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She stepped in beside me. “Good memories, I hope?”
I smiled, though my throat felt tight. “Yeah. Very good ones.”
I cleared the emotion from my voice and gave them a quick tour. When we got to the bedroom, I glanced at where the bed had been and forced my gaze to the window instead. “There’s really good light in here.”
“There is,” Therese agreed.
“I’ll let you guys look around a bit,” I told them, moving toward the door. “Feel free to check out the closet and the bathroom. I’ll meet you out in the kitchen when you’re ready.”
A few minutes later, I locked up Calder’s apartment and started down the stairs with the potential tenants in tow. Rafe appeared on the second-floor landing, balancing a stack of moving boxes in one arm and a bouquet of wildflowers in the other. His eyes found mine first. They always did.
“Hey.” He smiled as he held out the flowers, and my stomach did the same ridiculous flop it had since the first time I saw him. It never dulled. Not with him.
“You’re back. Good timing,” I said as we came down the stairs. I took the flowers, and he kissed my forehead. “These are the people coming to see our apartments. Amber and Marcus are looking at yours, and Therese is interested in Calder’s.”
Rafe set the boxes down, wiped his hands on his jeans, and extended one to each of them. “Good to meet you. Hope you don’t mind the mess of boxes. They’re pretty much all labeled miscellaneous.”
I shook my head, and everyone laughed. “Miscellaneous is a valid category,” I protested.
Rafe shrugged. “Maybe. But it doesn’t tell the movers what room to put it in when they get to the new place, babe.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”
Rafe winked at me and opened our door.
“This one is a little larger than the third floor,” I said, stepping aside so the others could enter. “Same general layout, but the living room is longer, and there’s an extra closet in both the bedroom and living room. I’ll let you guys take a look on your own. Sorry about all the boxes.”
“No problem,” Amber said.
She and Therese went straight to the closets while Marcus checked out the kitchen.
Rafe stood next to me, lowering his voice. “Three?”
“Therese is Amber’s friend. She needs a place, too. She just found out her current building has been sold.”
“Let me get this straight, two friends and one boyfriend are going to take the place of me, you, and Calder?”
I laughed. “Potentially, yes.”
“Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.”
“Or maybe we solved two housing problems in one afternoon.”
“Look at you, better than a real estate agent.” Rafe’s eyes dropped to my lips. “Could we talk outside for a minute?”
The three prospective tenants were still opening doors and wandering around, so I nodded. “Sure.”
The second we were in the hall, he backed me up against the wall.
I smiled. “What are you doing?”
“Paying you your agent’s fee.”
“But I didn’t rent the apartments yet.”
“It’s a chance I’ll take.” He leaned in and covered my mouth with his. The kiss was sweet enough to make me want him again, even though we’d just had sex this morning. And it was sexy enough that I didn’t care that it lingered a little longer than it probably should’ve with three people snooping around in our apartment.
The door opened, and I jumped to separate us a bit, but Rafe caught my hip and tugged me against him.
