I give them a minute, then push inside.
Apparently, I wasn’t loud enough, because Tripp is still fast asleep, and his hookup is staring at the door through weary eyes.
“Move over,” I tell him before crawling along the middle of the bed and flopping down between them.
Tripp barely stirs, so I lean right into his face, then shout his name.
His hazel eyes fly wide as he shoots upright. “What the fuck, Dex?”
I crack up laughing even as Tripp stares at me in shock. Then his gaze slides across to the other guy.
“Fucking hell.” He turns to face-plant into his pillow. All I can see is the top of his messy red hair.
“Ah, should I go?” the guy asks.
“Actually, maybe you could help.” It doesn’t look like Tripp is planning to resurface anytime soon, so I settle back into the pillows and tuck my hands behind my head. “I think my girlfriend broke up with me.”
The guy’s gaze flicks over my head toward Tripp, looking like he isn’t sure what to do.
“It’s fine,” I tell him. “Dex Mitchale, Tripp’s bestie. This is nothing I haven’t seen before.”
“Okay …” He adjusts the sheets around his waist and gets comfortable again. “Austin.”
“You were our server last night, right?”
“Yup. So, this girlfriend. Why do you only think she broke up with you? Isn’t that kind of thing obvious?”
“She said to call her when I grow up or whatever. So does that mean it’s over for now? Or we’re still together and she wants me to fix my shit before she comes back?”
He cringes. “That sounds like a breakup.”
“Damn.” I rub my hand over my face, thinking. “She said I was irresponsible, so if I fixed that, do you think she’d come back?”
“Why are you irresponsible?”
“How am I supposed to know?”
Tripp snorts behind me.
I turn my head to grin at him, but his face is still firmly buried. “Feel free to contribute to this conversation.”
Nothing. Fine. Back to Austin, then.
Austin is staring at the window. “Look, talking emotions isn’t something I thought I’d be doing the day after a hookup, so I’m a bit rusty on advice, but if you have to change for someone, it’s probably not worth it.”
“I think she wants to get married.”
“Is that something you want?” he asks.
“Umm … yes? Well, no, not really, but I could want it. If it made her stop acting like a …” I cut my words off. My momma taught me to only speak nicely of women, and if I can’t say nothing nice, I shouldn’t talk at all.
Tripp starts to chuckle behind me and finally reappears. “There is no way you’re marrying her when you can’t even give a straight answer.”
“You’re alive!” I cheer.
He gives me a dry look, and I glance back at Austin.
“He loves me. I swear he does.”
“I’d love you more if you didn’t wake me at the butt crack of dawn to talk about … her.”
“You two need to start getting along if you’re going to be my best man, Trippy,” I say.
“I guess I won’t be your best man, then.”
I gasp. “You’d let me go through that alone?”
“If you’re desperate enough to force yourself to get married when you’ve never wanted that, then yeah. You can go through it alone.”
“You’re breaking my heart here.”
Tripp lets out a disbelieving noise. “Go home and let us sleep, Dex.”
I yawn. “That’s a good idea. I’m beat. Let’s all sleep and talk about this when we wake up.”
Austin doesn’t look ready to sleep. “Actually, as fun as this is, I’m going to head out.”
“You don’t have to,” Tripp hurries to say.
“Sure,” I say, trying not to be offended. “He can stay, but you’re ready to kick me out. I’m feeling very unloved this morning.”
Tripp’s jaw tightens. “Well, I’d like my dick sucked, so if you’re planning to do that, by all means, stay.”
My eyebrows shoot up.
“Yeah. That’s what I thought.”
“You two are cute,” Austin says, which dissolves my shock as I glow under the praise.
We are cute.
Everyone says so.
Tripp and Dex.
Dex and Tripp.
The Mitchell Brothers.
Not that we’re brothers. We’re closer than that.
“Thanks for last night,” Austin says, his voice taking on a husky quality.
“I think I should be thanking you.”
I look from one to the other. I’m no stranger to Tripp’s hookups, but the way they’re looking at each other, like they’ve got a shared secret—that I guess involves the other’s dick—makes me squirm.
Then Austin leans over me and gives Tripp a soft, way-too-slow-to-be-comfortable-for-me kiss, and my eyes narrow.
“Bye.” He climbs out of bed, dresses, and leaves.
I’m still staring after him when I say, “He was hot. At least, objectively. Though, he’s prettier than a lot of the guys you’ve been with. Going to call him again?”
When Tripp doesn’t answer, I turn my attention to him and find him wearing the odd look he gives me sometimes that I can never figure out.