The next second, his green eyes were cold as an agate in winter. “A pillow wall. That’ll work.”
I’d been half serious, but the rejection stung. Yet it was his back and knee, and I’d appreciate not snoozing on a couch, so I nodded. “Okay. One bed it is.”
Van
* * *
The store couldn’t deliver everything today, so I said I’d load it all up into the truck. Rather, I’d intended to. We stood at the back of the store, my pickup ready to be loaded, and Hattie was waiting for me to call it and schedule delivery. I was doing mental gymnastics on how to get this done. It’d take more than one trip, and I’d have to get everything into the house. I wasn’t having Clover help me haul this heavy stuff.
Logically, I knew a pregnant woman could still do normal activities, but moving heavy dressers and chairs wasn’t normal for Clover. It would’ve been had my brother been doing this.
Computer stuff. What had he told her? That I play games all day?
Again, if I used my brain, I knew she probably understood as much about my career as I did about geology and her work with an oil company. But I learned to be defensive about my interests—about anything I was interested in.
“I can call my brother,” she offered.
We had no chairs and no beds. We’d have to get a room for tonight, and we did this whole marriage thing to get the house. “I don’t want to bother them.”
“My siblings love to help.” She crossed her arms. “They love to be nosy, and they’re going to be curious about us and worried about me. This gives them both.”
When she explained it like that, it wasn’t so bad. My family wouldn’t lend a hand, or they would blame me for needing it. “Okay. If you have someone with trucks available, I could use the help. I’ll pay them.”
She clicked through her phone. “They won’t take your money.”
She sounded so certain. They would truly be happy to help? Huh.
Alder arrived moments later, along with Violet and Evander. My tension slowly leaked from my muscles. One trip for each of us and we’d be done. I kept waiting for snide comments, underhanded compliments, or hell, anything other than the way they all deferred to me about what we moved first and where it went.
We went to work, and at the house, it was the same. Alder and Evander jumped in where some strength was needed, and Violet stuck by Clover’s side. No criticism, and Violet complimented my taste.
Huh.
Now they were inside with Clover, and I was parking my and Clover’s vehicles in the garage.
Once I got Clover’s car inside, Alder was waiting for me.
“Taking off?” I asked.
He nodded, his gaze appraising, just like it had been in Vegas. “Anything else I can help you with before I go?”
“There’s not much else to do but settle in.” Years ago, I gave up all my stuff when I had to move out of the home I had shared with my ex, Hillary, leaving me with just my clothing and laptop. I hadn’t had much to move out of my parents’ place.
From the meager boxes Clover had stacked in the living room, she must’ve pared down for the move too.
Alder nodded, but he didn’t leave. He traced the perimeter of the garage, looking from the concrete floor to the roof. Only the walls shared with the house were finished.
A heaviness emanated off him.
“Something on your mind?” I asked. The defensiveness crept back into my shoulders.
He stopped pacing and pinned me with a direct stare. “I wish Clover would’ve just stayed with us.”
Ah. He didn’t like to see his sister marry a stranger and then live with said stranger.
I understood her need to be independent. We were both in our thirties. Elijah said she was a few years younger than him, which made her closer to Alder’s age. Living with successful family members while struggling stung the ego more than one would think. “She had her reasons, and none of them are related to how much she cares for you and your family.”
“Appreciate that, but it’s that she doesn’t know you.”
