I carried the last crate of my things out and set it on the porch of 37 Culpepper Avenue. It had taken all morning to move all my things from Lunaris inside, but there were advantages to Lunaris, and one was not having to hire a moving van.
My cousin and siblings had come to help me pack. I’d insisted Kessian rest because his back had been paining him lately. I knew he wouldn’t want to sit around while we all worked, but he hadn’t arrived yet, and I didn’t want to go through with the next bit without him.
Fae came out of the house, dusting their hands. “Heard from him yet?”
I’d been checking my phone for the dozenth time. “I’m sure he’ll be along shortly.”
“You’re terrified he’s not going to show, aren’t you?”
They didn’t have to say it out loud.
Two weeks ago, when the deed to 37 Culpepper Avenue had finally transferred to my name officially, I’d asked Kessian if he wanted to move in. I’d emphasized that he didn’t have to. I understood his need for independence, and his fear that living together would would once again uproot him if our relationship took a turn. But we’d been together a year now. Living so close by, we spent most of our time together anyway.
And the new house was big and empty, except for all the ghosts and history and spiders that had moved in while it remained unoccupied. It would be good to fill it with somebody I loved instead.
He had gone very quiet and hadn’t answered.
I was not freaking out about this at all.
“You’re freaking out, aren’t you?” Fae said.
“No. It’s just a big deal, moving in, staying for good. I’d want him here even if he decided not to move in together yet.”
“Just call and ask for an ETA.”
“Or I could have a quiet breakdown.”
“Who’s breaking down? I hope it’s not Lunaris, after she carted all your stuff and everything.”
Laurelie appeared in the doorway.
She’d surfaced from the strid nine years younger than me, an anomaly that would no doubt ensure we forever won any game of “two truths and a lie” we played. In spite of her long absence and our sudden gap in age, we fell easily into conversation with each other, which made it seem as though love was another sort of time travel, connecting us across all the years we’d spent apart.
“Tal’s afraid Kessian’s ghosted him.”
Laurelie raised her eyebrows. “I’ll show him a ghost. Want me to drown him in the spring again? For old time’s sake.”
“No!”
As if to rescue me from my siblings, the garbled motor of Kessian’s beat-up Volvo announced his arrival. He parked up and started messing about with something in the passenger seat before getting out, awkwardly trying to balance whatever he was carrying with his cane hooked on his elbow.
I rushed over to help, only registering what he carried when I got closer.
It was his delphinium, taken from his garden, the root ball carefully wrapped in newspaper.
“Sorry I’m late. I thought I should bring a housewarming present, but then I wasn’t sure because it seemed weird to bring a housewarming gift when it’s going to be my house, too, but then I figuredwe’resort of weird, and if I wanted to move the delphiniums today’s good weather for it, so— Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Your house?”
He shifted nervously. “Well …ourhouse?”
I pulled him into a kiss. Trying to crush him, but not the plant, in a hug was a difficult achievement, but I managed. Over his shoulder I saw the Golf had boxes stuffed in the back seats, too. “You’re really moving in?”
“Yes! Did you think I’d say no?”
“Well, yeah. You didn’t say anything, just did that quiet pensive thing that you do when you’re working something out.”
“Oh … I was trying to work out where I’d plant the hydrangeas. Your garden gets a lot of sun, and they need shade.”
