Once Drew and I returned from his birthday weekend, the rest of the summer seemed to fly by. Patrick, Drew, and Mike were sucked into work. Patrick hoped that by the new year, his business would be completely legitimate, and all three guys were working overtime to ensure that happened. While I knew this was a good thing, I still hated it. Worse, I hated the way we seemed to always pass each other on the way in or out. I would wait up for them some nights, but work seemed to make them later and later.

"Hey," Jake whispered, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me back against him. The twins' classes had started almost two weeks ago, and Josh was the only one who had a class on Friday. "Why are you awake so early?" Tipping my face up, I smiled as I looked into his eyes. Jake had been and always would be the most laid-back of my guys, and he was so easy to talk to.

"Do you have to get up soon?"

"No," he murmured. "What's up?"noveldrama

I need to talk to you, but not as my boyfriend."

His eyebrows wiggled slightly while he stared at me, but I didn't turn away from his searching look. "You can always tell me anything," he said slowly." But I'm always going to be the guy who loves you, too. I will do my best to give you advice from a non-boyfriend perspective, though, I promise." Jake stroked the hair away from my face.

"Talk to me." A knock on the door froze my words, but not his. "Thanks, Darren. Leave it outside for us, and I will grab it."

"Of course. Mr. Jake. The others have all left already, so you will have the house to yourselves."

My face burned with embarrassment, and I hid against Jake's neck. I wanted to kiss him for not laughing. He sounded genuine when he replied, "Thanks, Darren. We'll be down in a little while for breakfast."

It wasn't until I was sure I heard Darren's feet thump down the staircase that I threw myself off Jake and buried my face in the pillows. He chuckled as he slapped my ass.

"Don't be so dramatic; Darren knows exactly what we are doing; that's why he knocks."

Yes, I knew that. "It's just so..."

"What?" Jake asked as he climbed out of bed and walked across the room naked. I had rolled onto my side to watch him. He opened the door, not caring, and grabbed the full tray with the carafe of fresh coffee, creamer, and sugar. There were also some blueberry muffins, which smelled like they had just come out of the oven.

"Normal?"

"Embarrassing."

He pushed the door shut with his foot, set the tray on the bench at the end of the bed, and poured us both coffee. "It's only embarrassing if you let it be."

"Easy for you to say. It wasn't your naked ass up in the air when he came in with something for Patrick. I have never been so embarrassed in my life." To his credit, Darren never said anything about the incident to me, and Patrick had apologized profusely with fits of laughter.

"You're right," he said, handing me my coffee and sitting back on the bed. "I'll make sure it's my ass in the air next time, but you had better be on the bottom cause Patrick's not my type.

I giggled. "You would, too."

"If it makes you feel better and less embarrassed? Of course. Now, talk to me. My dick and I had different plans on how to wake you up this morning, but you need to talk, so my dick will just have to suck it up for a while."

"You mean he's not mad at you anymore for waxing down there?" When Jake told me, I wasn't able to stop laughing. His poor balls. It had only taken one experience with a Brazilian to say, "Never again." Huffing out a sigh, I took a long sip from my coffee. It was perfect, and I tried to soak up the caffeine.

"Patrick, Drew, and Mike have all been so busy. Everything has been different since we got back from our summer trip. I know that was special, and we couldn't be with each other every second of every day. But even when Patrick and I were at the hospital with his parents, I still felt close to everyone. We talked constantly, and now I feel like we're all going in different directions. I bit my lip.

"But it really changed with the accident."

"That's to be expected," Jake said gently. It scared the hell out of us, Em. We didn't know what had happened, and when we got there, you looked horrible."

"Gee, thanks," I grumbled.

Jake chuckled. "You were scraped and bruised but still the most beautiful girl in the world. But you're our girl; you were hurt and all alone. Did we all get a little intense? Yes. You were right to tell us to back off." I grimaced. "I didn't have to be so harsh."

"Hm," Jake said, his expression still relaxed. We're stubborn, and honestly, if we can't take you at your worst, then we don't deserve you."

I glared at him, a little offended. "That wasn't me at my worst."

"No? This was barely a bump in the road, but it was still a bump we needed to hit. It's not what's bothering you, though, so spill."

I sighed. "I don't deserve you, Jake."

"Bullshit. Next."

I sighed, here I was naked, drinking expensive coffee and talking about the amazing life we had, even with the bumps. It's big girl panties time, Emmy.