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I tried to cling tohow his father treated hi hi either one of us felt was the gratifying rush of release

Even as tension-riddled as those nights had been with him asleep across the roohter His scent The physical ache of his nearness I ht on the futon The too-fresh memory of his body stripped down to his boxer briefs as he readied himself for bed made me all kinds of hot and bothered I shifted on ain" He looked like he wanted to say more, but then he pressed his lips flat and left it at that Big hands still buried in his pockets, he turned and headed down the ra over the barroo as he locked up

I turned my attention back to theit a darker brown It wasn’t the first beer ever spilled on the floor Still, I hated to leave it overnight I headed back into the kitchen for the an to bear--and I refused to let myself consider too closely why thatI had agreed toover to the library I was busy stuffing a protein bar inas I passed through the kitchen Staff didn’t usually arrive until nine AM, so when a voice rumbled across the air I yelped and juan stood near the counter leading out into the bar, looking slowly frolass sat late last night

My hand clutched ave me a heart attack"

He pointed to the floor "You cleaned up the broken bottle"

"Yeah, well, I didn’t want to leave it overnight" I adjusted the strap ofon my shoulder and shifted on my Chucks

"You didn’t have to do that"

"You had your hands full last night" His jaw tensed, and I got the sense he didn’t like the indirect rehts it seemed like he had his hands full Betork, baseball, school, his father My gaze skimmed him At least he looked rested That, unaccountably, made me feel better My chest loosened with relief for hiain as I studied hiraphic T-shirt I inhaled and caught a faint whiff of shampoo and his deodorant

"Well, thanks You didn’t have to do that It was nice of you"

"Least I could do Your brother is letting irlfriend I think that kind of makes you faets to stay the night in the loft" Hishiht in the apart up is the least I can do"

"Why can’t you just adia? The kind of person who distracts a mean drunk with sandwiches and cleans up broken beer bottles"