see any of them, but their laughter and the whacks carried just fine.
It took another ten minutes before one of the pillows totally gave out. The rip of sound ended the horseplay.
“Watch your eyes,” Coop warned, then the light snapped back on. I squinted mine open and then winced at the pillow stuffing spread around the room.
“Okay, so…who sleeps without a pillow tonight?” Jake asked.
