the trip as he poured coffee for us, and despite the obvious cleaning my apartment had undergone while we were gone, I wasn’t prepared for the bed waiting in my room.
“Archie!”
His laughter robbed my tone of any threat.
“Surprise!”
It was huge, and it filled the room, but there was some space on either side of it. My dresser had been moved into the closet to create a walkway, and I didn’t want to think about the fact that Jeremy had arranged this in our absence.
Even more, the closet had been organized and space created where the guys each had a spot for their clothes.
“Too much?” Archie asked from the doorway. He stood there alone, and the worry in his expression pulled at me. It hit me that I hadn’t said anything after his surprise comment.
“Yes,” I told him truthfully. “And no.” I liked that they had a space here. “If you’re mine, then you need a place here, too, right?”
His eyes warmed, and his smile grew. “Damn straight.”
“Thank fuck,” Jake said in a rush from the hall, and I laughed. The guys stuck their heads around the doorframe to look at me like a masculine totem pole of beauty and sex appeal.
“Would now be a good time to suggest you check out the other bedroom?” Coop asked. No one called it Maddy’s anymore.
“Am I going to hate it?” Somehow, I doubted it.
“Well,” Jake said, and he eyed Ian, who then looked to Coop, before all three of them looked at Archie and grinned. “If you do…”
“…we blame Archie,” the others finished in tandem with him.
Archie just snorted and held out his hand to me. “You’re not going to hate it.”
It really was a good thing I loved them.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Second First Day
“Frankie,” Coop called. “We’re going to be late.”
“No, we’re not,” I yelled, digging under the bed for where my shoes got kicked when Jake and Coop started stripping me last night. They had a habit of clearing the floor, and this bed was huge, so I had to do some serious wiggling to reach my shoes.
“Nice ass,” Jake said from somewhere behind me. “Keep that up, and we really will be late to school.”
“No,” Coop argued. “We won’t. She is not having a freak out on our first day back about missing anything. Hands to yourself, Benton.”
“Killjoy,” Jake grunted. “C’mon, I can practically feel her on my dick as she moves like that.”
I groaned. “Get out, you teases.”
Male laughter filled the room, as did the sounds of wrestling as Coop dragged Jake out. After hooking my sneakers, I dragged them out and then sat back against the bed to put my shoes on. Tiddles eyed me from his favorite perch, and his tail twitched. They seemed no worse for wear from my absence, but why should they? They’d been spoiled rotten.
I bet they were just waiting for me to go away again so they could hang with Jeremy. But when I gave him a scratch under his chin, he purred his approval. Keys in hand, I snagged my backpack and then double-checked that my wallet was where it belonged. I’d repacked it the night before.
The bed was rumpled, the pillows askew, and there was no mistaking that we’d all thoroughly christened my new bed over the weekend. Everything else was spotless, well, except for the luggage that hadn’t made its way back to the guys’ places.
They really were moving some of their stuff in so they could stay whenever and for however long they wanted.
As much as it surprised me, I couldn’t find a single complaint within me on that topic. I liked having them here.
“You get lost in here?” Coop asked from the doorway, his tone teasing but his eyes soft.
“Nope,” I told him, following him into the hallway. The door to the other bedroom was open, and the pair of queen beds filled the room, along with more of the guys’ things. Whoever wasn’t sleeping with me had a bed they could use. It was warmer and cozier in there than it had ever been. The new carpet in the place was also softer. “I know exactly where I am.” I made it as far as the doorway with my backpack before he lifted it off my shoulder with two fingers.
I drained the last of my coffee before rinsing out my cup, and then we were off. Archie and Ian were already outside. It was cold and overcast, but Ian was taking his bike and I’d dressed in a