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His shoulders relaxed. “Probably the bat across the hall.”
“It sounded like the noise came from my bedroom. Er, your room.”
He looked past me. “Maybe mice in the walls.”
I tried not to make a face, but he knew me too well.
“If you really want the couch, you can have it,” he said. “I’ll probably fall asleep before I hear anything.” He unplugged his phone’s charging cord and turned toward the stairs. He stopped. “What?”
I hugged myself in his cozy shirt. This was going to sound absolutely ridiculous. “What if we did like old times and camped out down here? Like, sleeping bags and stuff?”
This could go so many ways. He could tell me I was overreacting. Old houses had rodents and pests. Living by the lake, who knew what critters were lurking around.
He could laugh at me for being an adult with a PhD who was afraid of the dark.
Or, he could look at me the way he did now. With deep, smoldering eyes dripping with honey. The look did not come across as pitying, it was…interested.
I lost my breath. I wanted to kiss him again. I wanted to kiss him in glasses.
He eased back, putting the slightest amount of distance between us. “Great idea. I’ll go up and get the big blanket. And shut the door upstairs.”
I let out a huge breath once he took off. What was that, Jillian? I was practically immobilized by his presence. His newly bespectacled presence. I had no idea my body would chemically react from a pair of eyeglasses.
He returned with the pillows and blankets from his room.
I could still take the couch and he could do the floor. When we were kids, we would camp out in the family room by the TV. Gabe and Josh, being older, always snagged the two couches. Adam and I piled blankets and sleeping bags on the carpeted floor.
This house didn’t have a family room. One main living room and the floors were wood. Any rugs must have been packed away while Adam painted. “I just realized these floors are hardwood.”
He tossed the blankets in front of the couch. “Lucky us, this couch is a pull-out. The previous owner sold us some of the furniture which worked out great for my parents. I’m not sure they ever used the pull-out part.”
Okay, this was quickly moving from camping out on the floor to sharing a bed. How on earth in a three-bedroom house did we end up sharing a couch bed?
That would be your insistence on not sleeping upstairs with the critters. Fine, brain. Be logical at eleven-whatever at night.
Adam flipped the cushions off the base of the couch to reveal a wire frame with looped handles. He pulled the folded mattress up and out of the couch and tossed the blankets and pillows on top. “There.”
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
“Not the same as sleeping on the floor, is it.” He shook his head. “Look, you can have the bed and I’ll take the floor.”
The room wasn’t all that big. “The only real space is along the wall by those paint cans. Do you really want to roll over into a metal can?”
His mouth quirked up at one side. “It sounds like you’re encouraging me to share your bed, Dr. Levesque.”
A chill ran across my skin hearing him call me doctor. “It seems the most practical option.”
He nodded. “Sure. Practical.”
“Don’t you dare tease me…” Any bite was absent from my words. In fact, those words trailed off as I looked at his open and miraculously non-judgmental face.
“As long as you’re comfortable, I’m fine with sharing. It’s only one night, right?”
One night with years of expectations piled on. One night after a day of catching up and making new memories. One night after that kiss.
I could literally feel my panic breaking a sweat. Like earlier, when I’d wanted to both run to him and run away, opposite forces pulled in either direction. This was all a bad idea and maybe it wasn’t bad at all.
