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“I’ll sleep on the couch tonight. Are you really gonna take her temp every hour?” Zoe asked.
I nodded. “I won’t sleep much anyway.”
She nodded. “Wake me up if it crosses one-oh-three, okay? We’ll give her some medicine.”
There. A plan.
I could handle it as long as we had a plan.
Zoe gave Mira one last look, and then her eyes landed on mine. “It’s okay to be worried about her. At least I know you have a heart now.”
With that parting shot, she quietly left the room, her sweet scent trailing behind her. I took a greedy inhale and wondered what she’d been eating before she came over. If I’d taste it on her tongue.
Be nicer, she’d demanded. That’s probably not what she had in mind when she said it. But then again, I’d allowed myself, over the years, fleeting moments in which I imagined kissing Zoe. Imagined punching her husband for the fact that he got to do so. When the bloody ring came off her finger, I imagined her naked, her thighs tight around my head. Imagined the sounds she’d make when they were. Imagined waking up buried under all that hair, with her fit fucking body draped over mine.
Niceness didn’t factor into any single one of these reveries.
And now she’d be under the same roof. Day after day after day.
“Bloody hell, what did I just agree to?” I whispered.
With a sigh, I stretched out on the floor, punching the pillow under my head and settling in for a sleepless night.
Chapter Twelve
ZOE
My body was trained to wake up early, even before Mira had moved in with me. But I knew from experience that Liam wasn’t usually far behind.
When he didn’t wake me up in the middle of the night, internal alarm bells rang, alerting me to being the first one awake among the three of us. The couch had been surprisingly comfortable, but my back was still sore when I stood and stretched.
I quietly made my way up the steps, then peeked around the corner of Mira’s room.
And my heart stopped.
Liam wasn’t on his floor bed anymore, because Mira had taken his place. She was sprawled out underneath the blanket, her hair a tangled mess and her chest moving up and down evenly. He was sound asleep, his back against the wall and Mira’s stuffed frog shoved against his shoulder as a makeshift pillow.
And he was holding her hand.
My aforementioned heart, which had stopped, turned a slow, sweet roll behind my ribs.
He’d kill me for doing it, but I pulled out my phone, crouched down to get a better angle, and snapped a picture.
Then I sent it to Rosa.
My phone buzzed almost immediately.
Rosa:My Lord. That is criminally adorable. Doesn’t that make you want to get pregnant with his babies??
I smiled. There was no helping it.
Me:Logical guess.
Me:I think I’m ready to admit that he’s not completely without a soul, as previously thought. The last twelve hours have been ... educational.
Rosa:Do tell. . .
But I wasn’t able to respond, because Mira started stirring, turning onto her side. I tucked my phone away and slowly rubbed her back. Then I touched the backs of my fingers to her forehead.
