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“God, don’t say that,” she insisted.
“Don’t say what?” Brooks asked. He sounded innocent, but the smirk on his sexy mouth told her that he knew exactly what she didn’t want him to say.
“Don’t say that I had you up most of the night,” she spat. “It sounds dirty—like we were doing something that we shouldn’t do.”
“I don’t know if I’d say that we shouldn’t do whatever it is that you’re referring to. I’m just saying that your sleepwalking kept me up and I could use some coffee.”
“Can we just keep all of this between the two of us?” she asked.
“You shouldn’t be ashamed about sleepwalking. Lots of people do it,” Brooks said. “Hell, my oldest brother slept walked, although most of the time I was sure that he was just using it as an excuse to wake up in the middle of the night and pound me.”
“That’s awful,” Savannah said. “Did you tell your parents?”
“Yep, and as the youngest, that earned me even more beatings. My brothers loved to rag on me about being a nark and said that if I went to my mother again, they’d give me back to my real family.”
“Your brothers sound awful,” she said.
He shrugged, “They weren’t that bad. I mean, that’s what brothers do to each other. We tease and say shit to get a rise out of the other, but in the end, we’re brothers who would do anything to help each other out.”
“Well, as an only child, I wouldn’t know,” she admitted. “I never had to deal with sibling rivalry or any of that kind of stuff.”
“I want to say that you’re lucky, but I did love having my brothers around to grow up with. I guess that being the youngest came with a lot of rights of passage and all that,” Brooks said.
“You have a good way of looking at it,” she said, “your childhood, I mean.”
“Thanks, and if you want to keep the whole sleepwalking thing between the two of us, I’m fine with that. I’m a great secret keeper,” he promised.
“I’d appreciate that,” she said. “I’m sorry that I kept you awake last night and that I removed all the pillows.”
“I’m not,” Brooks said. “I kind of liked waking up with you like that this morning, even if it did freak you out.”
“It did not freak me out,” she insisted.
“Well, we can agree to disagree on that point,” he said. “How about I make us some coffee and we can drink it out on the patio?” he asked.
“I’d love that,” she agreed. He started for the door, and she called his name. “Brooks.”
“Yeah?” he asked.
“Thanks for building me a pillow fort to make me feel better last night. It was really nice of you,” she said.
“Not a problem,” he said, turning to leave the room. “Anytime,” he called back over his shoulder.
Brooks
The lazy days of summer seemed to take their time passing and that was just fine with Brooks. He had to work from the beach house a few hours each day, but he didn’t mind since as soon as he was finished, he got to go to the beach for the rest of the day. Plus, the nights of lying next to Savannah and talking until they both fell asleep were pretty special too.
Since their first night sharing the bed and waking up tangled up with each other, she hadn’t asked him to rebuild the pillow fort, and that worked for him. He liked waking up with her plastered up against his body. She was a snuggler and he honestly could get used to sharing a bed with her permanently, not that he’d admit that to her. She was still holding herself back from him. The only time she truly let him in was when she was sleeping and allowed herself to let down her guard and cuddle into his body. By the time the sun came up, Savannah was awake and putting back up her barriers, giving him her polite smile and bits and pieces of herself, but never her all.
Today, they were all going to get some work done and then, they were going to have a fun day in town. He got to pick the activity, and Brooks knew just where to take everyone—the go-cart track. It was a personal favorite of his when he was a kid. He remembered spending all his free time down at the go-cart track with a few of his brothers, and it was glorious. He just hoped that everyone liked his idea as much as he did.
Brooks found everyone in the great room, still waking up and drinking coffee. It seemed to be a staple in the beach house. Ginger and Norah were snuggled under a blanket together, gossiping and giggling about something. Brooks had a good idea that it was someone rather and had everything to do with the smug look Jude wore while he was pretending to work on his laptop. He just hoped that whatever Jude had cooking, didn’t ruin the summer for the rest of them. He was leaving after the summer was over if Brooks and Colter couldn’t convince him otherwise, and if he was starting something that he couldn’t finish, things might end with bad feelings on one or both sides. Brooks didn’t want that. Hell, he wanted to be the one wearing the smug look while Savannah gossiped about him in the corner with her friends.
He cleared his throat, hoping to get their attention, but failing. “Everyone, I’d like to make an announcement,” Brooks said.
Colter looked up at him and smiled. “Man, we’re on vacation. Can you please lighten up?”
“Yeah,” Savannah chimed in, “we might start thinking that you’re being stuffy and uptight.” Brooks shot her a look. That was exactly what he had accused her of being the first morning that they spent together. After a week together, she still hadn’t let it go, and he couldn’t blame her. Hearing everyone call him those same things didn’t feel great.
