“Lovey!” Liv raced across the parking lot.
Olivia wrapped her in a warm embrace and only grumbled a little whenFern insisted on rubbing her still-invisible pregnant belly.
Then Fern finally, officially, met Noa, one of Liv’s new friends. Petite, with welcoming almond eyes and sleek black hair, she bounded over on Liv’s heels, bouncing off the non-existent walls as they were introduced.
“Hug? I feel like we’re already friends. Liv’s told me so much about you, and Iknowwe’re going to get along.”
“Oh my god, yes, please,” Fern agreed, throwing her arms around her first new friend in town.
One warm welcome later, they got to it. Unloading her trailer took less than two hours with the four of them working together, then Ben left with Noa, while Liv stuck around to catch up and help Fern unpack.
The studio was perfect, small and easy to keep clean. It featured a kitchen area across from the door, a living room corner down to her left, and the bed nook across from that. It was all one cozy space… plus the separate bathroom.
She couldn’t wait to settle in—and maybe paint the walls something other than… inoffensive tan.
Fern flapped open her vibrant paisley comforter a few minutes into the great unpack-a-thon. “Texting your sweetheart? Did you guys bang on this bed?”
“That’s a new mattress,” Liv said offhandedly as she sent off another message before waving her phone in the air. “It’s Ben and Fitz. He was checking up on you.”
“Ben was?”
“No, Elliott.”
“What?” The blanket fluttered haphazardly into position—she’d get that in a minute. Turning, Fern found Liv sitting on an orange kitchen chair, a sparkle in her warm brown eyes. “What?”
Liv lifted her brows.
“He’s hot,” Fern blurted. “Like—exactlymy type looks-wise. But he’s kind of weird.” And way too established, too much of a real adult with his home and his art studio and plot of land carved out of the forest. “Will you help me make the bed? I need to dump out my clothes. What’s the weather supposed to be tomorrow? I’ll probably still be unpacking. Is there an airconditioner in here? Will I need it when it gets warmer?Isthis peak heat, or will it get hotter in August?”
Olivia cleared her throat and patted the end of the bed, reminding Fern she’d just asked for help making it.
“How?” Liv asked.
“How what?” Fern smoothed her corner of the rainbow comforter, her fingertip lingering on a blue paisley.
“How was he weird?”
“I asked you alotof important questions. You’re just going to ignore them?”
Liv pursed her lips. “Name one.”
“Name one what?”
When Olivia laughed, her shoulder-length mass of curls bounced. “Name one of the important questions you just asked me.”
“I—” Sucking her teeth, Fern snatched her first box, ripped it open, and dumped it on the freshly made bed. The clothes weren’t organized when they went in, and she was annoyed at her past-self for that oversight.
“How was Fitz weird?”
“Just standoffish,” she muttered, starting a smaller pile for her shirts.
“How?”
“Stop pushing me!”
Liv grinned, and Fern rolled her eyes. “You want him.”
“I don’twanthim, I… I want to be him?”
