I gave her one of my not-taking-bullshit looks that I normally saved for work. And she reacted with her usual give-zero-fucks-about-your-stern-looks response.
She waved a finger in my face. “Look, I don’t sleep in anything like that but I don’t wear stuff on my legs when I sleep. It drives me nuts. An old cotton nightie is fine.”
“Okay. Well then, you can take the right side of the bed. I usually sleep over on the left, anyway.”
“The right side? Is that the side Claire slept on?”
I ignored the snarky question and continued to count down on my fingers. “I shower at night. You can either have the shower after me or you’re welcome to use it in the morning.”
She shook her head, rolling her eyes skyward. “Morning’s fine. Anything else? Am I allowed to snore?”
“Do you snore?”
Her ice-blue gaze was as cold as the northern wastes. “No.” Her eyelids fluttered. “What’s next? Should I wear a Handmaid’s Tale-style hood? Blessed be the fruit?”
I blew out a breath. “Chill out, I’m just… I don’t want…”
“You don’t want me to shamelessly seduce you like I did last night. I get it.”
I rubbed my forehead. “In no way do I think that’s what happened.”
She threw her hands up. “Well since you made it clear you don’t want to talk about it, how am I supposed to know what you think?”
“I know I scrwed up and I feel bad about it. That’s what I think. I’m sorry.”
She blinked, shocked by my sudden admission and apology. It was not something that usually happened when we were knee-deep in our typical banter. But there was nothing typical about what happened between us last night.
“Okay,” she said slowly as if she were waiting for some kind of salty punchline from me. That never came.
“I was drunk and I know that’s no excuse for breaking our rules. It won’t happen again.”
Her gaze dropped, and she stared at the far wall, as if in deep concentration or lost in thought. But for once, she didn’t bite back. Thank goodness because I honestly was putting my best foot forward.
“So is there anything I need to know about your brother and his friend?”
She pulled back from wherever she’d gone, mentally, and looked at me with a frown. “Um, like what?”
I waved my hand in the air vaguely. “Like what’s his story? I mean, you made some reference to his lawyer and seemed surprised he could leave the country. Is he in some sort of trouble? And Mike looks like some failed biker gangster. Should I lock down the valuables?”
Kat’s face sobered, and she darted a glance into my eyes and then away. “Honestly I don’t know what Derek’s legal status is right now. It’s been over a year but things weren’t all that great when I left. I guess I’ll try to find out the details since he’ll be staying here with us. And yes, definitely lock down the valuables. Speaking of which, is there a way to lock the guest room? I rather them not open it up and wonder why all my stuff’s in there.
I scratched my jaw, thinking. Her evasion had been slick but it had been just that—a way to sidestep the subject without substantially answering my question. I’d have time to dig into that later, hopefully.
“That door has a key lock on the knob. I’ll dig it out for you so you can lock it from the outside.”
She hesitated, then took a step toward me. “I know I was irritated with you for inviting them to stay, but it was kind of you. And, just, thanks for doing this.”
Against my better judgement, I reached out and touched her upper arm. “We’ll make it work, Kat. Don’t worry about it. If he does happen to see your stuff in the guest room, just say I got drunk last night and snored a lot and you moved in there.”
She bit her lip. “I’m not going out of my way to make them comfortable, either. Just the air mattresses and a few blankets on the floor in the dining room. Maybe that will hurry them along, too.”
I nodded. “Good thinking. We’ll get them out of here as soon as we can and everything will be back to normal.” Whatever normal was.
Sharing this bed with her for a few nights while not being able to touch her was going to be an exercise in insomnia for me. But I’d helped get us into this mess. Might as well do what I