Parker is the last person to leave, and I’m practically shoving him out the door. I love my brother, I really do, but I need him to go. Now that Callie is back in her own house, we don’t get as much time together.
“I think we just hosted our first successful event.” Callie collapses on the couch and I pick up her legs to sit under them. “That was exhausting. It’s been forever since I’ve had people over.”
“You’re a natural.” I grab her fuzzy sock covered foot and dig my thumbs into the arch.
“Oh my God, that feels good.” She moans, and damn she needs to stop doing things like that. We made an agreement no sex while Lexi is in the house. Callie feels weird about it, and I’m going to respect those wishes.
“You deserve it. Do you want to go lie down? Me and Lexi can clean up.”
“I think Piper and Beau took care of most of it. There may be a few dishes left. They can wait, though.” She covers her face with her arm and for a second, I think she’s fallen asleep. “Is it just me or is it odd us not being in the same space all the time?”
It’s like she plucked the thought out of my head.
“Not just you. The house feels empty when I go home.” I lean my head against the back of the couch. “I know we weren’t sleeping in the same bed, but you were right down the hall.”
“Agreed. I don’t think I like it.”
Me either, but we need to make sure we’re going at a steady pace. Even with Lexi doing her best to get us together, I don’t want us to go too fast. At least not yet, it’s only been a couple of weeks. But…I already know I want forever with her. In a lot of ways it’s like we picked up in our friendship where we left off.
“I can stay here tonight and leave early for work.”
“I don’t want you to cut into sleep.” She feels around the couch. “And my sofa won’t fit you at all.”
“It’ll be fine.” It’s literally the same size as the one at my house. “I can stack all the pillows to the side.”
“Okay.”
Well, that was easy. I figured she’d put up more of a fight. She rolls over to her side and pulls her knees up. She’ll be passing out in about five minutes.
As soon as I know she’s asleep, I slide out from under her legs and head to the kitchen. Lexi is putting up food and getting everything in order.
“Need some help?” I roll up the sleeves of my shirt before heading straight the sink and pile of dishes. There isn’t a lot, it’s big stuff that takes up more room.
“You don’t have to do those by hand. We have a dishwasher.” She points at the appliance in question.
“I’m good. There’s something relaxing about washing dishes. Besides you shouldn’t be doing this by yourself. It was my family that crashed your house.” I fill up the sink with water and soap.
“They’re really nice. They did a lot, including taking out the trash. I hate doing it when it’s cold.”
Lexi liking my family is important to me. I want her to feel comfortable with them since we do a lot together.
“I’m glad you get along with them. It’s not always easy when we’re all together. There’s a lot of us.” I finish washing the last item before rinsing it off and setting it in the drain on the counter. That didn’t take long at all. I turn toward Lexi to see how she’s doing with clean up.
She stacks a container on top of a stack of them on the table. Hopefully they have room in the fridge. “Yeah, but y’all are funny.”
That’s a term nobody has used to describe me. Parker was right earlier when he said I was only existing. I never had anything in my life I wanted to do more for…until now.
“Are you going to the Valentine’s event with me and your mom?” I want to make sure there’s space for her at our table.
“Gross, no. I don’t want to hang out with a bunch of adults making googly eyes at each other on Valentine’s Day.” A shiver runs through her, and I can’t stop from chuckling.
“What are you going to do?”
“Abby is having a girl’s only sleepover. We’re going to watch cheesy romcoms and play games.”
“That sounds like a fun night.”
“Yep. I need to buy some cute pajamas and gifts for the girls.”
