“You don’t think it’s too soon to move in with him? He mentions it every week but he’s not pressuring me, just reminds me that’s what he wants.”
“Of course he’s not pressuring you, because you would dump his ass if he tried to force you and he knows it. He knows you.”
She looked around her room, noticed all the things missing, the things she’d taken to Nash’s and left there. Like her favorite blanket, the one Grandma Murdock made her when she was ten. And the comfy armchair that used to be in the corner of her room by the window. It now sat in Nash’s living room in front of the fireplace they’d restored together.
“If I go, it will be the first time in our lives we haven’t lived together.”
“Are you worried about me or you?” Carly asked, one eyebrow raised in a questioning arch.
“Neither.” Laura met her sister’s gaze. “It will just be different. I guess I’m feeling nostalgic. We’ve been together since before birth.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like we’re joined at the hip.” Carly bumped her shoulder into Laura’s. “With your shifts and my shop, we hardly saw each other before you started seeing Nash. Now I’m shocked when I find you here.”
“That’s true.”
“You have a chance to build the life you always wanted. The house on the lake, the devoted husband, the family.”
“No one is talking marriage and children,” she protested.
Except they were.
Nash had made it clear that was his end game. Marriage and children. With her. And it wasn’t like either of them were waiting to establish a career or following a timeline. The only people they needed to be concerned about was each other and Nash talked about living together all the time.
Fuck.
They pretty much lived together now. They just did it in two different locations.
“I see your brain spinning.”
Laura looked at her watch. “I’ve got three hours until my shift starts.” She locked her eyes on Carly’s. “You think you can help me move everything to the Inn in that time?”
“Fuck yes,”Carly yelled with a fist pump that almost took out Laura’s left eye.
“Hey, watch it.” The warning didn’t matter because Carly was already on her feet rushing over to the closet. “We need to get some boxes.”
“That can wait. Let’s just do as much of my clothes and personal items that will fit in my suitcase and yours. We can worry about big stuff, like the bed, later.”
“I’m sure Nash or Dad or Josh would help move the big stuff,” Carly said as she dragged clothes out of the closet hanger and all.
Laura looked at the bed, the matching bookcase and dresser on the other side of it. “Actually, there isn’t anywhere to put my stuff at the Inn yet. We’re still living in the kitchen and inn keepers quarters. I’d have to store it.”
“Then leave it here. You can use it if you and Nash need to stay on this side of the lake.”
“You don’t want to rent out the room?”
“No. I don’t need the money, and I don’t want to live with a stranger anyway. C’mon, help me get all these clothes in your suitcase then I’ll grab mine.”
Carly pulled the old bag their parents had gotten her when she’d graduated from high school and planned to leave for college. Her sister had a matching one. Except neither of them had gone away to school.
“Do you regret not going away to college?”
Carly looked up, a frown marring her forehead. “Where did that come from?”
Laura tipped her chin at the bag.
“Ah, right.” Carly straightened, emotions flashing through her eyes too fast for Laura to decipher them. “No. I don’t think I would have enjoyed living away from Winter Lake.”
“Because of Mac?—”
