I couldn’t believe I actually said that. Sometimes, things just came out and I wasn’t able to stop them even if I tried.

The car ride was a lot longer than I expected. It was minutes after two o’clock in the morning when we pulled into a small motel off the 5 in Oregon. Thea had fallen asleep hours ago and Will and I enjoyed a comfortable silence. It was nice to not feel pressure to be on all the time. I talked so much when I was with Stan, trying to fill the silence that had consumed us so quickly. With Will, I could relax. I didn’t have to say anything. I didn’t have to worry about filling the silence.

Will checked in while I stayed in the car with Thea. Our only goal was to sleep. We didn’t grab any luggage except a bag filled with clothes to change into. I didn’t even plan on taking a shower until we reached the hotel we were supposed to stay at for the wedding.

When Will came back with a room key, he carried Thea inside while I grabbed the bag, locked the car, and followed him to the blue door with the black 109 on it. The paint was peeling and the zero looked like it could fall off at any moment.

Will immediately laid Thea on the bed and turned to me. That girl could sleep through anything.

“Why don’t you sleep on the bed with her,” he suggested. “I’ll take the floor.”

I shook my head. “Absolutely not,” I told him. “You’re driving. You need to be at your best. You take the bed with Thea and I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“My mother would roll over in her grave if I let a woman sleep on the floor, no matter the circumstances,” he argued.

“Well,” I said, my voice tentative. “We could all sleep on the bed. It looks like a king. We’d all fit.”

Will opened his mouth and I could tell immediately he was going to reject my idea.

“I don’t want to push you,” I jumped in. I felt my cheeks burn, but couldn’t figure out why. I could not look Will in the face and my hand cupped the back of my neck, feeling how far my blush had spread. “I don’t want to force you into an uncomfortable situation. But I appreciate the fact that you’ll be driving a long distance and since I’m not comfortable driving yet, there’s really no other way for me to offer my assistance. As such, if you refuse to allow me the honor of sleeping on the floor as my way of showing my appreciation, at the very least, please accept my suggestion of sharing a bed.” I took a breath, realizing I drew that out much longer than I needed to. “For sleeping purposes only.”

“If you insist,” he huffed though his pale green eyes sparkled good-naturedly.

I rushed into the restroom first and changed into pajamas. I wore a bra to bed tonight - something I hated - but thought it was the safest thing. Who knew if my body would give me away?

When I came out, he was already in pajama pants. He kept the same shirt on, which bugged me because pajamas were supposed to be fresh. You were not supposed to carry the dirt and the drama of the day to bed with you. At least, that was my opinion.

I had to make sure I didn’t stare too long at him. He was wearing a white V-neck T-shirt with fitted blue and white striped pajama pants. His arms were straining against the sleeves of his shirt. I had a weakness for arms. Stan had big arms as well, probably from tugging and pulling ropes while sailing ships and lugging around fish.

I had no idea what fishermen did.

I just knew he had nice arms.

Will’s were much better. But I was biased.

My eyes narrowed on Thea who was on one side of the bed.

“Is she going to roll off?” I asked. I had imagined Thea would be between us, being the wall of safety keeping us from accidental touches, but clearly, that was wrong. Instead, Thea was all the way on one side of the bed, one leg tossed over the side. I looked up at Will almost helplessly. “Is she going to be okay?”

Will shrugged. “Thea has always favored the edges,” he said. “She takes risks, jumps without looking. She’s always slept on the edge, even when she was a kid. She’d sneak in my bed and try to hide so Megyn and I wouldn’t spot her. We always let her stay.” He smiled but blinking. “Well, that’s different.”

I raised my brows. “What?” I asked.

“No, it’s nothing.” He shook his head as he crawled into bed. He would be the one in the middle. Not Thea. “I always say ‘we’ when I refer to things that relate to both me and Megyn. Our bed. But I said ‘my’ this time.”

I nodded my head. I didn’t know how to respond to that. I didn’t know if he needed space or affection or... normalcy.

I didn’t want to make assumptions. So, I settled for normalcy.

“Are you going to have enough room?” he asked. “I take up a lot of space.”

“That’s what happens when you have broad shoulders,” I said before I could stop myself.

When I got to my very narrow side of the bed, I made sure I wasn’t accidentally touching Will. I also had my back facing him in order to prevent him from seeing the redness on my face.

“Broad shoulders, eh?” Will asked. Though I couldn’t see him, I knew he was smirking. “Thank you for noticing.”

I didn’t respond. I couldn’t.

That was the thing.  The problem. The risk.

I noticed a lot more than those broad shoulders. And I couldn’t help but feel things about what I noticed.

And that was a very, very bad thing.