I am a mess. I am grumpy and frustrated and far too aware of Charlie.

He ignores me. He keeps his gaze steady on Charlie, his eyes narrowing. “You love her?” he yells from the steps of my porch, a challenge in his gruff voice. Charlie’s hand tightens around mine. “Yeah,” he calls back. Beckett shifts on his feet. “Is there a reason you didn’t feel the need to tell me you have feelings for my baby sister?” Charlie

“We would like to present, for your consideration, our five-year plan.” Charlie’s arm tightens around my waist. “Stella, it’s two in the morning.” “It’s two thirty, actually,” Luka offers from his spot on the floor, one arm thrown over his eyes.

He’s happiest when he’s making the people around him happy too. Or, in my case, blushing furiously and scowling at his big dumb face.

He nods and collapses on the bed next to me. I go tilting to the side in the blankets, but he slips his arm around my back, holding me up. His hand squeezes at my hip, then slips down and gives the curve of my ass an affectionate pat through three layers of fleece.

“Shit,” he says. He drops the knife and digs in his back pocket for his phone. “I told Evie I’d call her for this.” “For what?” Beckett taps at his screen and places his phone into the middle of the table while it rings. “For the moment you enter reality.” Evelyn answers on the second ring. “Is it happening?” “Sure is!” Harper responds at the same

Thing feels too small of a word for the overwhelming sense of panic and adoration that sweeps over me every time Nova so much as looks in my direction, but sure.

“I can take it,” he tells me with a cocky grin that falters somewhere in the middle. He’s trying so hard tonight to be the person he usually is in front of everyone else. Good Time Charlie and all the shiny, sparkly things that are meant to distract. He said I’m in Technicolor, but tonight he’s hiding in shades of gray, none of his usual colors

It’s silent on the other end of the computer. I lean up and rest my chin on the trackpad. The only part of me visible on the computer screen is the top of my hair and thank god for it. Selene doesn’t need to see a car crash in real time. Selene blinks at me. “I expected more of a fight, to be honest.”