their fancy ass hair products and I curled up in the big bed they'd given me wearing JJ's shirt but passing on his boxers. Clean or not, he could keep those.
Oblivion was calling my name and I was happy to join her in the dark.
***
I woke with a groan and a mouth that felt full of cottonwool, blinking up at the unfamiliar ceiling with a rush of panic before remembering where I was.
It was dark, the view beyond the balcony doors showing a crescent moon hanging low over a navy sea and the soft lull of the waves against the shore caressing my soul like no other sound in the world could.
The bed they'd given me was stupid soft and after sleeping in that cold, beat up Jeep, I had definitely reaped the benefits of the upgrade.
A soft whimper alerted me to Mutt as he nosed at the door and I pushed myself to sit up, using the moonlight to take in the room and frowning as my gaze fell on an armchair which I swear hadn't been so close to the bed last night. It was placed in the corner beside the balcony doors, but I could have sworn it had been angled towards the view the last time I'd seen it, not directed at my sleeping place.
I shook my head and dismissed the chair, swivelling around to get out of bed and finding a tall glass of water waiting for me where my half empty bottle of wine had sat the last time I saw it. There was also a couple of painkillers beside a pair of thick socks. I frowned at the idea of one of them coming in here while I'd been sleeping but shrugged it off in favour of taking the pills, draining the water and then pulling the socks on over my cold feet. My feet were always cold, especially at night and one of the things I was saddest about losing back at Shawn's was my collection of fluffy socks. It was a stupid thing to miss, but there was something sacred about finding favourite socks that rivalled the love I felt for my lost coffee mug. Cest la vie and all that, but damn, I wished he'd buried me with a few choice items.
One of the boys had clearly remembered the countless times I’d complained about having cold feet though. And I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. On the one hand, it could be seen as kind of sweet, but on the other it just made me wonder even more about all the shit that had gone down between us. If they cared about my feet being cold then how come they’d never cared about where I was or what I was doing with my sorry excuse for a life?
I slipped out of bed and then out of the room with Mutt scampering ahead of me with his focus fixed on the kitchen down the stairs at the far end of the corridor. My gaze skimmed over the three closed doors which housed the sleeping boys and it occurred to me that this right here was the perfect opportunity to start doing some digging.
I slipped along the wooden floor, silent in my socks as I headed after Mutt and padded back into the kitchen. The little white dog had made it to the sliding doors which led out to the pool, but unsurprisingly as I tried it, I found it securely locked with no sign of a key anywhere.
I pouted as I looked about, moving through the house to the front door and giving that a fruitless attempt too before returning to a rather desperate looking Mutt with a frown. I could go and wake one of the guys, tell them to let him out before he took a dump on the mat or...
My lips twitched into a smirk as I spotted a huge, potted fern in one corner of the room and I scooped Mutt up before placing him down in the soil surrounding the plant.
The little fella instantly cocked his leg and relieved himself with what I would have called the doggy version of a contented sigh and I grinned at him as I looked around the open space.
The house was still silent and as my gaze fell on a little white tower of drawers which stood to one side of the room an idea occurred to me. No time like the present, after all.
I slipped across the