her hand on his right shoulder, where he always rubbed it like it hurt. She let it rest there, then drew her hand down his arm until their fingers tangled together.
When she would think about it later—and she did—it was like someone had spliced together a second or two of a movie at a time, perfectly clear but disjointed and maybe not in order. He had kissed the palm of her hand at one point, which had surprised her. She had pulled off the last of her clothes awkwardly, lying on her back, getting her foot stuck in the leg of her jeans and yanking at them while he teased her: “Get back here. You can leave that if you want. I can work around it.”
“This is going to go slower if you make me laugh.”
Evvie had expected to be self-conscious, feeling air and breath on all of her skin, knowing he was mapping her for the first time, but she wasn’t. She managed to keep her mind inside her body for once. Maybe even briefly subservient to it.
She could remember she heard herself gasp, and that she reached up to wipe sweat off his forehead. She remembered seeing her hair slide across his bare shoulder. Eagerness bred clumsiness: she got him in the thigh with her knee, he accidentally elbowed her in the stomach, and when he did, she laughed and he kissed her brow bone.
“Is your stomach gurgling?” “Did you crack your knuckle?” “Do you have enough room?” “Are you okay?” “Definitely okay.”
It was different, that was for sure.
* * *
—
She never messed up the sheets in 204. They fell asleep, and when they found they were both awake at three in the morning, they lay with their faces inches apart and whispered about a dream she’d had about Halls of Power. She said she was cold, and he found his T-shirt and gave it to her. He smoothed her hair, and they dozed off.
She woke up again a little after five thirty, and she turned over to find Dean flat on his back, dead asleep, visible by the slivers of streetlights coming in through the slats in the blinds. She would not be one of those women who watched someone sleep, she thought. It was creepy. So she closed her eyes and listened instead to the inhale and the exhale, the trading of air for air without effort. She synced her breath to it, and she went back to sleep.
* * *
—
The next time she opened her eyes, it was light outside and he was awake, staring at the ceiling. She stretched, and he turned to look at her. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she said, sitting up in bed to lean toward her toes and stretch out her back. He scratched lightly between her shoulder blades.
“Did you sleep okay?”
“Yeah.”
He extended his arm behind her, and she curled up and settled back down, resting on his chest with her arm across his ridiculous abs. It was not a terrible place to lie down, all things considered.
“So,” she finally said.
“So.” He picked up her hand that was resting on his tattoo and idly played with her fingers.
“I think I hurt my hip,” she said.
“Seriously?” He froze. “Are you okay?”
“No, no.” She laughed. “I’m fine, stop. It’s just…have you ever worked out with a new trainer?”
He looked at her. “I don’t know how I feel about you forgetting I was a professional athlete at this particular moment.”
“Good point,” she said. “Anyway, I think it’s like that.”
“It’s absolutely not like that. What gym are you going to?”
“I’ve been working out alone, mostly, if you get my drift.”
“Well,” he said, throwing an arm over her, “I appreciate you leaving it all on the field. I hope it was worth it.”
“Yes, completely worth it,” she said. She looked gravely into his eyes. “Hearty, with oaky undertones.” They laughed in their barely awake hoarse voices, and she kissed him on the shoulder. “What time is it?”
He checked his phone. “8:27.”
“So, what now?”
“Checkout time is eleven,” he said. “I need a shower. They have breakfast downstairs, I think.”
Evvie turned her head to look at him. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Ah,” Dean said.
“I mean, I’m not trying to start a status conversation. No big status conversations before everybody’s got their clothes on and had coffee—I feel like that’s a good rule. I’m just not sure even where you want to sleep tomorrow and stuff like that, that’s all I mean.”