I woke up sometime later with my face pressed against something solid but warm. I blinked, feeling disoriented for a moment before I realized a hand was drawing lines down my back.

Who...?

It only took my foggy mind a minute to remember where I was and who I must have snuggled up to when I'd fallen asleep.

Easton.

I sat up quickly, worried he'd think I was taking advantage of the situation. I pushed away the hair that had fallen across my face. "Sorry I fell asleep on you. I had no idea I was so tired," I blurted.

Stupid pregnancy making me fall asleep anytime I tried to watch something boring.

"Don't worry about it. I didn't mind." He looked down at me through his lashes, and the low tone of his voice made my insides melt.

I glanced around the room before I could go completely starry-eyed and mushy-brained. The TV screen was black, which told me the movie had ended. And Noah and Lexi were gone.

"Where’d they go?" I asked, my gaze trained on the empty spot where Noah and Lexi had been before I'd fallen asleep.

"Noah's giving Lexi a tour of the cabin since it looks like we'll be sleeping here tonight."

"We'll be sleeping here?" My voice was raised an octave higher than usual.

He nodded. "Yeah. My dad called to tell us that the roads are horrible and there have been a few accidents. We'll have to wait until tomorrow and hope the weather is better."

"Okay." I sighed, not sure how to feel. Should I be relieved that we wouldn't be risking the roads, or nervous about being here with Easton?

He was bound to find out my secrets if we spent so much time together. The secret that I was pregnant, and the secret that I might still have feelings for him.

"So how long have they been downstairs?" I asked, switching the conversation back to Noah and Lexi before I could say my worries out loud.

"About ten minutes."

"That's a long time to be in the basement," I said before realizing what a stupid thing that was to say.

Easton laughed awkwardly. "Are you trying to say that my best friend might be making out with my sister down there?"

Heat rushed up my neck, and I really hoped my cheeks weren't noticeably pinker. "It’s a popular thing to do when you're dating."

"Yeah." He adjusted his position on the couch, and I kept my gaze straight ahead, not able to look at him.

This was so awkward.

We sat there in silence for a while, and I wondered if he was thinking of the same things I was—about all the times we had left a room together to sneak time alone.

"Think we should go break them up?" I asked, needing to fill the silence.

Easton gave me a wary look. "Yeah, I don't really want to see that."

"So you haven’t caught them kissing yet?"

I tried to imagine the giant Noah with my tiny friend. He would probably have to bend over in half while she stood on her tiptoes to kiss. I still hadn't witnessed it myself, because Lexi had been nice enough not to do tons of PDA in front of me—yet another reason why Lexi was so cool—but it was an interesting dynamic to think about.

As if they had overheard us somehow, Lexi and Noah appeared at the basement door a moment later. And they had split logs in their arms.

"Look what we found downstairs," Lexi said with a smile.

"You found wood?" I asked.

Noah walked over to the wood stove and set his armload on the tray beside it. "Yeah, I guess my dad found a new spot to store wood. Something I would've known if I'd been here in the last five years, I guess."

"Need help getting the fire started?" Easton immediately stood from the couch. I couldn't help but notice how quickly he did it. Maybe my worries had been right before and sitting close had been more torturous than he'd let on. I tried to keep my chest from deflating with the thought.

Noah hunched over on one knee as he opened the stove to look inside. He scanned it for a second before looking up at Easton who was now standing beside him. "That would be great. I've never used one of these before."

Easton grabbed a few newspapers from a pile by the stove, crumpled them, and tossed them inside. Then he used the hatchet that was on a shelf on the wall to strip smaller chunks of wood off a split log, which he threw on top of the paper.

"Do you have a lighter or matches anywhere?" Easton stood and wiped his hands off on his jeans.

Noah grabbed one from the shelf where the hatchet had been. "Here you go."

Easton got the fire lit pretty quickly, and once the smaller pieces of wood were burning, he added a small log on top. About fifteen minutes later the room was nice and toasty, and I felt a little twinge of pride for Easton.

I knew from things he'd said in the past that he often felt overlooked next to his best friend Noah, who had the towering height, the outgoing personality, and muscles that came more naturally. But it wasn't those things we'd needed to stay warm throughout the night. We needed someone who knew how to use a wood stove without giving us carbon monoxide poisoning or burning the cabin down.

And Easton, with his often reserved personality and just under six-foot frame, had been the perfect man for the job.

We found cans of food to heat on the stove for dinner—thank goodness to Noah's dad and step-mom for knowing winter in New York could be unpredictable and you never knew when you'd need good food storage.

We played card games. Easton dominated at Slap Jack with his cat-like reflexes. Lexi won at Rummy. Noah was a master at Poker. And I lost at pretty much everything. But despite my horrible luck tonight, I had a great time with my friends. It was nice to forget about the stress I had in my life and just be a teenager for a while.

We finally headed up to the loft around eleven, taking the quilts and other bedding up with us for the queen beds.

"Now, I don't want to wake up and find you spooning me or anything," Noah said to Easton as they pulled the fitted sheet over the mattress.

Easton made a face before saying, "You think you need to be worried? I'm not the one dating the girl version of me. We all know you're just dating Lexi because you like my pretty face but knew I'd never be interested in you that way."

"You wish." Noah threw a pillow at Easton, smacking him right in the face.

"Hey!" Easton rubbed his eye where the corner of the pillow must have hit him. He threw the pillow back on the bed and sat down, still rubbing his eye.

"We're sleeping back to back, okay?" Noah said, plopping onto the bed and pulling the covers up to his chest as he turned to face the bed that Lexi and I would be using tonight.

"Would you like me to grab books off the shelf downstairs to create a barrier between us?" Easton asked. He'd stopped rubbing his eye by now, but it was red.

Noah waved his hand behind him. "No, I trust you not to spoon me and risk getting punched in the face."

"You guys are ridiculous," Lexi said, fluffing her pillow a little before climbing onto the left side of the bed, which was closest to Noah.

I pulled back the covers and climbed on the right side. "Yeah, me and Lexi are planning to sleep in the middle so we can stay warmer."

Noah propped himself up on his elbow. "Well, if I was lucky enough to share a bed with Lexi I'd sleep in the middle, too."

"Noah!" Lexi gasped. It was so sweet how much she blushed at her boyfriend’s flirting.

He grinned and winked. "You know you were wishing for the same thing, babe."

Easton cleared his throat loudly. "Which is exactly why I'm here. Maybe I should switch sides with you so there isn't any forbidden hand-holding going on across the nightstand when my back is turned."

"Come on, I saw the look on your face when Juliette fell asleep cuddled next to you," Noah said. "You can't tell me you wouldn't mind switching things up."

I sat there stunned, having no idea how to respond to that. I allowed my gaze to dart over to Easton, though, my curiosity too much to resist.

His jaw hung open like he was as shocked as I was.

What did Noah mean about the look on Easton's face when I'd fallen asleep? He’d been running his fingers along my back when I'd awoken. I hadn't thought too much of it since I'd been so embarrassed about falling asleep in the first place, but could he have been doing it with affection?

Easton blinked and shook his head, coming out of a momentary daze. "There will be no bed swapping."

And that was all he said before turning his back to all of us and settling further under the covers.

Lexi removed her glasses and set them on the nightstand beside her.

"Well, goodnight, guys," she said, her voice sounding overly cheery.

Why did Noah have to make things so awkward for everyone?

But Noah had no idea what he was doing since he didn't know Easton's history with me.

"I guess I'll turn the light off then." Noah grunted like he didn't understand why we were acting so weird. He reached over to the lamp on the nightstand and soon the room was dark.

And I didn't know how she did it, but Lexi was quietly snoring just a few minutes later.

I woke up a few hours later, needing to go pee—thanks to my tiny bladder that was getting smashed smaller and smaller as the weeks went by.

I slipped out of bed as quietly as I could and tiptoed down the stairs—not wanting to use the bathroom upstairs and possibly alert everyone to my need to pee. So I went to the one by the master bedroom and flicked on the light.

I shrieked when I saw I wasn't alone.

Easton turned his back when he saw me, and I quickly flicked the light off so he could finish up.

"Sorry!" I hurried to say as I stepped out of the room, my heart racing from being startled and from the embarrassment of walking in on Easton while he was in the bathroom.

Out in the hall, I leaned against the wall and drew in some deep calming breaths. I heard the water turn on as Easton washed his hands.

"Uh, it's all yours," he grunted as he came out.

"Thanks," I said, not daring to look at him in the moonlight. I waited to turn on the light in the bathroom until after I had shut the door.

When I was done, I walked out to find Easton standing by a window and looking out at the snow-covered landscape.

"Sorry about earlier," I said, coming to stand beside him.

"Don't worry about it. I pee in the dark at home all the time and should have thought to shut the door here."

"It's so pretty out there," I said, changing the subject and gesturing to the scene before us. The sky was light after the big snowstorm and made it easy to see the snow-covered hill below.

“It is." His voice was quieter than it had been a moment before. "Everything is so peaceful on nights like this."

He stepped closer to the window and pressed his palm against the glass, like he was trying to feel the sight ahead of us.

I crossed my arms to fight away the chill coming in through the slight draft in the window. "Do you think we'll be able to get out of here tomorrow?" I asked, trying to figure out where the road was.

He removed his hand from the window and replaced it in his pocket. A hint of a handprint showed on the window for a moment before disappearing. "There are a couple of four-wheelers out back with snow-plow attachments, so we should be able to clear the road if it doesn't snow again."

"That's good." I shivered.

Easton looked at me. "You cold?"

I nodded, my teeth chattering.

"You should get back to bed where it's warmer."

But I didn't want to end the peaceful moment we were having together. For the first time since I'd left his tent all those months ago, things had been comfortable between us. I didn't want it to disappear just yet. I wanted to hold onto it for a little longer.

So instead of going up the stairs, I stepped closer to the wood stove, with my hands out in front of me, and let its radiating heat warm me.

Easton followed suit, and we stood side by side for a time. He flexed his hands against the heat. He had nice hands. They were lean and nimble and would serve him well when he became a dentist like he wanted to be. He kept his fingernails trimmed short and clean, and I couldn't keep the memory of what it had felt like to have him trace patterns along my arm from my mind. I missed holding his hands. They were strong and sure and made me feel safe.

"Remember how I was looking for my mom this summer?" His voice startled me in the moonlight.

"Yeah?" I asked. His mom had left their family when he was in elementary and had never tried to contact them since then. It had been really hard on their family, but I think out of everyone, Easton blamed himself the most for her leaving.

He looked at me carefully, like he was worried about how I'd react. "I found her."

"What?" I asked, surprised that he'd been able to find her after all these years. "You found your mom?"

He nodded. "I guess she started a band a while back, and I randomly came across one of their social media pages one day."

"Your mom is in a band?"

He shrugged and looked like he couldn't believe it, either. "I remember her singing when I was little, but yeah, I had no idea she was leaving us to become a musician."

"Does Lexi know about this?"

He shook his head. "I haven't told anyone."

He turned his back to the stove. I turned too, the front of my legs and torso feeling toasty warm.

We were quiet for a moment longer before he broke the silence. "She's doing a show in Ithaca next month. I'm thinking about going."

I peered up at him to watch his face. He swallowed, and I could tell it was hard for him to talk about his plans.

"I think that's a good idea. I know how you've been trying to figure out what happened to her for a long time."

He nodded, looking at the couch instead of at me. "I have questions. I'm not expecting her to come back or anything, but it would be nice to have answers about how she could leave her family behind. A loving mother wouldn’t have been able to just abandon her children like that."

My limbs felt heavy because in a way he was describing me. I was going to give away my baby and pretend like he or she was never mine to begin with. I was just as bad as his mother.

"Yeah, a loving mother wouldn't do that," I said, feeling a dark cloud settling in my chest. I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath, hoping to push the guilt away.

I was too young to have a baby. I wasn't ready. The baby would be better off with a family who had their crap together.

I couldn't raise a child when I was still growing up myself, right?

Or was that just me wanting to take the easy way out of a difficult situation?

Was I just as selfish as Easton and Lexi's mom?

I shook my head. I needed to go to bed. I needed to rest from all these confusing thoughts swirling through my mind.

I touched Easton's arm. "I'm gonna go up to bed now. I'm exhausted."

He looked at me, his face half lit in the moonlight. "Please don't tell Lexi what I told you. I don't want her to get her hopes up."

I pressed my lips together before saying, "I won't." Then I let my arm drop from his and stepped away from the warmth of the stove.

"And Juliette?"

I froze, and then slowly turned back to face him. "Yeah?"

"Thanks for always being so easy to talk to. I know things have been awkward between us for a while, but I hope that this weekend can be kind of like a turning point for us. I hope you'll feel comfortable enough to call me your friend."

I nodded, thankful for the darkness because the thought of only ever being friends with Easton broke my heart all over again.

When I felt I could talk without my voice cracking, I forced a smile and said, "I'd like that."

At least as his friend, I’d get to claim a part of him—even if it wasn't all the parts of his heart that I wanted.

"I'm just going to add a few more logs to the fire then I'll head up too," he said. "Sleep well." He opened the door to the stove.

"Goodnight, Easton," I said.

"Night." He looked up briefly before turning back to what he was doing.

I walked up the stairs, and then toward my side of the bed, feeling colder and colder with each step. It was symbolic in a way—each step I took away from the fire made me feel colder, worse. Just like the more I put space between Easton and me, the lonelier I felt.

I pulled back the covers slowly, careful not to wake Lexi as I climbed into bed. She didn't even startle, which I was grateful for. I couldn't show her this part of me. The part that wished so badly that I could go back in time and re-do the past with her brother.

If I hadn't gone to Easton's tent that night, would we still be together now? Would he have waited for me to get back from Paris?

I turned on my side and watched as Easton appeared in the loft a moment later. He sat down on his bed, his back to me for a minute. I watched his shoulders rise and fall with each deep breath he took. He sat there for a while, and I couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking about. Was it about his mom? Maybe Mercedes? Or was it possible that he too could be thinking about us and regretting the last time we'd been together in the middle of the night?

He seemed to draw in one more deep breath before lifting the covers on his side of the bed and climbing in with his back to his best friend.

My heart clenched in my chest one more time before I forced myself to roll onto my back and face the other way. We would be friends. That was better than what we'd been yesterday.