“I’ve bought new furniture. The big thing I’m taking is the bedroom set. That’s—well, that’s mine. He was upset when I bought it.”
“It’s a beautiful set,” Jack said, dumping another stack of boxes. He held a roll of packing tape in his hand and bent to put together the first box.
“Then we’ll get the bed first,” Sean said.
I crouched down near where Jack was taping the boxes. “I can help with this.” My hands replaced his where he was holding down the flaps. Jack smiled at me as he taped the bottom of the first box.
“All right, we’ll let you do that part. First, walk us through the place and point out any furniture you want to take.” Sean’s hands slipped under my arms, lifting me to my feet again. “Jack and I will load all that in first since it’ll take up the most space.”
The house felt different when I led them inside. Empty somehow, even though everything was right where I’d left it.
“Dining room table?” Sean asked, walking through past the kitchen.
That was the place Neil liked to sit when we needed to talk. I could picture how he’d sat there waiting for me to come home our last morning together. “No, not that.” I said no to most of the living room furniture, too, only saying yes to the end table with the built-in lamp I liked to read near.
“Oh, and the record player.” I moved over to it in the corner and ran my finger over the needle. “I used to listen to old records with the Millers every evening.” My heart clenched as I remembered. The memories were good ones, but I always missed the Millers when I played a record. It had been a while since I had. “All the records are mine. Well, they were theirs, but I brought them here, and Neil doesn’t like them anyway.” The few times I’d played one, he’d made a face even though he’d told me it was fine.
“We’ll save them toward the end since they’re delicate,” Jack said, moving up beside me. “Though my fingers itch to look through all that vinyl.”
I smiled up at him. “I’m not sure you’ll like it. Mrs. Miller had a huge thing for Barry Manilow.” She used to get a look in her eye when she stared at his image on a particular album, and Mr. Miller would pull her onto his lap and pretend to be jealous.
“He was quite a heartthrob in his time,” Jack said, bending toward one of the record cases.
“No, you don’t,” Sean said, catching his arm in a tug. “Once you start digging into that music, you’ll be no good to me. Furniture first.”
Jack laughed but let himself be pulled away. I followed behind them, my arms wrapping around my stomach, wishing I could hold on to this fluttering feeling.
The office was mostly my stuff, and I pointed out my at-home work desk and the bookshelves I wanted to take. Then we made it into the bedroom I shared with Neil.
“This thing is massive.” Sean moved toward the bed frame, his hands wrapping around the top metal bar.
Something about the image made me clench between my legs. What I was imagining was all sorts of wrong. I’d always pictured being the one tied up to it before.
“We’ll have to take this apart to move it, but that looks easy enough. Good thing I brought my tools.” I could breathe again when he released the bar to crouch near the bottom of the frame, studying the screws.
“Sorry, it’s pretty heavy,” I admitted, looking around at the matching nightstands and dresser with a large seashell-shaped mirror attached.
“We’ll have to detach this mirror, too.” Jack said, following me over, pressing close to the wall as he studied the way it was bolted onto the back.
“I know it’s a lot.” I looked at the furniture again. Neil had always said it was dark and heavy, and he wasn’t wrong.
“You already told me how much you love this furniture when I brought you home that one night,” Jack told me, straightening. “We came expecting to do this. It’s not too much, Hailey.”
“Okay,” I agreed, feeling a little better. “I already warned Neil I was taking it. He should have—” My voice died as I pulled open one of the drawers he used. All of his clothes were still there. “Oh. He didn’t empty it.” My eyes moved around the room, seeing how empty it would be once the furniture was removed. “I guess he didn’t have anywhere else to put his clothes. Maybe—”
Sean’s hands cupped my shoulders, turning my body toward him. “Jack, can you go grab a couple of those boxes?”
“Sure,” Jack said, his eyes lingering on me as he left.
“It’s not fair to take it all, is it?” I stared down into the full drawer. Neil would hate that Sean and Jack had seen his boxers.
“Hailey, no furniture is going to make up for him losing you,” Sean said.
My eyes lifted to his, and he pulled me in for a hug.
“You were the treasure here, not this stuff. Anything you leave isn’t going to make him feel better. Besides, you need somewhere to put your clothes, too.”
“He’s mostly been angry in the messages he left,” I whispered. “I don’t want to make that worse.”
