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“Fingers crossed.” She paused a moment. “I’m going to head into the kitchen and get to work on a welcome torte.”

“I definitely won’t complain about that.”

She pulled me into another hug and I wrapped my arms around her. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said before releasing me and heading toward the kitchen.

As soon as she left the room, I moved my suitcases to the closet and tried to make myself comfortable. I hated that I was taking up their living space, but I had very few options. I didn’t want to stay in Port Grandlin and be constantly reminded of what I was walking away from, but as the only child of deceased parents, I didn’t have family who would take me in, and I didn’t have any friends who lived within a couple hours of Port Grandlin besides Lena. Staying with anyone else I knew would have required a cross-country move that I wasn’t quite ready for.

For the rest of the day, I tried to be as unobtrusive as possible, which was easy enough with Lena in the kitchen and Ellis in his room. By the time it got late enough for dinner, I was starving. Ellis came meandering out of his room, barely giving me a sideways glance before he went into the kitchen.

Well, we were off to some kind of start, that was for sure.

I sighed, stood, and made my way into the kitchen to join the two of them. They stopped talking and both looked at me, Lena giving Ellis a stern glance before she started speaking.

“Who’s hungry? I was thinking of ordering takeout.”

“Burgers,” Ellis said immediately.

“Okay… what about you, Kier?”

I started to offer an actual opinion—I was going to suggest Thai—but Ellis scowled and I figured it would be better to keep the peace. “Burgers are great.”

“Burgers it is, then.” Lena jotted down our orders and made the call. As soon as she hung up, she looked back at Ellis and me. “How about you two go pick up dinner? It’ll give you a chance to get to know each other a little.”

I smiled tightly and gave a little nod. “That’ll be perfect.” I turned to Ellis. “You can show me how to get there. I need to get used to driving around Pine Bluff, anyway.”

He scoffed. “It’s hard to get lost here. It’s not exactly New York City or Los Angeles.”

“Good to know,” I murmured.

At the same time, Lena glared at him again. “Don’t be a dick.”

Ten minutes later, we were getting into my car and Ellis was giving me his version of directions to downtown Pine Bluff, directions even the most succinct person would call minimalistic.

“Turn here,” he practically grunted when we approached the first intersection, the one that would take us out of the neighborhood and toward town. “Left.” His directions continued to be much the same until we were on the appropriately named Main Street. “Up here, on the right. There’s an awning. Green.”

I glanced at him. “Thanks. Hey, listen, I can tell you aren’t happy with me moving in, but—”

“Here,” he muttered, gesturing to a green awning labeled Bluff Burgers that I’d been about to pass. “I’ll go in.”

“Thanks.” I pulled up to the curb and put my hazard lights on, hoping I wouldn’t get a ticket for parking in a no-parking zone or something, and waited for Ellis to return.

A few minutes later, he was bag with two bags in his hands, both of them grease stained already. When he climbed into my car, they smelled divine and my stomach growled.

“Right, so…” I waited for him to cut me off again, but he just sat stone-faced in the passenger seat. “I just want to apologize for encroaching on your space. I know it’s not a great situation for anyone.”

“Lena loves it.”

I chuckled, conceding the point. “Fair. Well, it’s not a great situation for either of us. I’m sorry. I hope we can look past the circumstances and at least be… cordial with one another.” I’d almost said friends, but that felt like a step too far. There was zero chance I’d ever end up being friends with this guy, that much was clear.

Chapter Four

Ellis

Kieran seemed nice enough. He was certainly attractive. He had sincere hazel eyes and light brown hair styled so that it was swept to one side, and his short beard only served to accentuate his square jaw and chin. He didn’t have a single tattoo that I could see, but that wasn’t a deal breaker. Even tattoo-free guys could be hot sometimes, and Kieran was definitely one of those. And worse, he smelled good. I couldn’t quite pin it down, but it was like a woodsy, earthy cologne.

I didn’t know why I was being such an ass to him. Okay, that wasn’t true. I knew exactly why. Before we’d split, Eva and I had spent immeasurable hours watching reality TV. She loved the home makeover shows, so we watched a lot of them. Too many. I’d recognized Kieran right away from one of those shows, which meant I knew exactly everything I needed to know from seeing him on TV to be certain I wouldn't like him.

He always came across as overly cheerful, for one. And his design choices were usually a lot. Not necessarily financially, but visually—busy, full of color and graphic prints, maximalist as Eva had called it. She loved those shows, loved the people in them, and insisted we tune in every chance we got. She had also nagged me constantly about being more like them. “Why can’t you just…” was her favorite line.