“I’m not gonna live here.”
Shiloh leaned forward. She put her hands on his shoulders. Cary held her hips.
“But I’m always gonna be like this,” she said.
He looked up at her. “Like what?”
“Messy. Cluttered. Like your mom.”
“Shilohhh.” He groaned in a bad way. “Don’t talk about my mom.”
“Sorry.” She rocked. “Sorry.”
Cary sat up, he lifted her off. He was gentle. “What is this?”
“I’m kind of a hoarder,” Shiloh said.
His face was still red. “You’ve got nothing on my mom.”
“Give me time.”
Cary squeezed her hips. “I like your house. I like theyoupart of it—all the pillows and old posters. It’s comfortable.”
“What if you like itbecauseit reminds you of your mom, and then you grow to hate it?”
Cary groaned again. He let his head fall back onto the couch. Shiloh adjusted her hips, so she wasn’t squishing him.
“Okay,” he said, “you know what? Your housedoeskind of remind me of my mom’s house. And itdoesdrive me a little crazy. But I also like it. I feel at home here.”
Shiloh shook him a few times by the shoulders. “Do you have some fantasy that it will be different when we live together?”
He looked at her. “Yes. Because we’ll have a house with windows that open and decent screens. And I can do the dishes.”
“We’re probably going to argue about it...”
“Probably. But not for a while.”
She frowned.
“You keep acting like that’s a bad thing...” Cary said. “But every time you tell me that we’re going to have problems in the future, all I think about is how lucky I am to have a future with you. Finally.”
Shiloh looked at him. She was sucking on her bottom lip. She took off her dress.
Cary nodded at her. “Just throw that anywhere.”
They took a shower together, and Cary asked if the kids had any toys thatweren’tin the bathtub.
The real reason he was in a good mood was that he had the paperwork to put his mom’s house on the market. He was going to ask Lois to sign over financial power of attorney so he could handle the sale—but he wasn’t sure she’d go for it. He wanted to head right over there to talk to her. Shiloh said she’d come along.
She put her dress back on and brushed her hair. She swept the front to the side with a barrette.
They stopped to pick up dinner from his mom’s favorite Mexican restaurant—which delighted Lois. She clapped when she opened her door and saw the bags. She didn’t have a kitchen table, so the three of them ate in the living room while Cary explained the paperwork to her.
The apartment was more crowded than the last time Shiloh had been here. Lois had wanted to keep a lot of things from her old house. There were boxes stacked in the living room and the bedroom. Shiloh could tell Cary was irritated by it.
Shiloh cleaned up after dinner. And Lois put on her glasses to take a closer look at the contract. “I just don’t know...” she kept saying.
Cary sat near her on the couch. “Mom. What don’t you know?”
