“It’s all good. I actually ran into Angie while I was at the store.” I make my way toward her. “I have some potentially big news.”
“Really? I can’t wait to hear about it. She moves the bags of food to her other hand. “Let me help you.”
“I’ve got it.” I reach for the bags in her hand. “Give me those so you can open the door.”
She looks at my two full hands and raises her eyebrows. “How are you going to carry them? With your teeth?”
“If I need to.” Always so stubborn. One of these days that’s liable to bite her in the ass.
She turns toward the walkway and heads toward the front door. Okay then, that answers that. There’s nothing left for me to do except follow after her. What I don’t think she realizes is I would follow her anywhere. If it wouldn’t have raised suspicions, and I knew where she was going, I would have gone after her when she left.
The door is unlocked and open before I make it to her. “Hurry it’s cold.”
Stubborn and bossy. I definitely know how to pick them. “I’m coming, I’m coming.” I step sideways to fit through the door without hitting the bags. She closes the door behind me.
“I’m going to get these put on plates.” She lifts the bags in her hand. “You can set those down in my room. I’ll get them put on later.”
“Okay, I’ll be back in a minute.” As I make my way down the short hallway, I can hear doors opening and closing. I bet she still hasn’t found her way around the kitchen yet. It works for me because it gives me some time.
Setting the bags on the floor, I pull the sheets out. The bed is set up against the wall closest to the door and I get to work taking the packaging off. I slide the corners of the fitted sheet over the mattress and follow with the flat sheet. I don’t know if she likes them, but it comes in the set so I might as well put it on.
Next up is the comforter and I throw it over the bed, straightening the edges until they are the same length. I look around for pillows to slip the cases on, but I don’t see any. I didn’t think to ask if she had pillows. That’s something I can pick up tomorrow if I need to.
More bangs come from the kitchen, and I’m not sure how much time I have left. Do I take the rest of this to the kitchen? Or do I set it out in here?
“Devin?” Footsteps approach from the hall. Shit. I’m about to have my mind made up for me.
Grabbing the chocolate candy, wine and flowers from the other bag, I hold them in front of me. She opens the door and gasps. “These are for you.” I hold them out in offering.
“Thank you.” She rushes between my arms and throws hers around my neck. “How did you even know?”
“I had an inside hint from someone.” I send up a silent thanks to Angie. Her suggestions were definitely the right call.
She lets go of me and turns toward the bed. “You didn’t have to make the bed for me. I planned on doing it after you leave.”
Well, now I know she doesn’t want me to stay the night. Which is fine. We can’t smooch all of our time together. We would get tired of each other. She’d get tired of me because I love spending every moment I can with her, and it’s better now since we can be out in the open together.
“It was no trouble at all. Just one more thing I could take off your plate. Do you have any pillows? I looked for some to slip into the pillowcases, but didn’t see any.”
“Yeah,” she shrugs. “I have some, but they are probably in one of the boxes.” She grabs my hand and pulls me toward the door. “Don’t worry about that now. We need to eat before the food gets cold.”
I let her lead me to the living room. There isn’t a kitchen table. It makes sense for when it was only one person living here, but now that there are two maybe it’s something they should invest in. It’s not my business, though. The reminder is something I’ll have to keep on repeat about their living arrangement even though it’s going to be so hard.
“Thank you for the food. I love the wings there.”
“I know,” she grins. “That’s why I got them.” She pushes one of the plates on the coffee table toward me. “So, what is the big news Angie told you?”
Fear over actually telling her consumes me. It’s one of those counting your chickens before they’ve hatched situations. I mentioned it, though, and I need to tell her. She’ll be one of my biggest cheerleaders because that’s the type of person she is.
“You know the band Crooked Halo? The band that performed at the bar on New Year’s?”
“Yeah. I mean I head off them before. They’re like an overnight success or something.”
If people only realized how many years it takes to become an overnight success, it would be a miracle. But I'm not going to blame Lisa for not knowing how long Crooked Halo has been performing. "Yeah, they're kind of a big deal. But that's not the exciting part."
"Which is the part I want to know." She takes a bite of her chicken. Her eyes locked on me until I answer.
"Well, Angie told me Crooked Halo will be coming to the bar and watching some of the performances."
