The apartment is small and smells like coffee from the coffee shop downstairs, but I don’t mind.There’s floor to ceiling windows overlooking the street below, and I smile as I walk closer to them.
“A sex toy shop, dirty bakery, and romance bookstore,” Foster says, and I spin around, gaping at him.
“Really?”I ask him, and he nods.
“Have you been to them yet?”I ask.
“Just the bakery,” both brothers say at the same time, and I laugh.
“I want to go to all three.”
“Alright,” Foster agrees.
“I’m just here to help with the boxes.Then I need to get back to work,” Ford says apologetically.
“We’ll go tomorrow or something then,” I tell him.
They set the boxes down by the kitchen counter and we head back out to the truck.
“How’s the diner been?”I ask Ford as we make another trip up.
“Good, busy.”
Just like Foster, Ford doesn’t really have much to say.Ever.He’s always been sweet to me, maybe even flirted with me a few times, but I’ve never felt anything other than friendship for him.My heart has always belonged to Foster.
I can still remember the day that I fell in love with him.It was my first day of school after we moved to Wolf Valley, and I was so nervous.I was joining fifth grade in a town where everyone knew everyone, and I was sure that I would stand out like a sore thumb.
I did.I was the one that everyone stared at as I walked into the school, and I hated it.I never really liked to be the center of attention, and I didn’t know how to handle it back then.
I must have looked like I was going to be sick.I can still remember my palms sweating as I tried to unfold the school map and find my classroom.Then Foster and Ford had walked up to me.Ford was busy talking to one of his friends, but Foster had looked right at me and smiled.
He had taken the map from me and then walked me to class.It turned out that we had the same teacher, and he had sat next to me and turned so that I couldn’t really see the rest of the classroom or the students.I had relaxed then.
He had spent the whole day acting as my personal bodyguard.By lunchtime, I learned that he and Ford lived next door from me, and by the time that the Miller boys walked me home that afternoon, I was thinking of Foster as my own personal knight in shining armor.I didn’t fall in love with him until we were almost back to our houses.My shoelace had come undone, and he had stopped me before I could trip or fall and bent down to tie it for me.When he looked up at me and gave me that crooked smile, I knew he was the boy I wanted to marry someday.
Unfortunately for me, somewhere over the years, I seem to have been firmly put in the friend zone, and I never knew how to get out of it.
I blink out of my memories and follow Ford and Foster back out to the U-Haul.The boys run down to grab the furniture I brought back with me and I unpack some of the boxes.I really don’t have much.Hopefully, now that I’m home, I can start to put down more roots.
“This is the last of it,” Ford announces, and I smile.
“Thanks again for helping.It’s so good to see you,” I say, hugging him goodbye.
“No problem.Come by the diner tomorrow and I’ll get you something.On the house,” he offers.
“I’ll take you up on that.”
He waves goodbye and jogs back downstairs, leaving Foster and me to unpack everything.
“Where do you want these boxes?”He asks, and I peek inside to see some clothes.
“In the bedroom, please.”
He nods, grabbing the boxes as I unpack some of my design gear and fabric.
“I can’t wait to see your latest designs,” he tells me, and my face flames with a bright red blush that has him freezing and giving me a funny look.
I’m not surprised that he wants to see what I’ve been working on.Foster was always my biggest supporter.When I told him that I wanted to design clothes for plus size women, he encouraged me to go for it, even when no one else thought that I could do it.He was always cheering me on.
