i rolled my eyes, then turned to allie. "you gonna stay and put these boys out of their misery?" i asked her.

she raised her eyebrow at me, a sly grin spreading across her face. "yeah, i'll stay. but sorry, jackson, i'm not sharing the couch with you. you and brandon could share his bed..." she trailed off, laughing as brandon and jackson looked at each other in disgust.

brandon spoke up again. "allie you can sleep with me in my bed. i promise i'll behave!"

allie glanced at me and i covered my mouth with my hand to hide my smile. i knew allie all too well.

she walked up close to brandon, their chests almost touching, before she lightly placed her hands on his chest, sliding them upwards to encircle his neck. with gently pressure, she pulled his head down. placing her lips next to his ear, she said softly (but not so softly that everyone couldn't hear), "who said i wanted you to behave, lover?"

she then traced her tongue lightly down the curve of his ear to his neck before pulling back and walking towards the hallway. halfway there, i saw her bite her lip as she met jackson's gaze, and i could see the hesitation and almost longing in her eyes but she continued down the hall.

brandon stood frozen, though his breathing had become heavy, and i visibly saw him swallow hard before he took off in a rush after allie.

i heard laughter and turned to see luke standing beside the couch, watching everything unfold. jackson was scowling, and luke clapped his hand to his shoulder as he walked by him in my direction. he grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the stairs, doug trailing behind us.

i turned to jackson as i stepped up onto the first stair. "for what its worth? she thinks you're hot, too. we talked while we were outside with doug, and she's confused. she's really attracted to you, but she's also attracted to brandon. don't count yourself out just

yet, jackson."

i started climbing the stairs again, following luke who had stopped when i did.

"emma?" jackson's voice stopped me again. "call me jacks. all my closest friends and family do. and...thanks."

"you're welcome, jacks. good night."

luke and i headed to bed. of course, our good night kiss became a good night fondle, which turned into a good night fuck that had me screaming so loud when i came, we heard brandon (or it could have been allie?) thumping something against the ceiling in a non-verbal 'could you keep it down please?' kind of way.

i drifted off to sleep wrapped up in luke's arms, his body pressed to the length of mine, thinking that it'd turned out to be a pretty good weekend after all.

chapter 13

you know, i realized that time goes a lot faster when you actually allow yourself to have a life outside of babysitting your niece and nephew and living vicariously through your best friend and (sadly) little brother and sister.

halloween was friday, which gave me exactly five days to figure out a costume. allie had decided that she was going to throw a party and costumes were required. i didn't have a problem with that because, like i said before, halloween is one of my favorite holidays. you get to dress up in whatever you want, be whoever you want, and you get candy! win-win, baby!

luke kept asking me what i was going to be, and i had a couple ideas, but i almost wanted to surprise him. that was going to be a little tough, though, because ever since that weekend a couple weeks ago when we carved pumpkins and...well, it was an interesting and very full weekend. anyway, since then, we hadn't really spent any time apart. he brought me to work, and somehow managed to schedule his appointments and such at the shop so he would be done at the same time i was. sometimes we stayed at my house, but generally we stayed at his and brandon's house.

jackson had stayed just a couple days more and then had flown back out to l.a. for work. i made luke call him and invite him back for allie's halloween party and he had said he would try, but wasn't very hopeful that he would make it.

allie and brandon have hung out with us quite a bit since that weekend, but i haven't noticed any real romancing going on. allie swore that they didn't even do anything the night she slept in his bed. she confided in me that she felt guilty because jackson was sitting on the couch right down the hall. i told her she was screwed either way. (pun intended!) she didn't find me amusing.

my work phone rang on my desk, breaking into my musings. "good afternoon, floyd grim's office, may i help you?"

silence. then a quick indrawn breath that almost turned into panting.

i hung the phone up after saying hello a few more times. obviously someone was there but didn't want to talk. i'd been getting hang up calls or heavy breathing calls for a while, but i really hadn't thought anything of it because it didn't happen very often. here lately, though, i'd been getting two or three a day and it was starting to creep me out.

i mentioned it to floyd who just chalked it up to pranksters. we'd been pretty busy with clients, lately, and i was swamped, so i didn't dwell on it.

at the end of the day, i closed up the office and headed outside to meet luke. except luke wasn't there; jackson was leaning up against a silver suv, apparently waiting for me.

"jacks! hey! what are you doing here?" i asked him, smiling and giving him a quick hug.

"luke got held up with a tattoo, so he asked me to come pick you up. i just got into town about an hour ago. i have a surprise but you have to wait until we get back to skin deep with the boys." he smiled at me secretively.

we pulled up at the shop and i practically ran inside, dragging jackson with me. as soon as we got through the door, i stopped beside him and looked up. "well?" i waved my hand at him, silently telling him to get on with it.

he laughed again and fondly kissed my forehead. "you're so cute. but i'm not telling you yet."

i pouted.

"hey! what'd i tell you about touching my woman, beckett?" i heard luke yell behind us. i turned and went to him, sighing when he folded me into his warm embrace.

jackson walked over and, out of the blue, kissed luke on his forehead. luke scowled in mock anger and punched jackson in the arm. jackson laughed and retorted, "yeah, i know you were just jealous of my kiss." he made a show of wiping his lips off. "but damn, man, emma feels much nicer against my lips."

i couldn't help but laugh at the bantering between the two of them. it got worse when brandon came out from the back and joined in. when we settled down a bit, jackson cleared his throat and his face turned serious.

"well, i was telling emma that i have a surprise. so i guess i'll just get it over with. i bought the property next door to you, luke, and i'm moving back here. if you don't mind, i'll crash at your house until the house is built, but...i miss my friends." he shrugged and i could tell there was something more that he wasn't telling us, but i wasn't going to pry. that was probably something that luke would need to do. and then i could pry it out of him...

"hell, yes!" luke shouted.

"bout damn time!" brandon yelled over luke.

jackson stood there and grinned at them, then turned and winked at me. "alright, i'm buying dinner to celebrate!"

we all went to griff's because it was right down the street and one of all of our favorite places. we sat and ate and the guys drank beer. we stayed later than dinner, because monday nights were karaoke nights and we were laughing our asses off at willy (town drunk, remember him?) singing there's a tear in my beer while he stumbled around the stage. he almost fell off twice, but by the grace of god or some invisible wire we couldn't see, he managed to stay up there.