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“Banner?” Mark calls, looking at him for ideas.
“Um, I don’t mind. I’m easy.”
For the first time since our friendship began, I feel uneasy. My body is stiff, unsure whether I should move over to the other side of the sofa. My unspoken question is answered when Banner pulls me against him, shifting so his feet are up on the sofa and I’m lying against his chest. He pulls the blanket over us, and I sigh, feeling warm.
It takes a few moments to relax, but when I do, Banner starts running his fingers through my hair.
It’s not long into the movie when my eyes begin to drift shut and I fall into a restful sleep.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I’m lost in the story I’m working on when I hear movement coming from inside my bedroom. Banner has been staying the past few days. He said it’s because he’s too lazy to go home, but I know it’s because he’s worried about me.
The first couple of days, he slept on the sofa out here, but the last two, he’s fallen asleep in bed with me whilst watching a movie. It’s been nice—being intimately close to him and spending more than an hour or two at a time together. I sound like a stalker, but I grew up without feeling any warmth or love from my parents. My sister loved me, and we were close, but she loved everyone. She was a wild child, went where the mood took her. With Banner… we click. I feel warm and loved when he’s around, and for me, that’s everything. It’s why I’m so scared to show him just how much he means to me. I can’t lose him.
When the door to my room opens, I snap my laptop shut, knowing Banner will fight to read it.
I glance over my shoulder, smiling when he walks out in just his tracksuit bottoms and no shirt, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
“Morning,” I call out.
He groans, walking around the sofa and dropping himself down next to me. “I can’t believe I’m still tired and it’s nearly noon,” he says groggily. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”
“Because you’ve been getting up at five every morning to go to practice, and then going to classes. You said last night you had the morning off and most of the afternoon free, so I turned your alarm off this morning when I got up.” I shrug, like it’s no big deal, blushing when his expression softens.
He keeps staring at me like I just spent millions on him. I only turned his alarm off to let him get some rest.
“You know, you really are amazing.”
My cheeks heat further, and I try to play it off. “I am, aren’t I?”
He chuckles as he shuffles closer, his arm touching mine. “So, you excited to meet Lake and her boyfriend tomorrow?”
A smile spreads across my face. “I am. We talk all the time through email and text, sometimes over the phone, but I miss her. She’s really happy; the happiest I’ve ever seen her.”
“She’s got her family back and a new family added to it,” he states softly.
My smile falls a little, wishing I had that, and hoping I find that here with Mark, Levi and Banner. “Yeah. They were a small family, but now she has a huge one. They seem really nice—a little crazy, but she fits in,” I tell him. “I hear them over the phone, teasing her or someone else in the background. It’s funny.”
“What time are we meeting her?”
“She texted me saying her boyfriend’s brother is going to drop them off, then he’s going to the zoo with his kids or something. I’m not sure. They’re going to meet us here, then we’re going to head to that café Jordan told me about. The one near the university.”
He thinks about it for a minute. “Fun ‘N Cups?”
I laugh at the name. “Yeah, that one. Have you been there before?”
“Yeah, I go for lunch there most days. They do the best burgers in town. They’re huge.”
“I honestly don’t know where you put it,” I tell him, eyeing his hard abs, his muscles. I lower my head, warmth flooding my cheeks.
“I’m just fucking awesome,” he declares, making me laugh. “Oh, before I forget, I have to go to a meeting the coach has scheduled before class, so I won’t be able to spend the rest of the day with you. You’ve got a class tonight, don’t you?”
“I do. Mr. Flint wanted us to come in, so he can set our coursework for the term. It should only take an hour at the most. He didn’t want it to take up our lesson time tomorrow since there’s already a lot being crammed into each lesson.”
“What time do you have to be there? My classes finish at five today, but then I have to go meet Tom, who is working with me for a class we have to prepare for.”
“What do you mean?”
