Chapter 35

Sam sat between Jake and Bryan on the way home from Reno. She was exhausted. Kit had ended up winning the competition with his friend Pani coming in second.

After eating, they had returned to the arena where they divided up into teams for a quick game of football. Kit and Pani had charmed the security guards to let them back in, promising not to tell anyone that they had. Sam volunteered to hike the ball for the teams. There was no way she wanted to be tackled on the hard dirt of the arena, but if she didn't play the teams would have been uneven.

Kit, Pani, Nate and Sam were on one team. Adam, Quinn, Bryan and Jake were on the other.

The first time that Sam had bent over to hike the ball to Kit, he started to laugh and his eyes met Adam's. Adam started out grinning and gave up and just laughed also. Jake glowered, knowing exactly what Kit was doing.

"Yeah, yeah," Quinn teased. "If you've seen one, now hike the ball."

"You guys might be used to it, but I want to savor it," Kit laughed.

Sam stood up, looking around, not getting what was so amusing.

"Not fair," Adam told him, laughing.

"Oh it's very fair," Kit disagreed.

"Can you just quit and play the darn game?" Jake grouched.

Kit had given him an infuriating grin and told Sam to bend over again. Jake groaned when Sam did so and Kit stared at her butt for a good minute before finally calling for the ball to be hiked.

Jake enjoyed tackling his oldest brother whenever the opportunity had presented itself. Kit would just laugh it off, knowing exactly how crazy he was making Jake.

After the game, they had gone to the club and stayed out to almost two o'clock in the morning, despite the fact that Pani and Kit still needed to ride again on Sunday. Sam had been asleep on her feet, barely saying good night to everyone before stumbling to the room she was using at Adam's house. She never bothered to change, just fell upon the bed and was asleep before her head hit the pillow. It wasn't until she got up for the day that she realized what had happened.

She quickly hurried into the bathroom to shower and then changed before coming into the living room where the rest of the guys were sitting around and trying to wake up. Even coffee hadn't seemed to help them.

Kit rode another brilliant ride that night to win the event. His brothers, even Jake, had congratulated him before they headed out to Quinn's Tahoe and towards home. Sam had hugged Kit then followed the others.

"Just sleep," Jake urged her.

"I feel like a zombie," Sam admitted, putting her head back and shutting her eyes.

"Sammy's not used to being out late at night," Quinn teased.

"Duh," Sam retorted, causing the four guys to snort. "I'm fifteen. Can you imagine what my dad would say if I regularly came home at two in the morning?"

"He wouldn't say much, just lock you in," Jake said.

"I'd never be allowed out of my room," Sam started to nod off, then jerked herself awake again.

"Just sleep," Jake said again.

"I can stay awa…," Sam slumped against him as she fell asleep.

"You can push her over if you want," Bryan said, knowing Jake and Sam had a bad weekend together.

"Nah, she's okay," Jake murmured, lifting his arm so she ended up with her head on his chest.

"Sneaky," Bryan teased.

Jake chuckled. Quinn looked at what was going on in the rearview mirror and Nate turned around to look. Both brothers grinned at Jake.

"I think she was just infatuated that Kit gave her some attention," Nate said.

"I hope so," Jake murmured, looking down at the auburn head. He could smell the lavender scent of her. He felt himself relax. He didn't realize that he dozed off, Sam in his arms.

Bryan poked Nate's shoulder. Nate looked around at Bryan and he pointed towards the two sleeping. Nate grinned and poked Quinn lightly and nodded towards Jake and Sam. Quinn looked in the rearview mirror and he too grinned.

"The two of them just can't let go enough," Quinn said quietly.

"I think they will eventually," Nate responded.

"I think so too," Bryan agreed. "Maybe we just need to knock them both out for the next few years."

The three brothers snorted in amusement.

"They can't argue if they're asleep," Quinn chuckled.

"They don't realize that if nothing was there they wouldn't be arguing," Nate said.

"Wish I had a camera," Bryan said.

"I've got one in my phone," Nate dug out his phone and took a picture of the two sleeping.

"Next time one of them claims to hate the other, we can show them that," Quinn laughed.

The other two laughed with him.