The woman working behind the desk sent him a questioning look. "Would you like one room or two, sir?"

"One," he said and when Marybeth opened her mouth to try to get out of spending the night in his arms, he slapped his hand over her mouth and stressed, "Just one room."

She glanced at Marybeth, but when Marybeth didn't say anything, mostly because she was too busy trying to slap his hand away, the woman focused back on her computer screen. "I have a queen, two doubles and a king with-"

"We'll take the king," he said, cutting her off, hoping to rush this along before Marybeth- "Ow!" he snapped, pulling his hand away and trying shake off the sting as he glared down at the small woman that adored him. "Stop pinching me!"

"We," she said, practically seething with rage, "are no longer speaking."

"Shhh, it's okay, darling. I know that you really don't mean it," he said in his most condescending tone as he reached over and petted her on the head, loving the way that her face turned bright red with rage.

She opened her mouth, probably to call him an asshole, but all she managed to get out was a choking sound, her rage too strong to form a coherent word at this point.

Not that he could blame her.

He really couldn't.

As he pulled out his wallet and handed over his ID and credit card, he couldn't help but wonder if daring her to go on the elevator drop ride five times in a row after she ate that hot dog had been too much. When she reached past him and took the keycard from the desk clerk and stormed off, leaving him to carry her bag and follow after her, he decided that she was just being unreasonably cranky.

"Trevor and Zoe took the kids home," Darrin said as he walked into the small bathroom and leaned back against the counter.

"I thought they were staying overnight," she said, deciding that she liked the world a whole lot better with her eyes closed.

Yeah, keeping her eyes closed was definitely the way to go, she decided when the world stopped spinning and shaking. She slowly exhaled, willing the dizziness and nausea that had been plaguing her since she stumbled off that first rollercoaster to go away. She lowered herself in the tub and draped the wet facecloth over her eyes.

"Yes, well," Darrin said, chuckling, "it seems that they have their hands full with the kids double daring each other to do something incredibly stupid every five minutes."

With a groan, she lowered herself in the water until her chin was touching the hot water. "Shit."

"They're not too happy with us right now," Darrin said as she felt him trace her jaw with his fingertips.

No, she didn't think that they would be. They were normally very good about not double daring each other in front of kids. Not that she was taking any of the blame on this one, not after the hell that the bastard had put her through today. She was terrified of rollercoasters, fast rides, heights and especially those rides that suddenly dropped you from three stories up and the bastard had double dared her to go on every single one today and the kids had unfortunately been there to overhear a few of Darrin's dares.

True, she could have simply said no and probably should have, but they'd been doing this for so long now that it would have felt wrong to walk away. Besides, she'd get him back. She always did and it would be ten times worse than what he'd put her through today. She just wouldn't be doing it now when every fiber of her being demanded that she curl up and die.

"Do you want me to get you something?" he asked softly as he removed the facecloth from her face.

"My own room?" she asked even though she would kill him if he abandoned her during her time of need.

He chuckled as she felt his soft lips press against her forehead. "Not happening. What else?"

She sighed, making sure to sound properly putout as she said, "A Pepsi."

"Your stomach's upset?" he asked as he gently placed his hand over her stomach.

She opened her eyes just wide enough so that she could glare at him.

Just glared.

"Fine," he said, smiling as he leaned down and brushed his lips against her firm ones as she continued to glare at him, "I'll go get your Pepsi."

She continued to glare at him as he left the bathroom. Once he was gone, she grabbed the facecloth, dunked it in the bath water and placed back over her eyes as she waited the Grim Reaper to come for her...or for her Pepsi, whichever one came first.

Chapter 4.

"Come on! Don't be like that!"

"Go. To. Hell," she bit out, stressing every word as she rolled over onto her side and got more comfortable as she read on Darrin's iPad, determined to ignore her brother.

"I said that I was sorry!"

She rolled her eyes, because he hadn't apologized and probably never would. "Go away!"

"What if I told you that I had Black Jack's pizza?"

"Oh, shit!" she gasped in terror, jumping off the couch and racing to the door, praying that Darrin hadn't heard him, because even though she was pretty pissed at her brother right now, she really did love him. She had the door thrown open and was dragging her brother, pizza and all, inside before she slammed the door shut, wincing at the noise and praying that Darrin hadn't heard it.

"He's not here," Jake said, chuckling as he shifted the pizza boxes and appetizer bags in his arms so that he could hold out the six-pack of A&W root beer to her.

"His truck wasn't outside?" she asked even as she slowly reached up and turned the lock on her door, flinching when the action produced a soft clicking noise that was bound to give them away.

"No," he said teasingly as he gave up on waiting for her to take the soda from him and placed the six-pack on the coffee table.

"You wanna eat in here or in the kitchen?"

Licking her lips nervously, she reached up and slowly turned the deadbolt, something that she only used in dire emergencies. Cringing when the lock made a louder clicking noise, she froze on the spot and listened. When she didn't hear anything she turned around and mouthed the word, "bedroom," and gestured for her brother to move his ass.

Rolling those baby blue eyes of his, courtesy of their mother, Jake walked upstairs. She picked up the six-pack and looked around, making sure that there wasn't any evidence left behind like a napkin or one of those coupons they usually slapped on the pizza boxes. When she didn't find anything that could give them away, she grabbed the small bottle of perfumed air freshener that her mother had bought her as a housewarming gift seven years ago and liberally sprayed the living room and stairs as she made her way upstairs, praying that the obnoxious smell was enough to keep Darrin from finding out what they were doing.

"That shit stinks," Jake said, taking the air freshener and six-pack of soda from her and placed them on her bureau, freeing her hands so that she could shut and lock her bedroom door behind her.

"Mom gave it to me," she said absently as she checked and then double-checked the lock.

"I think she gave me the same bottle a few years ago," Jake murmured thoughtfully as he looked at the bottle. "I'm pretty sure that I gave it to an ex-girlfriend."

"Probably," she absently agreed as she considered stuffing a towel against the bottom of the door.

"Let's eat," Jake said, chuckling as he threw his arm around her and- "What the hell happened to your hand?" she demanded, noticing for the first time that two of the fingers on his right hand were in splints.

"Huh?" Jake asked, glancing down at his fingers as he shrugged it off. "Just decided that I needed a new accountant."

"I thought the guy you tried setting me up with was your accountant," she pointed out, allowing him to lead her to the bed.

"Was is the operative word," he said with a wink as he waited for her to climb on the bed.

"What happened?" she asked, shifting closer to the edge of the bed to make room for the pizza and Jake.

"Nothing that you need to worry your pretty little head about," he said mockingly as he reached over and patted her on the head, an annoying habit that he'd picked up from Darrin.

Rolling her eyes, she grabbed one of the heavy-duty paper plates off the pizza box and tossed the other one to him. She reached down, opened the box and realized that Darrin might very well kill her on this day.

"The Monster," she said in a reverent tone as she reached for a thick slice that held every delectable topping known to man.

"I figured this would make up for the other day," he said, helping her load the impossibly thick slice of pizza on her plate.

"It doesn't," she said, taking a bite of pizza and groaning when the buttery crust and toppings competed for attention in her mouth, "but it's a nice start."

"What will it take to earn your forgiveness?" he asked, grabbing a slice of pizza for himself before he shut the cover and provided them with a table.

"Well, besides a root beer?" she asked, giving him a pointed look that had him rolling his eyes and getting off his ass.

"Yes, besides a root beer," he said, grabbing the six-pack and walking back to the bed. As he sat down he handed her a can.

"You could stop trying to set me up with your loser friends," she suggested, hopefully.

"My friends aren't losers," he said around a large bite of pizza, groaning in pleasure.

That was true. His friends and the men that he normally tried to set her up with weren't losers, but the last one definitely had been. Seriously? What kind of loser was willing to pay for sex?

"And the last guy clearly doesn't count," he said firmly.

"Fine," she said, taking another bite before she added, "Then just stop trying to set me up. I'm fine."

"Are you going to marry Darrin?" he asked offhandedly as he popped the small piece of crust in his mouth.

"We're just friends," she mumbled as she took a big bite out of her pizza, but this time the delicious flavors were lost on her and all she wanted to do was throw the pizza and Jake out of her apartment so that she could avoid this conversation, the same one that they'd been having for the past five years since Jake had caught them- Well, what he'd caught them doing wasn't important.

"He loves you," Jake said, reaching over and taking her hand into his to give it a reassuring squeeze.

"I know," she said, dropping the rest of her pizza on her plate and placed it on the box.

"You've been in love with this man for your whole life, Goose," he said softly, using the nickname that her grandparent's tribe had come up with for her after a rather unfortunate incident involving several geese, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and her determination to feed them when she was three years old.

She nodded, because he was right of course. She was in love with Darrin Bradford. For the longest time she'd fought it, tried to deny it, but at the end of the day, she knew that there was no denying that she loved him. He was the love of her life and always would be, which made things worse because she wasn't good enough for him.

And she never would be.

"Tell him, Goose. It's not going to change anything for him. He's still going to want to marry you," Jake said, placing his plate on the pizza box so that he could reach over and take her hand in his.

"I know it won't," she said, sniffling.

"So, tell him."

"No."

"Why not?" he asked, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Because I love him too much to do that to him," she said, accepting the napkin that he was holding out to her and quickly wiped her mouth.

"He has the right to make that decision for himself."

"No," she said, shaking her head, "he doesn't. I don't want him giving up his dreams for me."

For several minutes neither one of them said anything as they sat there, thinking things over until finally, Jake said, "Then it's time that you let him go."

"I know," she reluctantly admitted, because what she was doing wasn't fair to either one of them. She had to let him go.

She just wasn't ready to do that yet.

Chapter 5.

"It's gotta be a trap," his twin brother said as they stood there, staring down at the small stack of Black Jack's pizza boxes that they'd discovered hiding in his normally barren refrigerator twenty minutes ago.

"I know," Darrin said, staring down at the boxes and damning Marybeth to hell and back for teasing them like this.

"Didn't you double dare her to go on all those rides?" Reese asked, swallowing nervously as he glanced around the large kitchen.

"Yes," he admitted hollowly, wondering what kind of sick person could do something this.

"They've gotta be empty," Reese said, shifting his attention back to the boxes.

"No," he said, shaking his head slowly, "they were heavy."

"What are you thinking?" Reese asked, poking the box with a butter knife. "A diuretic?"

"It could be anything," he said, folding one arm over his chest while he cupped his chin in a thoughtful manner with his other hand.

"Maybe we should just throw them away," Reese suggested, but they both knew that neither one of them would be able to do that.

There were just some things that you didn't do, and throwing away Black Jack's pizza was one of them.

"Just try it," he said, hoping that his brother would man up and get it over with so that they could end this bullshit.

Reese shook his head, assuming a similar pose as he continued to study the box. "You first."