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Mom smiled tremulously. “She’s a lovely person. She sent us a letter while Joey was in prison.” She wet her lips. “She said she knew we probably worried about him, and that she planned to write in favor of his parole when the time came.”
I sucked in a breath. I’d never known any of that. At the parole board hearing, they’d mentioned getting letters in support of my release, but they’d never gone into details. I figured it was my parents, appealing to them about keeping me out of trouble.
Kit looked just as stunned. “I had no idea.”
Mom took a step back. “Well, I shouldn’t keep you. You’ve got to go unload at your new house. When you’re a bit more settled, I’d like to come see it.”
“That would be great, Mom. Thanks.”
The guys were already unloading at my new place when we got there. The trailer was a forest green with black trim. As a standard single-wide, it was bigger than Ghost’s little camper. It was relatively new, too. I’d gotten a good deal because the guy who bought it needed someone to take over the payments for him. He was getting married and moving into his wife’s home.
It had two bedrooms—one at each end of the trailer—and a nice open-floor plan between the living room and eat-in kitchen.
I’d toured it with Kit a couple of weeks ago, but it was different seeing it with my belongings inside. Boxes were stacked along the walls of the living room. The two armchairs had been set on one side of the room, and a small TV balanced against the other. Compared to the pool house, this place was huge. I didn’t have nearly enough stuff to fill it up.
“We’ve got an extra table on our sun porch,” Kit said. “We never use it. I could bring it over for your dining room.”
I hesitated. I needed to do this on my own, and I’d made that clear to Kit when he’d offered to help me buy furniture, but I didn’t want to reject this offer when I’d already allowed Hollywood to give me some extra bedding.
Ghost had brought over an indoor Foreman grill, saying if we were going to have our hangouts indoors for the winter, we could do it at my place since he had to host all the outdoor ones. Apparently, I got the honor of grilling the steaks my mom gave me.
Knight and Aiden brought me a coffee table and end tables, because they’d recently decided to replace theirs.
So, yeah, my home wasn’t just mine. It was a tapestry of the friendships I made. There were touches here from all the important people in my life, and Kit was the most important one.
“Yeah, that’d be great,” I said. “Let’s get everything else unloaded, and then we can go get it.”
He kissed my cheek, and we went outside to help haul the mattress in. Unloading took a little longer than loading because we had to set things up in their proper places. But a couple of hours later, we were done.
Knight flopped into one armchair and Aiden balanced on his knee. Hollywood sat in the other chair, with Tex on the floor, leaning back against his legs.
“Who wants a beer?” I asked, a sense of déjà vu washing over me. This was much how Ghost’s move had wrapped up.
“Can we get a pizza too?” Tex said. “I’m starving.”
“I can do you one better.” I went into the kitchen and picked up the plastic bag. “My mom sent steaks. They’ve been thawing on the counter, so they should be good to grill.”
“Hell yes. Do you have any seasoning?”
“Uh…”
Ghost pushed himself up. “I’ll get some from my place.”
Aiden hopped up. “I can grab some side items from home. I’ll be back in a few minutes. I’m sure Biscuit will want to come join the party, anyway.”
Knight’s dog usually enjoyed our gatherings, especially the leftover scraps.
Hollywood opened my mini fridge, already plugged in and humming away, and pulled out beers while I turned on the grill. Knight left with Aiden, returning with some folding chairs in addition to the side items.
Kit went to help him set them around the living room.
“We haven’t really met properly,” Knight said. “It’s good to see Joey happy.”
Kit glanced my way. “He makes me happy too.”
Knight nodded. “I was kind of surprised you weren’t moving in with him. Rumor has it you two spend every night together.”
I added a new steak to the grill, listening to its sizzle, eavesdropping shamelessly. I wanted to take this step of being a responsible adult before I let Kit swoop in to take care of everything. But I didn’t want him to be unhappy, either. I knew if Kit had his way, he’d be moving in right now. Maybe I was a fool not to let him.
