“What are you doing with that?” Caleb asked, gesturing to the newspaper in front of her. And changing the subject.
“Uh…apartment hunting.”
He looked up with a frown. “Why?”
She lifted a brow. “Because I need a place to live.”
“You have a place to live.”
“We can’t stay with you permanently.”
Yes, they could. That was his first reaction. And his second. And even after he thought about it for nearly a minute, it was still his reaction. “I think you should,” he finally said.
“Um, no.”
“You just said that our schedules are crazy and we’re in and out and that might be negatively affecting the kids.” Okay, that wasn’t entirely fair. She hadn’t said things were bad for the kids and she’d said they could make the necessary changes. Which they definitely could. Obviously all of Shay’s issues were not because of their schedules. But then again, it wasn’t like their strange routine was a good thing, right? And what about Jack? The kid needed a place he could be stable and secure. Permanent.
“The kids are fine,” Lexi told him. “Don’t overreact.”
Yeah, well, that was kind-of his MO with these three people. Especially in the past twenty-four hours. “I’m not,” he said. “I just can’t come up with any reason that we shouldn’t live together.”
Both of her eyebrows flew up. “Really? None? Because I can think of a couple.”
“Yes, you’re messy. But I can live with that.” The girl left glasses and cups and pens and notes and hoodies all over the house. But honestly, it made him smile to clean up after her. He liked how comfortable she was in his house.
“Yeah, okay, that’s a good point and not even one of the reasons I was thinking of,” Lexi said.
“Okay, what’re your reasons?”
She pressed her lips together, regarding him thoughtfully. “The naked thing,” she finally said after several seconds passed.
“The naked thing?”
“The reality that we will both be naked in this house at times and if we’re both always here together, the chances of seeing the other without clothes goes up exponentially.”
He wondered if she’d been talking to Logan. “I not really seeing that as a reason to not live together.” He gave her a slow grin.
She just tipped her head to the side and gave him a Really? look. “That could make things awkward, don’t you think?
It could make the fit of his pants a little tighter. But it could also make his day start off on a fucking amazing foot. “How so?”
“Naked time doesn’t really go with this big-brother-little-sister thing we have going on does it?”
Big-brother-little-sister thing? He leaned in. “Lexi, I can honestly tell you that I’ve never thought of you as a sister.”
She sighed. “Then what? A stray cat? A charity case?”
“No,” he said firmly. “A…friend.”
“Okay. So our friendship doesn’t really go with naked time.”
Yeah, he knew where this was coming from. And there were a few things they needed to get straight. Mainly that he’d never given in to all his feelings for her because it wasn’t right for him to initiate it. But not because he didn’t have them. She had started things last night. She’d wanted him. But she’d also been drunk and grateful.
However, if she wanted to do that again, when she was sober and things were good and safe and stable in her life, then she needed to be aware that he was definitely not going to be so noble he’d resist for the sake of their friendship.
In fact, she needed to be very clear on that.
