Chapter 2
Two
Lainey
There are three things I know for certain:
Moving is hell.
Children are chaos incarnate.
And I should have never agreed to this on a deadline.
Crashes and laughter, thunks and conversations surround me on all sides…and I have no flipping idea where my laptop is.
Not that I’d be able to work with all of this noise.
I just…
I like to have my laptop within arm’s reach at all times.
Ben used to say it was My Precious, a la Gollum and The Lord of the Rings.
I used to counter that my entire life was on the hunk of metal, so he’d better be careful with it.
In reality it was our entire lives that were on the laptop—my books, my memories, my spreadsheets to track bills and expenses.
Then to document my pregnancy, to keep track of my appointments (and after he was out of me, Ollie’s too).
Eventually, it was edits and emails and reviewing contracts and publishing books and coming up with creative ways to market them. It was everything.
And more.
Because then it became Ben’s whole life too.
More doctor’s appointments. More bills—so many more bills. Special diets and sleep aids. Renting medical equipment and tracking prescriptions and whether or not he took his medication.
And then it was writing a eulogy.
“Coming through!” Smitty booms.
Yup. Booms.
Because the big, bearded defenseman (and amateur matchmaker) doesn’t do anything quietly.
He booms boisterously (somehow without yelling). His voice echoes without being scary (even to my quiet and oftentimes far too shy for his own good kiddo). He’s big and brash and every bit a giant defenseman.
But he’s also soft.
And he knows how to handle shy.
Case in point?
His very shy and quiet and sweet wife Kailey—who’s currently carrying a very tiny newborn baby Sophie—is being herded toward an armchair he brought in earlier.
A moment after her butt hits the cushion, he’s propping her feet up onto a box and passing her a water bottle filled with her favorite decaffeinated tea.
I know the latter is because he’s constantly doting after her, always making sure she has the things she needs—including something to keep her hydrated as she breastfeeds. It was also the only thing she could drink that helped with her nausea while she was pregnant.
God, that was the worst part of my pregnancy.
Being sick for the full nine months, puking everything up, struggling to gain weight, struggling to feel a modicum like my normal self, struggling…hell, just struggling.
All those weeks. The entire two and a half days of labor.
Even while pushing—and puking—Ollie out.
I did not appreciate the doctor telling me that the puking was helping me bring him down.
Nor did I appreciate Ben “eating for two because you can’t.”
But that was another time, another life, another—
Just another.
“Coming through, Mom!” Ollie semi-echoes Smitty as he comes into the living room and deposits a small container on top of Kailey’s box. “There’s the Christmas lights you’re going to organize.”
“Ollie—” I begin because the last thing my friend needs to do is sort through my junk.
“Don’t,” Smitty murmurs—see? he can be quiet—as he moves by me. “She wants to help, but she’s exhausted. This way she can rest and get what she needs.”
My heart convulses.
When had Ben ever worried about me like Smitty does Kailey?
But just as quickly as the thought crosses my mind, I shove it away.
That’s not fair.
And anyway, I’m glad Kailey has that.
I turn and smile at Smitty, tucking the thoughts away. “Well, the tangled mess in that box should keep her busy for a good long while.”
Smitty grins, that bushy beard of his twitching. “That’s the plan.”
Movement behind him reveals Luna and Aiden, who has their baby, an adorable little girl named Reese, strapped to his chest. They’re both carrying boxes and I open my mouth, wanting to order Luna to sit down and Aiden to not risk hitting the baby with a box, but Smitty is there again.
He settles a hand on my shoulder, voice still staying soft. “Just give in to the help.” A hitch of his mouth. “It’ll be much less painless.”
“Yup!” Luna calls, setting one of the boxes on the kitchen island and proving she has very big—and nosy—ears. “We’re going to help anyway, so save your energy for unpacking instead of arguing.”
I huff out a sigh.
Then I do what the ringleaders command.
And I…give in.
“Good choice,” my friend, Faye, and fellow romance author says. “It’s less painless.”
“You’d know,” I mutter.
“You’re right,” she says on a grin, her eyes flicking to the man who owns her heart.
Gray Roberts is the captain of the Grizzlies and conveniently lives next door. So, when Faye’s house burned down, she had a soft place to land—that being in the arms of the gorgeous, broody forward.
God, I couldn’t even write as good of a story as theirs is—fires and awful exes and a dash of banana bread.
No reader would believe it.
But it’s real and it’s why I’m currently able to move into this gorgeous newly rebuilt home (complete with all-new wiring and smoke detectors and sprinklers).
Gray carries in another box, followed by three more of our friends, Veronica, Ryan, and Bri, who’s basically Luna and Aiden’s adopted daughter.
She’s trailed by a new addition to the team: Rip.
He just signed his first multi-year contract and is living with Luna and Aiden as he finds his feet.
He’s also—and this does my romance writing heart good—trailing after Bri, looking a bit like a lovestruck puppy.
Messy forced proximity with a dash of forbidden love?
Yeah, I’m getting the full Grizzlies experience.
Grinning, I turn for the hall, sidestepping Leo and Harper (who’s pregnant and also getting herded to another chair to sort Christmas lights and generally just stay off her feet), and intending to sort the next run of boxes so they make it into their proper rooms when I hear Smitty call, “I thought you said you wanted burgers for lunch.”
My stomach does a funny little flip as I step onto the porch and see Sawyer standing there with several pizza boxes in his arms, a plethora of those foil-lined bags sitting on top.
“Eh,” he says. “Kailey mentioned she wanted pizza and breadsticks from Dommie’s.
” A shrug. “I can get burgers another time.”
He’s such a good guy.
A good guy who’s also incredibly good in bed—
That was just a one-time thing.
A moment of insanity.
Glorious, ridiculously pleasurable insanity.
But still not going to happen again.
That doesn’t stop my cheeks from heating as I move over to the stack of boxes, searching the labels until I find the one that has the plastic utensils, paper plates, and napkins, snagging it…
For all of a second before Smitty snags it from me.
“Hey!”
“Go inside, Lanes. I’ll grab this.”
“Should we be eating right now?” Gray asks, coming out for another load. “We’re not even halfway.”
“Many hands make short work,” Sawyer says, starting for the house, “but many hands with empty bellies and the smell of yummy food in the air make for even faster work.” He winks at me.
Relief has the tension between my shoulder blades loosening, the breath I was unconsciously holding release.
This isn’t going to be weird.
We’ll go back to being friends.
We’re fine.
I grab another box—and this time avoid Smitty’s attempt at stealing it from me—then follow Sawyer inside.
Anyway, he’s not wrong about faster.
The scent of pizza and garlicky breadsticks jumpstarts everyone into motion, and it’s barely twenty minutes later before all of the boxes and furniture are in the house.
Of course, there’s loads of things to put together and loads of boxes to unpack.
But I can do what’s necessary for the first tonight, and the latter can happen slowly over the next few weeks.
Plus, my laptop and desk are now in the office, so I’m set if any midnight ideas strike me.
We take the pizza and breadsticks, the box with the plates and napkins out back and eat in the cool winter air and something settles in me.
This is why I moved here.
To be close to Faye. To give Ollie a life that’s full of laughter and inside jokes and men who don’t blink at playing hide-and-seek or tag or red light, green light with him. To have stability and a fresh start and nibble on a slice of pizza without worrying about—
Anything.
To just be at peace for the first time in a long, long time.
I exhale and smile when Ollie and Sawyer pair up to take Smitty—the last man remaining in Red Rover—down.
Sawyer hoists Ollie onto his shoulders and moves with a speed that probably shouldn’t surprise me but does anyway because it’s so flipping fast. Gray grabs an arm, Ryan Smitty’s other, slowing the big man down enough for Sawyer to get close.
Smitty roars in protest but “lets” Ollie tackle him to the grass.
My son and Sawyer do a little victory dance that has my heart rolling over in my chest.
This is it.
What I’ve always wanted.
Not the man part, but Ollie and me happy and part of a family that’s bigger than just the two of us.
Faye giggles from beside me, and I glance at her, waiting until those gorgeous brown eyes of hers hit mine.
“Thank you,” I murmur.
Her expression softens and she bumps her shoulder against mine. “I should be thanking you.”
“For what?”
She gave me a killer price on her newly rebuilt house, invited me into her life, the family she’s building.
Her lips twitch and her eyes dance.
“For the brainstorming session we’re going to do tomorrow.”
“We are?”
She winks. “We are.” A beat. “I, for one, can’t wait to try out your new office.”
The laughter in my chest escapes, joining the laughter all around.
But there’s one voice that’s not laughing.
Sawyer pulls his phone out of his pocket, looks at the screen and says something to Ollie that has him grinning and Smitty laughing as they start up the next round of shenanigans.
I get a glimpse of his face as he slips into the house, and something strange slides through me.
Because even though he’s smiling, it doesn’t feel real.
It’s…
Well, it’s like he’s wearing a mask.