More Than Friends (Kingsley #4) by Brandi Kennedy Page B

ponytail season, though, I can feel it.” She kept in step with him, following him instinctively as they moved away from the curb and headed into the parking garage beside the hospital. “You think it’ll be a thousand degrees in your truck, after it’s been baking in here for the last two days?”
     
    “Wimp,” Michael teased. “It’s barely even spring – how will you handle the summer heat?”
     
    “The same way I always do. With lots of whining. Lucky for me, I’m cute enough to be whiny and it’s still okay.”
     
    “Yeah, we’ll see if your new boyfriend thinks so.”
     
    “Doesn’t matter,” she retorted, elbowing him in the side as they walked. “I’ll have driven him away by then. I drool, remember?”
     
    Michael dropped his arm around Renee’s shoulders and pulled her close to his side. “You snore a little too. It’s pretty gross. I mean really – the last time you slept at my house, I could hear you all the way in my room. Probably a miracle I got any sleep at all last night, too, drowning in your slobber and listening to you snore. Sleeping in a waiting room chair isn’t even so bad, when you compare it to the snoring and the drooling. I could have slept easier next to a … I don’t know, a bear or something. Something that drools. And snores. And farts.”
     
    Horrified, Renee pulled away, and Michael laughed as his arm dropped back to his side. She shot a glare at him from beneath lowered brows as she muttered darkly, “Michael, you jackass. Maybe you need a boyfriend, then. He could protect you from my cats – when I become a cat lady. And help you mop up my drool. And buy you ear plugs. And air freshener.”
     
    “Oh no,” he laughed, holding his hands out, palms up, as if in defense. An old woman walking in the other direction glanced at him, and he laughed harder, waiting for her to move out of hearing range. Finally in control again, he leaned closer to Renee and poked nudged her with his shoulder, saying, “No thanks. I got nothing against dudes who like dudes and chicks that like chicks – but this dude likes chicks. Only chicks.”
     
    Shaking her head, Renee gathered her hair again and twisted it into a loose braid over her shoulder, still keeping in step with him as they walked. “Are you parked far up?” She laughed softly. “I think I’d have forgotten where I parked after leaving my car in here for two days.”
     
    “Nah, it’s just up one more floor. Just around the corner here.” Michael fished his keys out of his pocket, shaking the keyring to untangle them before pulling his truck key away from the rest of the bunch. “We’ll have to stop and get some gas before we head out to your house though. I’m not out, but I’ll need some. That okay with you?”
     
    She touched his arm softly before moving away, and they separated as they each went to opposite sides of his truck. “You know, Michael, I could sleep at your house tonight if you’ve got a shirt I can sleep in. Then I can grab a shower and put something clean on, and you just drive me home in the morning.” She was already looking at him as he froze, and their eyes met over the truck bed. “I know you’re tired,” she shrugged. “And your house is a shorter drive.”
     
    “Renee,” he said, but she shook her head to stop him.
     
    “Would you do it for me?” she asked. She propped her elbows on the side of the truck bed and looked over at him, her face shadowed in the darkness of the garage. “If my mom was in the hospital, and my siblings couldn’t be there with me for whatever reason – You’d sit with me, wouldn’t you?”
     
    Michael sighed, smiling. “You know I would.”
     
    “Even if it was late?”
     
    Knowing already what her next question would be, Michael conceded defeat. Nodding, he unlocked the truck and turned to open his door – but, glancing back at her one more time, he grinned. “Even If it was overnight,” he said.
     
    “Exactly. So shut up,