“I’ll have that.” Alexandra grins at him before rushing back toward the house to escape the cold. “Thank you!”
“She’s a good kid.” Peter nods toward her. “What do you want to eat?”
“Same thing.” He’s going out of his way to do this thing for us, the least I can do is make my order easy for him. “Thanks.”
“Any time.” He smiles at me, and my heartbeat quickens.
“You aren’t gonna ask what I want?” Miles throws his hands up in the air. “Go figure.”
“Shut up. I know what you get.”
“What if I want something different?” My brother shoots back.
I follow Alexandra inside and leave them to their bickering. At least that hasn’t changed. Deep down I know I shouldn’t let him do this. But damn, it feels good having someone offer to meet my needs. I rack my brain trying to remember the last time that happened, and it’s been way too long.
“What are we going to unbox first?” Alexandra asks.
My feet leave the ground and I almost fall backward. She doubles over laughing because she scared me.
“It’s not that funny.” I grumble. “Why were you being so quiet?”
“I wasn’t.” She points toward the boxes on the floor. “I’ve been unstacking boxes so we can figure out what goes where. Your mind must have been elsewhere.”
She has a sly grin on her face, and I know that wasn’t the only thing she was doing. Considering her proximity to the window, she was definitely snooping. She better not be getting any ideas about trying to set me up with Peter. Last school year she tried setting me up with a friend’s dad, and it didn’t work out well at all. Being a teenager is the only thing she should have on her mind, not my love life.
“Well, since we have food coming, we should probably unbox some of the kitchen stuff in case we need it.” Being productive is what I need to get my mind off Peter. There’s no way in hell I’m letting my past infatuation show it’s face again. The only thing I need to focus on is raising my daughter and putting the pieces of my life back together.
“Sounds good.” She nods and looks for one of the boxes labeled “kitchen”.
Ideally, we should have unloaded the boxes in their respective rooms. The rain last night kind of killed that for us. We were too focused on getting everything inside. Then Alice ran off. The beginning of the new year has not been kind to us. Hopefully we can turn things around.
Miles and Peter join us in the living room. “The food should be here in about thirty minutes.”
“How in the world is it getting here so fast?” Alexandra asks as she lifts a box.
“Eric is determined to see what’s going on over here on Starlit Road. He’ll be breaking every traffic law he can.”
I tilt my head to the side in question. “Did we go to school with him?”
“No. He’s been here a few years and has dubbed himself the town busy body.” Peter shakes his head and lifts on of the boxes. He must have noticed the label on Lexi’s box. “If you don’t want him in your business, it’s best to say as little as possible.”
“Sounds like I need to be friends with this guy.” Lexi laughs and continues toward the kitchen.
I shake my head. Of course she’d want to befriend the town gossip. I guess she sees it as the only form of entertainment in Asheville. Hopefully she’ll see this town has more than that to offer. Despite the drama that occurs on occasion, the community always comes together for their own.
“Eric actually has two step kids about her age. It might be a good idea to invite them over so she knows someone when she starts school,” Peter says as he lifts two boxes. Show off. Also, why is he giving me parenting advice? Last time I checked his social media he was single with no kids.
“You literally just told me not to say too much to him. Now you want me to set up a play date for teens?”
“It’s only an idea.” He shakes his head as he makes his way to the kitchen.
Great, now I’ve offended him twice today.
Five
Peter
No matter what I do, I keep saying the wrong thing. At least that’s what it feels like. I don’t remember her being quite so cynical when we were younger. What in the hell happened to her?
