Jesse came home and nodded at Dana who was still folding clothes and squeezing them into suitcases. He went to the kitchen and unloaded the groceries.

He took the box of razors quietly into his room and set them on his desk. He looked at Summer curled up on his bed. Her hair was loose and hung into her face.

Jesse went over to her and brushed the softness away from her face. He studied her face as he had studied her picture many times. Summer looked a little older now, but she was still the same beautiful girl he had fallen in love with all those years ago.

He would watch the video Dana had sent him over and over just to hear Summer's voice. To see her smile at the camera and laugh so sweetly, who demanded so charmingly for the photographer to put the camera away.

Summer was the reason he avoided going to visit Dana at all. He didn't know how to handle it. He'd never been in love before and it happened when he made a phone call to Dana.

After a year of torturing himself, he put the videotape away in the back of his closet and didn't take it out again. Jesse went on with his life, his heart aching terribly at first, but it eased over the years.

Jesse still thought about her. Dana would mention Summer every once in a while and he was glad that she was doing well. He would then think about her for a little while and when it got too much he put her in the back of his mind again.

That part of his life had been over. He couldn't continue loving Summer if he wanted to live at all. When he loved her, she was all he thought of, all he wanted, and it killed him not to have her.

Jesse missed their phone conversations. He had avoided calling Dana and Summer's dorm room line after Dana kept pressing him to go after Summer, when she already had a boyfriend. He couldn't bear hearing Summer's voice, knowing that she was with someone else. He called Dana more often on her cell or sent emails. Occasionally, he would still call the dorm line just so it wouldn't look like he was avoiding calling her.

He had admired Summer's things when he was at their dorm with Dana. The framed pictures of her family on her desk, the small little glass knickknacks of animals. He'd slept in her bed and breathed her glorious scent in. It was imbedded in his blood.

And here she was now, years later, sleeping on his bed, looking as gorgeous as ever and smelling as she did, pulling at what was already deeply implanted in him.

Jesse touched her shoulder lightly, just to feel her for one second. Summer's skin was cold. He noticed goose bumps across her shoulders and arms, which were partly crossed in self warmth.

He shook his head at her shyness of not actually getting into his bed. Jesse went to his closet and took a dark blue fuzzy blanket off his top shelf. He opened the blanket and slid it gently around her. Summer pulled it to her in her sleep and didn't wake. Jesse left the room and shut the door behind him. He crossed over to Dana's room.

Dana smiled when he entered. "Hey."

"How's the packing going?" he asked, avoiding her eyes. Dana knew when something was up with him, she always did, and he hated it. One look into his eyes and she was all over him.

Maybe by talking about her trip she would be too preoccupied about that to notice how desperately he wanted her friend.

"Horrible. How am I supposed to pack for three whole months in only two bags?"

"Take less clothes," he answered, flopping onto her bed, and laid back onto her dozen pillows. He closed his eyes.

"We're talking three- whole -months," Dana looking at her clothes in frustration.

"You ever hear of a Laundromat?" he asked, opening one eye.

She shook her head. "Men just don't understand these things."

"And don't want to," He answered with a grin.

"Is Summer still sleeping?" Dana asked, looking at the now closed bedroom door across from her.

"Out cold. Literally. You could have told her to actually get in the bed. She had goose bumps all over her, like she was freezing."

"She's shy. Give her time. She'll get used to you," Dana said with a shrug. "Did you give her a blanket?" Dana asked with a teasing smile.

"Of course, what kind of guy do you think I am?"

"Boy scout," Dana teased.

"Common courtesy, thank you very much. And stop calling me a boy scout," he said, throwing a stuffed teddy bear at her.

Dana glanced over her shoulder as she pulled some more clothes out of her dresser. "You are. Any other guy would have jumped into bed with her to warm her up."

He laughed. "Thank you for thinking so highly of my gender."

"It's true," Dana said fiercely.

"Not all guys are like that, Dana. I've tried telling you," he said quietly.

"I know.... I'll get over him. Eventually."

Jesse studied his friend. Even though he wasn't attracted to her the way he probably should be, he did see her beauty.

Dana had a gorgeous face with an incredible smile, a small cute nose, and a killer body.

He wondered about himself sometimes not being attracted to her. People talked of their relationship and the fact that they had never hooked up. He heard people thought they had a secret relationship or maybe that he or Dana was gay. Neither was. They just thought of each other as brother and sister rather than friends. Jesse couldn't understand why people couldn't accept it. He hoped Summer would. He didn't want her to think he had something going on with Dana, when he wanted a thing with Summer.

Jesse winced at the distraught expression on Dana's face. Shit. He shouldn't have brought him up. "You want to talk about it?"

"No. I don't want to mention him ever again, okay?"

Jesse shrugged."Whatever you want."

He felt terrible because he did want to climb into bed with Summer. Jesse wanted to wrap his arms around her cold shoulders and warm her up. He wanted to make love to her. Did that make him as bad as Jeremy?

Jeremy had played up how much he loved Dana. And when he got what he wanted, he left her.

Jesse had no intention on ever leaving Summer if he could have a chance with her. He did love her. She was in his heart and she was not coming out, no matter how hard he tried. Now that she was here, and unattached, he wasn't sure how he was going to handle that.

"So, wish number one?" Dana asked him with a smile and sat in front of him, turning her back to him.

He sighed and brushed her long brown hair aside and started massaging her shoulders. She groaned in pain and in relief.

"Worried about the trip?" he asked, feeling her tight muscles.

"Just a lot of pressure. I really want this promotion."

"You'll do great, Dane. Don't think about it. You think about it, you get too stressed. You get too stressed, you can't think straight. Just be yourself and you'll be fine," he said, working on the muscles between her shoulder blades.

"So, you're cool with my third wish?"

"I told you, yes. I was thinking about asking you to move in with me anyway. I mean, I can't really see not living with you anymore. And it's a big house. I'd be too lonely without you yakking in my ear all the time."

"What about when you get married? I doubt your wife will want me living with you."

"We'll deal with that when it happens. Not like I'm getting married anytime soon," he told her, moving to her lower back.

"But, you're not sure about Summer," Dana asked, wincing as her muscles hurt when he touched them. She soon relaxed as he kneaded them.

Jesse sighed. "I just met her, Dane. I know she's your friend; you lived with her for two years and I talked to her abit on the phone, but I can't make that kind of big decision just from that. We might not even get along in person."

"But, she's going to start looking for a place as soon as I leave!" Dana complained.

"I know. Look, if I think it's going okay, I'll stall her on the looking for a place until I can make a decision, okay?"

"Okay." Dana sighed.     

Author note: 

Do you think Jesse will ask Summer to move into his house when it's' done with him and Dana?