Chapter two hundred and four:

Luke woke late in the morning, with a slightly stiff neck. He winced at the bright light streaming through the window.

He opened his eyes and glanced around, unable to immediately recognize where he was.

He stretched his legs and one arm, but the other didn’t seem to move. A body shifted next to his.

“Good morning.” Jen smiled warmly at him. “I missed seeing those bright green eyes.”

“Hey, love.” Luke replied. “Oh man, I can’t believe I stayed here. I was just going to just rest my eyes for a minute and sneak home…”

“I’m glad you stayed.” Jen laid her palm on his chest and rested her chin on her hand.

“Me too.” He grinned, sweeping her hair back from her eyes. “How long have you been awake?”

“About an hour. Maybe two.”

“And you didn’t wake me?”

“No, I didn’t want to have to move.” She smiled.

“Alright. Then what do you want to do today?”

“You aren’t sick of me, yet?” She teased. “We’ve been together almost every minute for the past three days.”

“Yeah, but we were apart for almost three months.”

Her smile faded. “True.”

Using the side of his index finger, he gently brushed her cheek. “I could never get sick of you, love. Come on. Anything you want to do today, we’ll do.”

Jen smiled. “Well, first I want to shower and change my clothes.”

“Yeah, I think I’d like to do that myself.” Luke laughed. “Then how about we go out for breakfast? Then decide where we go after that.”

“That sounds perfect.”

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Zac jogged up to the main house, letting himself in through the kitchen patio doors. He found Taylor sitting at the breakfast table eating a bagel and reading the morning’s newspaper.

“Hey, Tay.” Zac chirped, whistling as he made his way to the fridge.

Taylor raised his eyebrows. He knew his brother better than anyone else, and he was definitely behaving out of character. The Zac he knew wouldn’t be up and walking around before noon. And he certainly wouldn’t be chipper about it.

“Do you have any eggs? I promised Becky I’d make my special pancakes-a-la-Zac.”

“And by special, you mean burnt?”

Zac actually laughed at that comment, which surprised Taylor even more.

“What the hell, Zac? Did you get laid or someth-“ Taylor stopped. “Jesus Christ, you did.”

Zac grinned proudly and held his arms out at shoulder height. “You’re looking at a proud non-virgin!”

Taylor stood and clapped his brother’s hand, “Good job! How was it?”

“Amazing… I thought it might be awkward, but it was really… really… good.” Zac couldn’t keep a grin from his face.

“Yeah? And how was it for her? You didn’t get totally selfish on her did you?”

“No, I… she said this morning, that it was good.” Zac’s smile faded. “Why? Do you think I screwed it up?”

Taylor laughed. “It’s pretty hard to screw up sex. Did you take all the advice I gave you?”

Zac nodded. “Most of it… there were some things… I mean, it was our first time, we’ll get better after some practice, right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Okay…” Zac paused. “Good.” He turned on his heel and moved towards the patio doors.

“Zac?” Taylor called, resuming his seat and picking up his bagel.

“Yeah?” Zac perked up.

“Don’t forget the eggs.”

Zac paused. “Right.”

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