“Nope. Not a visit, she got a job here, she’s moving.”
“Oh, wow, that’s awesome!” Her face lights up with genuine excitement, and my heart melts a little.
It means a lot to me to have my two favorite women in the world like each other. I wonder briefly if she’d hit it off with Stephen. He’s single, after all, and she’s not too much younger.
But something about the idea of trying to set them up immediately feels wrong, and not in the way I expect. I expect to feel protective over the thought of any guy touching my baby sister, but instead I feel weirdly jealous at the prospect of her stealing him away from…me?
What the fuck is that thought about? Suddenly I realize that maybe this is what’s got me unsettled, is this weird attachment to my new friend.
“Babe? You ok?”
Kristen’s voice snaps me out of it and I shake my head. “Huh? Yeah, sorry, zoned out, I’m good.”
“So where is she staying?”
“She’s got a month-to-month rental, but she wants me to go house-hunting with her this afternoon. You want to come with?”
Kris frowns. “I want to see your sister, but I’m not sure I’m up for all of that,” she admits with a little laugh, “Keeping up with Judy’s been more physical activity than I’m used to this week, and I was kind of looking forward to being a little lazy today.”
“That’s totally fair. Tell you what, how about I go help her house hunt while you kick back and relax, then the two of us will come back here and we can have dinner and hang out?”
“That sounds perfect. I’ll make that chicken stir-fry she liked last time she was here,” she offers.
“The one with the snap peas?” I ask hopefully.
“If I have any, I think I’ll have to run to the store.”
“Text me a list, I’ll stop on the way home.”
She grins. “You really are the perfect man,” she tells me adoringly.
“Says the ideal woman scooping bacon onto a plate for me,” I retort as she serves me a plate laden with the delicious meat, along with eggs and toast.
“Guess we’re just a match made in heaven,” she tells me with a giggle.
We enjoy our breakfast together and I grab a quick shower, then spend a little time snuggling Kris on the couch and catching up on the latest episode of a show we’ve been enjoying together before it’s time to go meet up with Lexi.
The first house Lexi has me meet her at is on the other side of town, in a neighborhood I’m unfamiliar with. There isn’t really much of a “seedy” part of this town, so it’s not like I’m horribly worried about her ending up in an unsafe area, but even so, I definitely make note of the surrounding places as I pull up.
The place looks okay from the outside, but nothing terribly impressive. I pull up behind a car that I assume is Lexi’s rental and head inside. The front door is open, and I see my little sister standing with a woman in a pantsuit who I assume must be the realtor.
She turns to look as I approach and her face lights up. “Joey!” she launches herself at me and tackles me in a hug.
Fortunately I got all the genes for size in the family, and even all the weight of her pixie-esque form isn’t enough to topple me. But it does knock the wind out of me a bit, and it takes a moment before I have enough air in my lungs to laugh. “Good to see you, too, kiddo.”
When she finally releases me from her death grip, she regains her composure and turns back to her realtor. "Leslie, this is my brother, Joel,” she says.
“Nice to meet you, Leslie Guzman,” the woman says with a smile, shaking my hand.
She shows us around the house, but I think I’m paying more attention than Lexi is; she ends up chatting with me throughout most of the tour. But I’m not surprised; the house is a little too cookie-cutter for my free-spirited sister.
“Where else were you looking at listings?” I ask her.
“Here, I’ll show you the ones I’ve saved,” she says, and pulls up her phone.
She scrolls through some real estate listings, and after assessing them, I take the phone and show it to Leslie. “I think this is going to be her favorite, honestly, just knowing her, or something kind of along these lines. Especially if you have anything in this part of town.”
I don’t add that it’s a part of town that just happens to be considerably closer to Kris and I.