Polapi

“Lia eyed me. She eyed Michael. She eyed Dean. “Honestly,” she said, “I doubt that anyone is as happy as Cassie is at this exact moment.”

I was getting better at ignoring Lia’s suggestive little digs, but this one hit its target, dead center. Squished in between Michael and Dean, I blushed. I was not going to go there—and I wasn’t going to let Lia ruin this.

A grim expression on his face, Dean stood and marched toward Lia. For a moment, I thought he might say something to her about spoiling the moment, but he didn’t. He just picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.

“Hey!” Lia protested.

Dean grinned and threw her onto the sofa with Michael and me and then resumed his perch on the edge of the couch like nothing had happened. Lia scowled, and Michael poked her cheek.

“Admit it,” he said again. “You’re just as happy as we are.”

Lia tossed her hair over her shoulder and stared straight ahead, refusing to look any of us in the eye. “A little girl is going home,” she said. “Because of us. Of course I’m as happy as you are.”

“Given individual differences in serotonin levels, the probability that any four people would be experiencing identical levels of happiness simultaneously is quite—”

“Sloane,” Michael said, without bothering to turn around. “If you don’t finish that sentence, there’s a cup of fresh ground coffee in your future.”

“My immediate future?” Sloane asked suspiciously. Michael had a long history of blocking her consumption of caffeine.

Without a word, Michael, Lia, and I all turned to look at Dean. He got the message, stood up, and strode toward Sloane, giving her the exact same treatment he’d given Lia. When Dean tossed Sloane gently on top of me, I giggled and almost toppled onto the floor, but Lia grabbed hold of my collar.

We did it, I thought, as Michael, Lia, Sloane, and I elbowed for room and Dean stared on from his position, just outside the fray.”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Killer Instinct

“Most people built walls to protect themselves. Dean did it to protect everyone else.”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Killer Instinct

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Killer Instinct

“I’d gone my whole life without romance. I didn’t need it, not the way I needed this: being part of something, caring about people in a way that I hadn’t realized I still could. Not just Michael and Dean, but Sloane and even Lia. I fit here. I hadn’t fit anywhere in a very long time.

Maybe ever.

I couldn’t screw that up.”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Killer Instinct