One Last Time (COMPLETED)

How To Get Away With Murder

No amount of coffee could energize me enough to utter a coherent sentence.

It'd been close to three weeks living on about twelve hours of sleep a week. Between the nightmarish images that clouded my thoughts and stared back at me when I shut my eyes and the twins waking up every three hours on the dot, it was a lost cause.

The fact that I was about to go speak to the police about the possibility of foul play in my sister's death didn't help the anxiety gnawing me from the inside out. As I stepped out of the bathroom, rubbing my hair dry with a towel, I ran into a hard chest. I knew by the unfamiliarity of the spicy scent that it was neither Tanner or Parker. When I glanced up I was met with a stocky man only a few inches taller than myself. He was as broad as both of my sisters friends, but not nearly as toned or tall. He, unlike the other two boys in the house, had only just returned sometime last night and I had yet to see him, though Tanner had reassured me he knew we were here.

"Sorry." He muttered quietly, running a hand through his tousled dark bed hair. "Not used to having another morning person here."

I brought the sea green towel in my hand down and nodded. "It's fine. I'll just. . . get going."

I curved around his arm and darted for the sparsely furnished bedroom a few doors down. I had to blink a few times to make sure I was seeing the image before me correctly and it wasn't just a figment of my imagination. Parker sat in one of the few pieces of furniture in the room-an old leather computer chair with a few tears through it. He was as shirtless as the nameless roommate I'd run into out in the hall, but had Michaela cradled against his bare chest with the smallest hint of a smile on his lips as he caressed her cheek with the knuckle of his index finger. I had no doubt he hadn't heard me come in, and I almost felt as if I were intruding on a personal moment. Tanner had gotten up twice last night and come into the room, seeing I was still awake, he didn't bother to go back to sleep himself, but took the twin that I wasn't holding and did his best to try and break through to me with his crappy jokes and pick up lines. But Parker? He had seemed as though he wanted nothing to do with the kids, so seeing him like this, especially with the one that was extremely colicky, was shocking.

"Hey." Parker said in a hushed whisper, eyes still glued to the baby. She must have fallen asleep. "She was crying and Tan was up with you all night, I figured I could help."

I didn't know how to respond, so I crossed the room to my duffel bag, not thrilled to be in the same room as my childhood crush in nothing but a pair of shorts and a sheer pajama top. "She must like you. Tanner and I couldn't get her to stay quiet for longer than a couple minutes last night. She kept waking Max."

Parker's eyes finally left the baby and fell on me, eyebrows raising in curiosity. "If you plan on staying here, you might want to alter your wardrobe. You are living with three extraordinarily disgusting manwhores."

I was glad he couldn't see the small smile that touched at my lips. "I don't plan on staying here, Park. You guys have done enough already."

"Where are you going to go?" I thought for a moment he'd raised his voice and was about to warn him to quiet down, but turned to find he had set Mickey in her crib and was only a few feet away. "I. . . your Maya's sister. I can't just let you throw yourself out on the streets, Mia. Especially with them."

We looked toward the white bassinets before us, side by side, both infants swaddled in them.

"I have to go, Park." I whispered, having no desire to try and rack my sleep deprived brain of an answer. "Tanner said he'd watch them for a couple hours."

"How are you getting there?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Is Darren picking you up?"

That thought was more comical than thinking it was safe for me and the twins to live in this house. Darren wouldn't come within a hundred feet of a place that housed not just Parker, but Tanner too. He'd walk on hot coal before he'd do that.