Somewhere that was really, really my own.
“You’ll find somewhere, babe. I know you want to get out of your parents, but it’s only been a few weeks. You can come here anytime you want. I did come home from work at two a.m. to find you in my bed the other day.”
I sniffed. “Mom and Aunt Bethel were fighting, and I couldn’t sleep. Besides, that’s your fault for not asking for your key back.”
He snorted. “What was I going to do? Tell you that I’m in love with you and then ask for my key back?”
“Do you want your key back?”
“No. I came home from a ten-hour shift and got to grab your ass while I fell asleep. You can keep the key.”
I laughed, pulling back a little. “True. Okay. I feel better. I guess I’m just fed up.”
Noah smiled, then dipped his head and kissed me. He pulled back to say something when his newly installed doorbell rang and Poosh went bananas. She had no issues if you knocked, but the doorbell?
Nope. Poosh was not a fan.
I jumped down to scoop her up. She instantly settled in my arms and snuggled in close to me.
“Hey, is Reagan’s here?” came my brother’s voice from the doorway.
I frowned. What the hell was Preston doing here?
“Hey, yeah, she’s in the kitchen. Come on in. Oh, hey, Halley,” was Noah’s reply.
I frowned even harder. Seriously. I gave myself a headache.
“Hey,” I said when they all came in. “Are you looking for me?”
Halley nodded. “We need to talk to you about something.”
“Are you pregnant?”
“No! Oh, my God. I have enough raccoons without having a miniature human, too,” she huffed.
“Not pregnant,” Preston repeated. “Okay? Not even close.”
Noah laughed.
“What do you want, then? Can’t you see I’m snuggling and drowning my sorrows?”
Preston and Halley shared a look. “Actually, the sorrows are why we’re here,” Halley said. “You’ve seen a bunch of apartments now, and none of them work. I know how desperate you are to get out of your parents’, so I met Preston for lunch and we had a talk.”
I eyed them both as Noah came and stood behind me. “What are you talking about?”
Preston glanced at Halley, who nodded. “I’m going to move in with Halley,” he said.
I blinked. “What?”
“I’m moving in with Halley.” His lips tugged to the side. “We’ve been dating for a few months, and I spend most of my time at her house anyway. It makes sense for both of us.”
I ran my tongue over my bottom lip. “Okay?”
“Reagan,” Halley said, taking a step forward. “Preston owns his apartment. He’s going to lease it to you.”
“If you want it,” he said quickly. “We’ve mentioned living together a few times anyway, but now felt like the right time. It’s yours if you want it. You’ll just pay the mortgage and that’s it. It’s less than your old place.”
I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know what to say. All that stress I’d felt, the desperation to have my own independence again, and my brother and best friend were the ones who were handing it back to me.
“You won’t need to buy furniture,” Preston continued. “New mattress and stuff, but I’ll rent it to you fully furnished with all the major appliances.”
I still couldn’t speak, so I did the only thing I could. I shoved Poosh at Noah and threw myself at my brother. Tears stung my eyes as I hugged him tighter than I’d ever hugged anyone in my life.
“Thank you,” I whispered in his ear.
“Of course.” He stroked the back of my head. “You’re my sister. I want you to be happy.”
I pressed my face into his shoulder in an attempt to stem the flow of tears. It was a really bad idea because it didn’t work. Instead, I cried tears of happiness for a solid minute before I got my shit together and pulled back before I suffocated Preston.
“Thank you.”
Halley smiled. “We all win. I get my live-in raccoon feeder, and you get some privacy.”
Noah wrapped an arm around me with a grin.
“You knew about this!” I shoved him. “Oh, my God!”
He nodded. “He came by the fire station earlier and told me. I didn’t know Halley was coming, but we decided to kill two birds with one stone. Or three, in this case. I already ordered pizza for us all.”
I pursed my lips. “You’re so sly.”
Halley helped herself to my glass of wine. “You’re welcome, asshole.”
“Oh, shut up.” I took the new glass Noah handed me. I won. It had more wine in it than my old one. “I can’t believe you were all scheming behind my back.”
“Scheming is a strong word,” Noah said slowly. “I prefer to think of it more as planning.”
Preston handed Noah a beer and they clinked bottles. “Amen to that.” They both walked through to the living room, leaving me alone with Halley for a minute.