I didn’t know how Reagan liked her coffee.
I didn’t know if she even liked coffee.
She had to like coffee. Even though I’d never seen her in the morning, she struck me as the kind of person who needed coffee to function.
How she took it, though… that was a mystery.
I poured a cup of it black, then put sugar and creamer with the mug on a tray. I added a bottle of water and a strip of aspirin and headed for the stairs. She’d still been asleep when I came down here, but it was nearly ten now, and I wanted to wake her up.
I wanted to know how much she remembered of last night.
And if she didn’t remember a lot, I had pictures.
I nudged the bedroom door open with my hip and peered inside. She was lying on her side, snuggled with the covers up to her chin. Her hair was a curly mess that was spread across the pillows, and her lips were parted as she gently breathed in and out.
It was creepy to watch her sleep. I knew that. But I also knew she probably had a marching band in her head, and any peace she felt right now would disappear the second she woke up.
I set the tray on top of my dresser and perched on the edge of the bed. She was so fucking beautiful. She looked like she belonged in my bed, sleeping or otherwise.
The way I felt about Reagan was overwhelming. She’d wormed her way into my life and now into my heart, and while this was all still new and we hadn’t actually spoken about anything other than sex and one date, I did know one thing.
I didn’t want to let her go.
I wanted to keep hold of her to see where this went.
“Stop staring at me,” Reagan muttered, rolling onto her back. “Oh, Jesus Christ. My mouth feels like Ghandi’s flipflop.”
“Ghandi’s flipflop, huh? That’s a new one.”
She propped herself up on one elbow and rubbed her eyes. “Do you have any water in here?”
I grabbed the glass and the aspirin from the tray. “Here. These will help, too.”
“God, I might marry you.” She tossed the pills into her mouth and finished half the water in one go. “Do I want to know what happened last night?”
“You don’t remember?” Shit, this was going to be fun.
“It’s a bit blurry.” She tugged herself to sit up and looked down at her body. “This is your t-shirt.”
I eyed the faded Metallica t-shirt I’d had for years. “That is my t-shirt.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” she started. “But did we have sex last night?”
“Reagan.” I put my hand on her knee. “It took you five attempts to get the name of the bar you were in right last night. Creek Falls only has two bars.”
“Right. No sex.”
“No sex. I promise you. You did give it a good try, though, I’ll give you that.”
“Oh no.” She buried her face in her hands. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry. It was Poosh you were trying to talk into getting into bed with you, not me.”
“Oh, poor Poosh.”
Yeah, kinda. “It was more funny than anything. She did lick your ankles for a good minute though before you got so ticklish I had to separate you.”
Reagan ran her tongue over her lips. “Yeah. I remember an alien wanting my feet.”
Poosh did have buggy eyes.
“That alien would be Poosh.”
“Right. Noted.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Is that coffee up there?”
“Yep. I didn’t know how you like it. Cream and sugar?”
“Just cream. Thanks. Hey, Noah—can you tell me exactly what happened last night? I know I had dinner with Halley and Ava and we went to the sports bar after. I remember running into my brother, but that’s about it.”
I smirked and handed her the mug. “Oh, you are in for a treat right now.”
“Oh no,” she groaned, leaning back against the headboard. “This is why I don’t do tequila shots.”
“That’s probably a rule you should stick to in the future.” I sat on the bed with her and fought a smile. “Should I start where I came in?”
“Please do.” She winced.
“Okay. It was about ten-fifteen when you called me and said you thought I should come and get a beer. You sounded like you were having fun, and I’m not working today, so I agreed.”
“Sounds reasonable.”
“For now.”
“Fuck.”
I bit back a laugh. “I asked you where you were, and that was when we went through the whole five bars thing before I finally figured out where you were.”
“Did you come down?”
“Sure did. I drove down and when I got there, Ava was dancing on a table and you and Halley were running what I’m pretty sure was an illegal betting ring.”
Reagan rubbed her fingertips across her forehead. “We were?”
“You had a pool going for how long Ava would last before she fell off the table.”
“Yeah. That sounds like us. Did she fall off?”
“Yep. Luckily for her, me and Preston caught her.” I smacked my lips together. “It was when you and Halley tried to get on the bar to do the dance from Coyote Ugly that the two of us all but carried the three of you out of there.”
“Oh, Jesus. I have flashbacks from Ava’s twenty-first birthday.”
“Everyone thought we were spoilsports, for what it’s worth.”
She leaned over and touched my arm. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I winked. “We threw the three of you in the back of my truck and drove you home. We had to stop one time for you to pee in a bush and once for Ava to throw up on the side of the road. We took Ava up to her apartment and put her to bed, then we went to Halley’s. I have to say I’ve never made peanut butter sandwiches for raccoons before. There was something about leaving them grapes, too?”
“She’s trying to vary their diet a little.” Reagan took a big drink of coffee. “Grapes every other time. Sometimes Goldfish crackers. Occasionally cookies.”
“What?”
“The raccoons. They’re basically her pets at this point. She feeds them. Boris is a horny bastard who humped her chair leg last week.”
“They live in her house?”
“No. Outside. They’re not allowed in—well, Betty is, but she doesn’t hump everything.”
“We’re going to have to come back to this,” I said. “Anyway. We fed the raccoons and put Halley to bed, then I left Preston there with her and brought you here. I was going to take you home, but I figured you’d already told your mom you were staying here last night.”
“Yeah.” She coughed and cleared her throat. “Good call. So after you dealt with my weirdo best friends and my weirdo brother, you looked after me?”
“I’d say tried to control you is a better representation of what actually happened.”
“Oh, God.”
There was a lot of that going on this morning, wasn’t there? “So you came in fine. Almost tripped over the door, but you were fine. Then you began your love affair with Poosh. She licked you all over your face, you scratched her belly until she needed to pee, then she came in and licked your ankles until you realized you were asking her to go to bed with you.”