Chapter 5
“Holy shit! Connie wasn’t joking. He really moved you in.” Izzy’s eyes are bugging out of her head.
“I didn’t think he had it in him. Good for Connie. Finally making his move!” Livy adds.
“He hates when you call him that. Can you drop it?” I’m so tired of this argument.
“Yea, yea, yea. We know. You’re just friends. Blah, blah, blah. The only people who believe that nonsense are the two of you,” Izzy mocks.
Livy can’t help but pile on, “It’s okay, we’ll float around in denial with you.” She claps here hands. “What’s first?”
I invited the girls over to help me unpack because I’m overwhelmed by everything that’s transpired in the past day.
My stomach growls—I haven’t eaten since yesterday at dinner, and I only had a small cup of soup—I’m starving.
Things were so chaotic this morning, Connor didn’t nag me about breakfast, and this moving extravaganza eclipsed lunch.
“Well, he left me some money for groceries. He said it’s bare bones in the kitchen. So that’s a top priority, but I can do that later, it’s not a far walk.”
Izzy cuts in first. “No. The car is yours, Lilah. Reid’s picking me up later.” She drops the car key into my purse on the countertop. “Non-negotiable. Reid and I insist since I’ve essentially abandoned you, now that you live on your own, you need a car.”
I don’t like being doted on. I prefer taking care of people, so it’s difficult for me to accept acts of good will.
Izzy and I saved for years to buy that little car when she turned sixteen.
There was no way our parents would provide a vehicle for us.
She took the car during her hiatus in Denver, but I didn’t mind.
She needed it in the city, and I was perfectly content to walk or catch a ride with Connor, or Liv when she was in town.
Olivia Dalton’s been best friends with me and Izzy since elementary school. She’s just as much a sister as Izzy is.
“Thank you, sissy,” I concede and blow her a kiss.
Olivia walks over to her purse next to mine and grabs out her own keys and swipes the grocery money off the counter.
“I’ll go grocery shopping while you twins unpack.
” I open my mouth to refuse. “Babe, I’m not going to get into it with you right now, but you’re under an incredible amount of stress with so much change.
You need calories, love. Dry salads and soup aren’t enough.
” Her compassion shines through her tone.
When I hedge, she adds, “I’ll even pick up a gallon of Frank’s lemonade.” She gets the side eye, because she knows that’s my weakness.
I’ve struggled with food and body image since childhood. I go through phases where I’m better and eat more regularly, and phases where I struggle to choke down even a bite. I know she’s right, but it’s mortifying, as always, to have other people making decisions for me about my body.
There’s no way I can hide my eating habits from Connor now that we live together. He’ll realize how poorly I’ve been managing. The room is tilting, either from the lack of calories, or from the impending anxiety spiral.
I surrender. “Okay, thank you, Livy.”
In a red whirl, she’s out the door, leaving me alone with my sister. She’s looking at me in that way I hate, where she’s concerned and frustrated with me. Thankfully, she senses the topic needs to be tabled and moves on.
“Connor packed everything from the trailer he thought was mine. He unpacked all my bathroom stuff already, so do you want to help me fold and hang all my clothes?” I ask.
“You got it. Lead the way.” Izzy follows me the few steps to Connor’s bedroom. She pauses in the doorway, leans back to look right and left in the hall, and frowns at me. “Is this the only bedroom?”
“Mmhmm.”
“No way in hell is he making you sleep on the couch,” Izzy bites out.
“No, we’ll share his bed. It’s not a big deal, Iz.” No way, no how will she buy that.
Arms crossed, she purses her lips and narrows her eyes in that disapproving sister way that makes me want to smack her.
“Sure. It’s no big deal to share a bed with your male best friend. There’s no possible way that could go badly for you. You won’t grow even more attached to him and further blur the line you two so precariously toe.”
My teeth grind like nails on a chalkboard. I’m too tired for this conversation.
“Can you please save it for a time when I’ve had more than five hours of sleep and haven’t just had my entire life upended?”
She rolls her eyes. Bitch. “Whatever. Show me where you want stuff to go.”
We go round and round about my relationship with Connor on a regular basis. I love my sister to death, but I wish she’d let this go.
I’ve always insisted Connor is just my friend and am careful to act accordingly in public. My feelings for Connor are the one secret I’ve ever kept from my sister.
Nothing’s ever going to happen between us. If something were to happen, I’d first have to admit my feelings to myself, and then to Connor, before I’d dream of telling anyone else. Not even my sister. I wouldn’t survive the heartbreak if my secret was exposed, and Connor didn’t feel the same.
Our friendship isn’t something I’m willing to risk, even if it means never having the only thing I’ve ever wanted.
We put away clothes, bopping around to music Izzy plays on her phone.
We work in comfortable silence, something I’ve always valued in our relationship.
We finish and find there’s not much left to put away.
I put out my knickknacks, each one widening my smile.
Connor won’t mind, he bought most of them for me anyway.
“How did you like it?” Izzy asks, holding my newest paperback book.
“I loved it! Thanks for the recommendation!”
“I think this is book two, so I’ll order book one and book three comes out soon. So, I’ll pass them along once I finish reading them!” Izzy offers.
“Thanks sissy.”
Izzy continues stacking my books and I’m jolted by panic. Oh my god. Those books were on my nightstand in the trailer. The nightstand that concealed my vibrator. Shit.
Maybe Connor didn’t see it. It wasn’t with the toiletries he brought over, and we’ve emptied the other boxes. There’s no way I’m going back for it. I’ll have to order a new one and be careful to hide the delivery from Connor.
Olivia returns with arms full of reusable grocery bags. We busy ourselves putting everything away. I don’t pay close attention to the items because I’m too overwhelmed to fight my demons right now.
From the last bag, Livy pulls out three pre-packaged salads and sets them out on Connor’s coffee table. He doesn’t have a dinner table; I suppose there’s no reason a transient bachelor would see the need for one. We plop down on the couch and dig into our lunches.
Either to keep it simple, or to manage any possible fights, Olivia bought three identical club salads. I’m hungry enough that each bite of hard-boiled egg, cheese, ham, turkey, and ranch dressing goes down easily.
The familiar itch nags me to calculate the calories in my head. Thankfully, my obsessive thoughts are interrupted.
“Things have been so crazy with the memorial and Deliliah’s re-homing, we haven’t gotten to talk about the ROCK on Izzy’s ring finger!” Olivia exclaims.
Reid proposed to my sister a few days ago. Their love story is unconventional, but I’m so happy my sissy is being loved the way she deserves. After being sexually harassed and mercilessly bullied for years following, my sister swore off men and had never gone on a date before Reid.
I missed her terribly when she was living in Denver, so when I realized how stressed she was about her finances, I did the only thing I could think of. I went to Connor to fix it.
Connor always takes care of things and this was no different. A quick call to his mom and we got Izzy an interview with Swift Property Management here in town. Lucky for us the company is owned by his mom’s best friend.
Reid and his older brother James both work for the family business, so I wasn’t shocked when Izzy told me she’d be working with Reid. Livy and I poked fun at her for working with her childhood crush. She’d been infatuated with the middle Andersen brother since middle school.
Reid was a royal ass for the first several months Izzy was back home. They were together non-stop for work, traveling across the Rockies and spending nights together at the rental properties.
He better count his lucky stars my sister gave him one last chance after he broke her heart one too many times.
Izzy’s extremely forgiving, and ultimately her heart prevailed, and they’re madly in love. Now engaged to be married seven months after “meeting,” I’ve never seen my sister so happy. She deserves her happily ever after.
Izzy blushes at Olivia’s proclamation but holds out her left hand and wiggles her fingers. She shouts at the top of her lungs, kicking her feet, “I’M ENGAGED!”
We spend the rest of the afternoon plying her for every detail of the proposal and what comes next for the happy couple. From what it sounds like, they have a long road of hard work ahead of them to renovate the Andersen family ranch.
Reid renamed it Lucky Spurs Ranch and has grand plans to make it a vacation destination and to expand his horse operation. Their vision is remarkable, and passion radiates from her like rainbows and sunshine.
The vacation cabin build-out is pretty cut and dry, but Reid’s dreams for his horses wander far and wide. On top of offering trail rides and basic experiences for guests, he also wants to rescue and rehabilitate horses.
All the horse-talk around the ranch gave me courage to attend an equine therapy demonstration, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. It’s been in the back of my mind since middle school, but it was never a possibility for me.
Would Reid consider offering at the ranch?
What am I thinking? I haven’t even graduated—I have no business indulging in fantasies.