Knox huffed. “You can’t kill me, your sister loves me. She’d hate you if you killed me.” Graham stood up, and Knox raised his arms higher. “Food! I brought food and beer! You can’t kill me, dude.”

Snatching the bag of food, Graham punched him in the stomach and walked calmly back to the couch while Knox stayed bent over, holding himself up against the wall.

With an unapologetic look at his roommate, Graham turned to me and shrugged. “That’ll hold me over until next time.”

Jagger

August 23, 2014

I WATCHED GREY shrug into one of my shirts as she got off the bed, and followed her every move as she walked to the bathroom.

She barely glanced over at me before she realized I was awake and watching her, and did a double take. “Hey,” she said softly, and turned around to walk over to me, her voice still raspy from sleep. “When did you wake up?”

“When you moved away from me.”

Grey smiled and leaned over to kiss me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you—” She cut off on a laugh when I grabbed the backs of her thighs and pulled her toward me.

“I’m not. I’m just sorry you put clothes back on.” Running my hands up her legs and over the curves of her bare ass, I pressed her down against me and swallowed her moan when she rocked against my erection.

“Then maybe you should change that?” she offered, and sat up so she could look down at me while she slowly eased herself onto me, a soft moan sounding in her chest when she was fully seated.

I’d barely inched the shirt up to her waist when we heard the front door open and shut, and Grey scrambled off me and the bed to look for more clothes to put on.

“Jag?”

“Son of a bitch,” I growled. “Yeah, hold on a sec!” Grabbing the pair of jeans on the floor, I pulled them on and looked back at Grey.

“Charlie has the worst timing!” she hissed as she finished putting on her shorts and ran into the bathroom.

I bit back a smile and leaned over the railing to look at my little sister. “What’s up?”

“Were you seriously still sleeping? It’s almost eleven!”

And Grey and I didn’t go to bed until sometime around four this morning. “Uh, yeah. We were tired.”

“We—oh. Why do you always leave your door unlocked?”

I raised an eyebrow at her exasperated question. “I didn’t.”

“Actually, you did. It was definitely unlocked, and the key you just gave me doesn’t work.” She held up her key ring. “It wouldn’t even fit in the lock, so I just tried the handle.”

“Yes it does. I checked it before I gave it to you.”

“Obviously not, I tried it this way and that way.” She showed me as if she was actually trying to unlock an imaginary door in front of her. Holding her key out before turning it upside down and trying again.

“Really, now? Is that exactly how you did it?” I smiled when her answer was to glare at me. “Fine, I’ll make you another key. Give me a second to find a shirt.” Pushing away from the railing, I walked over to the closet and put on the first shirt I touched, then opened the bathroom door. “You coming with me?” I asked Grey.

“This is so embarrassing!” she whispered harshly. “This is the second time she’s walked in when we were starting to do something.”

I took a step forward and wrapped my arm around her waist then hauled her against my chest. Nipping at the sensitive spot on her neck, I whispered, “Just think of how much worse it would’ve been if she came in a few minutes later and heard you screaming.”

Grey scoffed and pushed against my stomach, but I just laughed and kept her close against me.

“She thinks we were sleeping.” Grey shot me a look and I sucked in air through my teeth as we walked out of the bathroom. “Or at least that’s what she wants to pretend we were doing.”

“Yeah. That sounds more believable,” she whispered, and then called out brightly, “Hey, Charlie!”

Charlie’s eyes widened, and she looked over at me for a second before smiling awkwardly at Grey. “Hi. Good morning . . .” She trailed off, her greeting sounding more like a question, and that’s when it hit me. This was the first time Charlie and Grey were seeing each other since we’d found out about Charlie’s feelings for Ben.

If it hadn’t been for the unwelcome surprise of Charlie showing up at the same moment Grey had settled herself on me, I would’ve remembered this sooner, and I would’ve worried about how Grey would react to seeing Charlie. Whether Grey remembered everything given her embarrassment, she wasn’t showing that anything had ever happened; and it was obvious that Charlie had expected her to be colder toward her.

“How are you?” Grey asked as she walked out of my arms and pulled Charlie in for a hug.

“I’m fine, I just—uh—sorry for waking you up.”

“It’s fine. Do you want anything to drink?”

Charlie watched Grey walk toward the kitchen and looked back at me. “Did you decide not to tell her?” she asked softly so her voice wouldn’t carry.

I shrugged and shook my head. “No, she knows.”

“Babe?”

I looked up at Grey, who was waiting expectantly. “I’m good.”

“Water is fine,” Charlie said without looking at her, then lowered her voice again. “Was she okay with it?”