Page 160 of What We Brave
Not hard. Just a gentle, insistent pull. Come here. Come closer.
"There's no room on?—"
"We'll make room."
I look at Blake. He shifts sideways without a word, making space on the couch. Like they planned it. Like they talked about this. Maybe they did.
I slide off the coffee table and onto the couch. It's too small for three people. I don't care. Laine immediately rearranges herself — head still in Blake's lap, but her legs swing across mine. She pulls my arm around her calves and tucks my hand under the blanket against her shin.
Warm. So warm under there.
"Better," she murmurs. Eyes already drooping again.
I look down at her. At my hand on her leg, at Blake's hand in her hair, at the way she's bridged between us like it's the most natural thing in the world.
This.This is what I was afraid of losing. Not the sex. Not the romance. This. Being included in the warm room instead of watching through the window.
"She talked about you," Blake says quietly over her head. "While you were gone."
"Yeah?"
"Wanted to make sure you were okay." His mouth quirks. "Told me we needed to be better for you."
"I don't need?—"
"Shut up, Reid." Laine's voice is muffled. Eyes still closed. "Yes you do."
I huff a laugh. My hand squeezes her shin under the blanket.
"Bossy."
"I learned it from Blake."
"Hey," Blake says.
"It's true. You're a terrible influence." Her voice fades on the last syllable, then she's out again.
Blake looks at me over her head. Something passes between us — amusement, warmth, the bone-deep relief of being back on solid ground.
Yeah. We're okay.
We sit like that for a while. Laine drifts in and out, making sleepy sounds. Blake's hand moves in slow strokes through her hair. My thumb traces circles on her shin. The house settles around us — creaking wood, the hum of the refrigerator, wind against the windows.
"Been thinking about something," I say eventually.
"Dangerous," Blake says.
"Asshole." I scrub my free hand over my face. "I've been thinking about... watching."
Blake's hand stills in Laine's hair. "Watching what?"
"You and her." The words come out easier than I expected. Maybe because of what just happened — the honesty, the neck grab, theyou're not the outside of this."I think I'd like to see it. The two of you together."
He doesn't say anything for a long moment.
"That's..." He clears his throat. "You sure about that?"
"Been thinking about it all afternoon." I shrug. "Sitting at Tony's, holding his kid, my brain kept circling back to you two. What you might be doing. And I kept waiting for the jealousy to hit. Like bracing for a wave, you know? But it never came. Instead I was just..."
