Colt woke up on the couch. He was sleeping on Dana's chest. No wonder he had slept so well, her chest was like soft, fluffy, pillows. He lifted his head. It was daylight. Colt frowned. He had slept through the night. Not once had he woken with a nightmare. He looked up at Dana's sleeping face. He'd been given an angel. 

He glanced down, spotting Buddy sleeping on his dog bed in the corner of the room. Dana must have let him back in the house at some point in the night. Colt was grateful as he knew Buddy didn't like to be kept outside for too long and he felt bad that he clearly had forgotten about the poor guy in his breakdown in front of Dana.

Colt kissed her lightly on the cheek for her being so considerate not only to him but to his dog. He set his head back on her chest and went back to sleep.

*******************************

Dana woke up not with Colt lying on her shoulder but Buddy. 

"Hey, you," she said rubbing the dog's head.

"Where's your daddy?" she asked with a smile. 

Buddy just looked at her and closed his eyes to go back to sleep.

Dana rolled off the couch and got up to find Colt. She peeked in the kitchen but he wasn't there. Frowning, she walked over to the stairs in the foyer and climbed up them.    

The first open door she came to was an office on the left side of the hall. There was a large desk with a computer, a table with long sheets of paper lying across it, and overflowing bookshelves. The next room down,  on the right, the door was slightly ajar and she heard Colt's voice. 

 "Karen, please. I've got to see you today. I know you're busy...I'm really desperate..." he said and looked at his watch. "Okay...yeah, that'd be great. Okay, I'll see you then," Colt said and hung up the phone.  

Dana sighed and then knocked on his door. 

He looked up. "Oh, hey."Colt said, embarrassed she probably overheard his conversation.

"Hi, how you doing?" she asked, coming into his bedroom.

The bed was to the left, covered in a black comforter. A short in height but long in length dresser ran along the right wall. Above it, hung a black and white picture of a butterfly. He studied her studying his room.

"I'm okay. What do you think?" he asked, looking around his room.

"You're a neat freak. Like Jesse," she said, sitting on his bed.

Colt chuckled. "It's the James family curse. Even my dad was a neat freak." He wiped a hand over his face. "I think he had OCD, though. He was obsessive about it." To the point, Colt received beatings if there was a speck of dust to be found.

Dana leaned back on her elbows. "It was great. Jesse was always picking up after me. Now, I'm at a loss what to do. I'm afraid he spoiled me."

Colt sat down on the bed next to her and Dana straightened. "Look, um, Dana, thanks for last night. For staying."

"No problem, that's what friends are for, right?" she asked sarcastically. Just who in the hell was Karen? How long had Colt been seeing her?

Colt looked her over. She was shutting down on him again. What'd he do? He decided to ignore it. It was their rhythm. It would take Dana a while to get out of their usual unfriendly banter.

"Uh, you want some breakfast? I can whip us up a mean omelet." He smiled lightly. "I'm not a bad cook if I do say so myself."

Dana stood up. "No. Thanks. I better get going."

He sighed. "Yeah. Okay. I'll take you back to Jesse's for your car."