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“Oh, everyone knows about their amazing Halloween decorations. It’s always the first house decorated and so intense, it passes on the news every year since they started doing it.

You should see when they do their winter wonderland, it’s magical,” she delivers with a dreamy gaze.

It takes her a moment to snap out of it, and once she does, she sits up in my bed and moves on to her knees while I lift myself onto my elbows.

“Hold up, you said his wife was there? You got to meet Morgan Burkley?” Her voice raises a few octaves.

“Oh my God! How is she? I always thought she looked almost angelic and too sweet. Is she really like that, or is it a front? Did you know she did the decor in this place? Daddy paid good money to get her. I was so excited to meet her in person because I’m obsessed with her work.

But I was away in Madrid when she finally had an opening, so I lost my chance. ”

“No, I wasn’t aware she did this place. And yes, she’s exactly as you’ve pictured her.

She’s amazing and kind and so friendly, it was like I’d known her forever.

She gave me her number and said she wanted to hang out again soon without the boys,” I say with a shrug like it’s no big deal, but honestly, I’m pretty excited about making a new friend and spending more time with her.

“Yes! You should invite her over at our next girls’ night!” Emma suggests, clapping her hands in rapid succession, her grin so wide it’s almost maniacal.

“Every night is girls’ night, we live together.”

“Shush, don’t ruin my fun.” She slaps my leg. “I’m being serious, you should definitely invite her over one night. We’ll order food, drink wine, do facials, and watch a movie. The whole ordeal.” She waves her hand through the air like she’s picturing the evening.

“Say you’ll invite her? Please! You have to do this for me!

I’ll beg on my knees if I must.” Getting up from her position, she scrambles on top of me, squishing me into the mattress as she hugs me with all her strength.

“Please, please, please!” she chants over and over, and I can’t help but laugh at her ridiculousness.

“Okay, okay! Yes, I’ll ask her. Now get off me.”

She begins to pepper my face with kisses, her chants changing to “thank you” just as my phone chimes with an incoming text. She gets up, giving me a chance to reach my phone. “Is it lover boy?” she questions with a sweet smile.

I open my phone and go to my messages, one unread text from Silas. I smile as I open his message. “Yes.”

Big Guy

Good morning, beautiful. Heart emoji

Ugh, he sent a heart and a good morning text. How is he so perfect?

Me

Good morning, handsome. Blushing emoji

Big Guy

You think I’m handsome? How about sexy? Or maybe irresistible?

Me

Fishing for compliments, are we?

Big Guy

Always, if they come from you. Wink emoji

Me

So cocky.

Big Guy

You have no idea, baby.

“I like seeing you like this,” Emma says as she stands by my door. Apparently during my conversation with Silas, she had gotten up from the bed without me noticing.

“Like what?” I ask.

“Happy, like you’ve found the missing piece to a puzzle you didn’t even know you were building.” She gazes at me in awe.

Emma has always been one of the strongest people I know.

She’s not one to show her true feelings easily, but when she does, it’s explosive.

She feels it down to her very core. Like when she found out about my parents, she was devastated, and for a week straight, every time she looked my way, I could see the water well up in her eyes.

And when my grandmother died during our sophomore year, Emma bawled her eyes out, falling into a depression that lasted way over a month. Not for my grandma; Emma had only known her for two years, but for me. She was heartbroken for me.

So, I understand what she’s saying. Ever since I lost the rest of my family four years ago, I’ve been forcing my way to happiness but never truly feeling it.

That is until now. And I can tell by the look in her eyes that I was never fooling her with my bright smiles over the years.

Because at this moment, her emotions are surfacing.

She turns around abruptly and clears her throat. “Come on, let’s make breakfast. I’m dying for pancakes.”

“Let me guess, I need to make them?” I raise my voice as she starts walking down the hall, toward the kitchen.

“You know it!” she yells back.

I rise from the bed and exit my room, shaking my head with a chuckle.

Several hours later, my phone vibrates with a new text from Silas while Emma and I are in the middle of our Sunday ritual: face masks, wine, and movies. We’ve been messaging on and off all day, and it’s been nice.

Big Guy

What are you doing?

Me

Sunday rituals.

I stretch out my arm to the side and snap a picture. In it, you can see me in a cute, tiny pajama set identical to Emma’s, who’s seated right next to me. Both of us sit cross-legged on the couch with face masks on and our hair in a bun, wine glasses in hand.

On the right side of the picture, you can see just the beginning of the TV that’s playing one of our classics, Breakfast at Tiffany’s . The picture isn’t really sexy, but that wasn’t the point of it, either. Satisfied with the image, I send it off to Silas.

Big Guy

Damn, and I wasn’t invited?

Me

Girls only. Sorry, Hun.

Me

What about you?

A selfie comes in seconds later of him shirtless in a gym, muscles on full display and bulging with veins from working them hard.

No chest hair in sight; sweat glistens all over his body, down his chiseled abs to those impressively defined V-shaped muscles pointing down.

An invitation to what hides beneath, but the picture cuts off there.

On his right arm, black ink swirls around from just below his elbow, all the way up to wrap around his shoulder. An image is encased within the design of a ferocious-looking Griffin standing on his hind legs.

Wings spread out above the black swirls on his upper arm. In its beak, the griffin holds what appears to be a puck, and under his ginormous back paws lies a hockey stick gripped by his claws. A beautiful representation of his lifelong career.

His hair is wet and tousled, strands falling against his face. The green pools in his eyes are dark and blazing, filled with hunger. A sly half smirk rests over his lips. He knows exactly what the picture is doing to me.

Heat rises from my toes to my fingertips. Biting my lip, I pull my knees together to dull the throbbing ache between the junction of my legs. I can feel the moisture soaking through my panties, making me go crimson red. I’ve never been this turned on before, and it’s only a picture.

Emma takes one look at me and snatches my phone from my hands. She scans the picture and whistles. “Well, that explains the horny look in your eyes,” she snickers, “even I’m getting hot looking at that.”

I grab my phone back and press it to my chest, halting her ogling my man. My man... I like how that sounds. Once Emma’s focus has returned to the movie, I pull my phone away and read the message that followed the picture.

Big Guy

Jumping in the shower, then heading to my parents for dinner.

Two more messages came in afterward—while I was too busy admiring him and stopping my friend from doing the same.

Big Guy

Did I scare you off? Sad emoji

Big Guy

Or is it... Naughty time? Wink emoji

I shake my head at the last one, knowing he’s referring to what Emma called it when she caught me on the phone.

Me

I am never letting you two hang out together. Facepalming emoji

Big Guy

HAHAHA! Oh, come on. We’d get along great!

Me

Yes, that’s exactly what worries me...