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"I know plenty about girls like her, but thanks"

"I’, she’s not the type to be happy with a quick fuck and an even quicker good-bye"

"Jesus How enuinely like being around her I can get to know a girl without having to sleep with her"

"Soyou’re just friends?"

"We’re just none of your business"

Brookes lifts his hands in surrender "Got it I wasn’t saying anything about you, uy You two just live at different speeds, and I don’t want to see her get hurt trying to keep up with you And if so like that did happen, I sure don’t want to see what this house will be like with Dylan and Silas pissed at you"

"When are you going to start dating so, intrusive questions?"

He only s nuts that he’s always in the middle of everyone else’s business, but we know so little about him But the dude’s super private, and I don’t have a weird intuitive superpower to just knohat people are feeling That would make my life a hell of a lot easier

Twenty ht I ah I should stay away fro on her porch now, coffee in hand, knocking on her door at ten thirty on a Sundayby the house about an hour ago to pick Silas up for so or other If I hadn’t already heard Silas say he was in love with that girl, I would have known it for sure thisin the kitchen, he looked exhausted and ready tothat uy practically melted at her feet

I raise ain, but hesitate

I watched Dylan wrap Silas around her finger thisto happen to me, except I’ for a future with Nell

So why can’t I just walk away like Brookes wants me to? Why can’t I chalk it up to a hot o any further, and cut my losses? Why can’t I do that?

The door opens, and ht of Nell’s bleary eyes and ruht, instinctively taking a step back into the house

I step in after her without waiting for an invitation, and shut the door fir the tray up into her line of sight

"Shhh!" She holds one hand up to me and the other to her forehead

"I think," she says, her voice raspy, "there’s a herd of elephants in overs, sweetheart"

She blinks atback to bed"

She shuffles down the hallway, and I follow her, still holding the coffee carrier and resisting the urge to laugh Then she swings her bedroo headlong into her bed Again, I take that as per the door in case Dylan comes home unexpectedly

Before Nell can slip back into sleep, I force the coffee into her hand