“Love you, Caveman,” she calls out as she skips down the hall toward the elevators.
“Love you too, baby,” I return.
She blows me a kiss as she disappears behind the closing doors. What do I have to do to make her understand I’ll always worry about her?
#Chapter34
Tessa’s arm flops across my face as she stretches, still half-asleep. I’m no stranger to sharing a bed with the younger Taylor—years of travel for cheer competitions will do that—but I don’t think one can ever get used to sleeping with a person who is essentially an octopus in their sleep. How Savvy survives this a few times a week, I’ll never know. I should have taken the couch like I planned to instead of letting her convince me to take the bed.
JT is a much better bedmate than his sister; at least with him I don’t have to worry about waking up with bruises. Truth be told, he was concerned about what Tessa might do to my cheek in our sleep, but I convinced him that was too much of an overreaction. The bone is pretty much healed, I’ll be cleared for stunting and tumbling sometime next week, and there’s no way she would hit me with enough force to re-break it.
The door to the bedroom opens without a knock, and the other Taylor plops down on the mattress. “Told you she’d try to beat you up, PF.” He peels this one’s arm from where it’s covering my eyes and scoots in between us.
“Yes, please do come in,” I say sarcastically. “So nice of you to join us this fine morning.” I roll to my side, trying to bury myself deeper into my pillow.
“Calm your tits, sis.” JT steals my pillow out from under me. “It’s after ten.”
Before I can actually murder JT with my eyes my death glare is so strong, G walks in carrying coffee, stretching out along my free side and offering the mug to me. “Rookie mistake, Taylor.” G leans back against the padded headboard. “You know better than to engage her without caffeine in the morning.”
Sitting up, I run a hand through my once-again curly hair, pushing the riot of bedhead from my face, and accept the java goodness. “You’re my favorite of all my brothers,” I tell G, blowing across the rim of the mug and taking a small sip. Perfection.
“You’re mean in the morning,” JT grumbles.
“No.” I shake my head, looking at him out of the corner of my eye. “I’m undercaffeinated.”
“You know her attitude is on a sliding scale with her caffeine intake,” CK adds, leaning in the open doorway, his shoulder propped on the jamb, his own mug of coffee cradled between his hands.
“Everybody’s got jokes.” I take note that they are all still in their pajamas. At least I can loaf it up if I have to be awake.
“Food’s here,” a rumpled-looking Savvy announces. “I swear your sister-in-law doesn’t know how to not order every available item.”
We all laugh, knowing how accurate the statement is. To be fair, she’s used to feeding E and B on the reg, along with any teammates who happen to swing by. In case you didn’t know…football players eat a lot.
Needing the others to move so I can get out of bed, I wiggle a knuckle between two of G’s ribs, causing him to let out a girlish squeal.
“A sound like that should not come out of a man your size.” T snickers, sliding on her butt to the foot of the bed. She’s not wrong; I think the high-pitched sound he made was meant more for Herkie’s ears than ours.
“And to think”—G scowls down at me, the look losing its effectiveness when his face breaks into a smile after a few seconds, never one to be able to hold on to his mad long—“I made your coffee this morning.”
“Love you, G.” I blow him a kiss.
The others shuffle out of the room to eat while I pull on a pair of tube socks—these white with red stripes around the top—adjusting the elastic to rest a few inches above my knee. Sure, I could have pulled on a pair of leggings to keep warm, but the Soffe shorts I wore to bed are too comfy.
I make a pit stop in the bathroom to pee and brush my teeth before adjusting the twisted band of my sports bra. When I make it to the kitchen, I’m not surprised to see the twins are here. Olly and Livi