“Hey, where are you going?”Avery stomps up behind me.
I don’t stop walking. “My room.”
“Can I see?”
I turn, peering down at her.
Her cheeks flush. “I just… I’ve never really been up here before. Downstairs, sure. Up here… Whole new world. What if there’s an emergency, and I need to get you out?”
“If there’s an emergency, I’ll be the one getting you out.”
“You don’t know that!”
It’s cute that the girl who has no sense of danger is suddenly concerned about safety.
“If you want to see my bedroom, just say that.” If it’s possible for her cheeks to flush any more, they do. Satisfaction that I’ve stunned her into silencethrums through me as I approach my door. “How long are you planning on staying anyway?”
When her footsteps fall silent, I stop, glancing over my shoulder. “Not long.”
“No game plan?”
She shakes her head. “I’ll give myself a couple of weeks. If that’s okay.”
“You really think you can find somewhere viable in two weeks?”
She shrugs. “I was hoping some of the girls might have a connection and maybe I can find a roommate that way.”
“What is it with you and moving in with strangers?”
She frowns, and for a second, I hate that I’m the one who wiped off the cheery look she always has pasted across her face. Even when I think she’s trying to act mad, she still looks so happy. I’m even more grateful I scooped her out of the parking lot. A girl like that shouldn’t be out on the streets.
“It’s not like I’m going to kick you out,” I add to break the silence, then hurry to amend my words as a V forms between her brows. “Stay as long as you need.”
“Thank you. That’s… that’s really sweet of you, Ty. It’s a little scary out there in the roommate world, ya know? I had one a couple years ago that was secretly stealing my socks. Just a single sock from each pair.” She laughs when I grimace. “Yeah, it’s weird. But harmless, right?”
“At least it wasn’t your underwear.”
“Exactly! That’s what I tried to tell my sister, but she freaked out.” She giggles, the trill wrapping me in an unexpected warmth.
“You can stay until the holidays.” The words are out ofmy mouth before I can think better of them. “Then if I host any family get-togethers or whatever, we don’t have to explain anything to anyone. You don’t have to hide out in the shadows the whole time. Plus, my mom’s planning a Christmas wedding.”
“A Christmas wedding?”
I shrug. “We’ve tried to talk her out of it, but she says she’s old and can do what she wants. I’ve learned not to argue.”
“Thestartof the holidays? So Halloween?”
I cock my head. “I was thinking Thanksgiving. That’s the start of what most people consider to bethe holidays.”
“Says you. Halloween is technically a holiday.”
I arch a brow. “If you want one month less to find a place, then that’s up to you.”
“No, no, no. I like your plan. November. Before Thanksgiving. So that gives me…” She counts her fingers, tallying up her remaining time here. “Three more months to pay you back and find a place.”
“Just worry about finding a place.” I turn back toward my room.
“And paying you back,” she chirps, fluttering along behind me like a determined little bird.
