Here, I thought you could sleep with this shirt, maybe put it on your pillow and snuggle with it. Just don’t do anything weird with it. Anyway, I’m not far, and I promise you one day you will understand why this is for the best. Wow, I wrote a damn novel. Turn the page over so I can finish this up. How are you still sleeping while I write this anyway?
I turn the note over and laugh at her sad attempt at humor.
I love you.
XO,
Hails
I bring the T-shirt to my face, and fuck, it does smell like her. It totally wouldn’t be weird if I put that on her pillow and snuggled it, right? My dick aches for release, but that can wait—coffee first. I need to set up the other room for Dani, and I guess I should probably let Ky know what’s going on and see if it’s cool that she stays here. I stand and throw on a pair of gym shorts over my boxers and grab a shirt from the dresser.
When I enter the living room, Kyler is standing there with the most confused look on his face.
“Hey, you wanna explain to me why I just helped Hails pack her car up with her shit earlier while you were asleep? Did you guys have a fight or something? Were you a dick to her?”
I throw my hands up in innocence. Of course he would assume that, if something like that had happened, it would be my fault. Hell, who are we kidding, it totally would have been.
“We had a fight, but no, that’s not actually about that.” I tilt my head in confusion while I think. “Well, it’s kind of about that. Fuck. I need coffee first though.”
Kyler follows me into the kitchen.
“Everything okay? You’re kind of freaking me out here, Zach.”
I fill my mug with coffee and extend my hand to the stools at the island.
I sip my coffee and can feel his eyes burning a hole through me.
“My sister called.”
As if my nerves weren’t already shot today, basically anything that could go wrong today has.
Sleep through the alarm. Check.
Get caught up in a late meeting. Check.
Sit in traffic. Check.
I contemplated taking the entire day off to make sure I was home when Dani arrived, but I had a few meetings with clients that I couldn’t reschedule. Staying busy at work was a good idea though, that is until now.
My nerves were high all day as I anticipated my sister’s arrival home. It’s been three and a half years. What is she like now? Is she different? Will I even recognize her?
All of these questions and more ran through my head, keeping me awake till four in the morning, only to finally fall asleep and sleep through my morning alarm two hours later.
When I spoke to Haylee earlier today, she reassured me that it would all be okay and just to breathe. She is my rock in life, keeping me sane and together. I just wish she would be at home with me when Dani arrives.
“Shit!” I yell as I slam on my brakes once again.
I hate that people don’t know how to drive in traffic. I look down at the clock on the radio. Dani should be arriving soon. Just what we need—Dani arrives and no one is home. What’s keeping her from running then?
I grab my phone from the cupholder beside me and dial Kyler’s number. I pray that he is home. The phone rings and rings before his voicemail picks up. At the beep I leave a message and cross my fingers he gets it in time.
“Hey, Ky. I got stuck at work, and traffic is a nightmare. If you’re home when my sister arrives, can you let her in and I don’t know, entertain her? I should be home soon. Thanks.” Click.
I’m sure he can hear the stress in my voice.
Over the weekend, Ky proved how epically awesome he is by being cool with Dani staying with us for a little bit. He even helped me make the guest room a little more comfortable for her. He didn’t pry about our phone conversation and what prompted her to decide to come home. I think he could tell that alone was overwhelming to me. He has been here from the day she left and has seen what we all have gone through.
My grip on the steering wheel tightens as I drive through traffic. My mind races, wishing Haylee would be there to calm me down. My sister. My sister will most likely be at my house when I arrive. I have dreamed of this day for so long.
How long is she going to stay? What happens if she leaves again? How will she react to Haylee and me? Can I really keep this from her?
My thoughts keep me busy, and before I know it, I’m turning onto our street. My heart jumps out of my chest as I see Dani’s SUV parked in front of the house. I pull in to the driveway next to Kyler’s truck, thankful he was home and hopefully got my voicemail and wasn’t caught off guard by her arrival.
My phone buzzes as I turn off the ignition to the jeep.
Haylee: Hey, babe. Ky texted that she was there. It’ll be fine. I love you. XOXOXO
Could this woman be any more perfect? I send a quick response, anxious to get inside.
Me: Wish you were here. Love you too. I’ll call you later.
I grab my workbag and jacket and make my way up the pathway. I take one last breath before opening the front door. In front of me, I finally see her. Dani is standing in front of the wall Haylee had decorated with a bunch of photos from over the years. She hasn’t noticed me standing in the doorway yet, so I take this time to take her in. She looks the same, just thinner, and from her profile, still sad. It’s when I notice the photos she is staring at that I choose to break her from her trance.
“Holy shit, Dani, you’re actually here!”
She turns around, surprised, and I race to her, scooping her up in my arms. I thought maybe I might have dreamed the entire thing, from the phone call the other night to Haylee moving out to now, but as I hold my sister in my arms, I know that it wasn’t a dream. She is here.
I pull back and place my hands along her cheeks to look her over. Still the same sister; I just notice the emotion written all over her face. I want to remember everything about the version of the girl in front of me, just in case this is only temporary. God, I hope it’s not.
I pull her over to the couch and take a seat. “Have you been here long?”
She shakes her head. I notice how she still looks around the room—guess it might be weird for her realizing I’d grown up while she was gone.
“Your roommate let me in.”
I don’t miss how she accentuates the word roommate. I guess she figured out one of the two pretty big details about my life now that I had left out.
“Oh, you met Ky. He’s a good dude. We met freshman year of college. We hit it off right away.”
Of course, if she had stuck around, she would know that. In the few months she was actually here, she was so closed off that I felt like I would crush her should I try to talk to her about my personal life. Not that I think she would have even paid attention.
Dani’s lip visibly begins to tremble, and I fear that I said the wrong thing. Her focus goes back to the wall, and I realize where her mind has drifted. Emmett. I go to say something, but thankfully Kyler chooses that time to walk into the living room.
“Hey, man, you’re home.”
I nod.
“You headed out to—”
I quickly cut off his asking if I was going to see Haylee tonight since I had been over at Cami’s the last two nights visiting. “Nah, I’m home tonight to catch up with Dani.”
I shift on the couch to face my sister. “Pizza for dinner work for you?”
She nods.
“Ky, you want to join?”
Since we’re all going to be roommates, they can spend some time getting to know each other. However, Ky reaches for the keys on the coffee table and heads toward the front door, slipping his shoes on.
“Thanks, rain check. I’m headed out to meet the twins. I’ll catch you both later.”
I remember a time when I was jealous of his relationship with his sisters; it was something both Haylee and I missed out on these days, a relationship with siblings. Of course, she didn’t have a choice with hers leaving; mine did.
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“Nice to meet you, Dani. Welcome home.” He closes the door behind him, and I catch the disgusted look on my sister’s face.
I can’t help but laugh. “The twins are his older sisters, Lauren and Kate. They live here in town. They usually meet once a week for dinner. Sometimes they come out for karaoke night, so you might be able to meet them soon.”
My sister’s eyes go wide, but I’m unable to get a read on her. Is she overwhelmed with finding out that I have a roommate or that I want her to get out and meet people? Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut about that part. Fuck, if she’s overwhelmed with the idea of Kyler living here, I wonder how she’s going to be once she finds out Haylee lives here too.
I slap my thighs and rise off the couch, extending my hand to help her up. “Come on, I’ll give you the tour and show you the guest room. It’s yours for as long as you like. I’ll order a pizza, and we can get you settled and catch up. Still prefer ham and pineapple?”
“Sounds great.”
As I make my way around the house, showing Dani around, my heart breaks a little as I take notice of the few of Haylee’s things that are missing: the photos on the wall Dani was observing earlier—I’m surprised she didn’t question the empty nails; the blanket on top of her favorite chair; and whatever crazy romance book Lauren has got her reading now, both gone.
“Well, here it is. Feel free to do whatever you want with it. And then next door is your bathroom that you’ll share with Kyler. I hope that’s okay.”
She nods, but I see the apprehension on her face.
“Let me run and change out of these work clothes, and I’ll help you unload the car.” I leave her sitting on the bed, looking around.
Once safely inside my bedroom, I breathe for the first time. My sister is finally home.
In an attempt to distract myself from things out of my control, I lie on my stomach across Cami’s bed with my textbooks open and a rerun of How I Met Your Mother playing in the background. But no distraction can keep my gaze fixated on anything but my phone. I haven’t heard from Zach since he had gotten to the house. That has to be a good sign, right? I wonder how things are going back home.
Is she comfortable?
What does she look like?
Is she going to stay?
How did things go when she met Ky?
Did she ask about me?
Did Zach slip up about us?
I hate that I’m not there, but this was the right choice. I just have to sit and wait to hear from Zach. He and I are a team, through the good times and the bad. No matter what, we are always there for each other, but this is turning out to definitely be more difficult than I thought it would be when we came up with this plan. Maybe we should have just been a united front from the beginning.
Fingers crossed that the curveball of having a roommate doesn’t spook her into running again. I adjust myself on the bed, ready to dive right back into homework, when my phone rings. Even after almost three years, my heart still skips a beat when I see his name appear.
“Hey, I didn’t expect to hear from you for a while.”
“Hey, baby.” The tension in his voice from earlier is long gone, and I breathe a sigh of relief. “Yeah, Dani went to bed early, so I’m just sitting here on the couch.”
I roll over onto my back, and I imagine my teenage self laughing at me for being in almost the exact pose that I would have been in talking on the phone back in the day, just this time it’s with a different Jacobs.
“She’s really here? This all wasn’t a sick joke?” My voice catches.
“Yeah, she is. Of course, I was running late, and Ky let her in.” He snickers before letting out a small sigh, and I picture him relaxed on the couch, legs stretched out and running his hand over his face. If it were any other situation, I would be curled up on the sofa right there with him.
“And how did that go?”
He chuckles. “Well…” He pauses. “That seemed to go okay, but she totally called me out on not telling her that I had a roommate.”
Oh the irony, that Kyler isn’t the only roommate and surprise there. I wonder how she will react.
“Luckily, he was going out with Lauren and Kate, so I got some one-on-one time with her.”
“What did you guys do tonight?”
“Just ate pizza, and I helped her get settled a little. She doesn’t have many boxes, so honestly, I don’t know if she’s planning to stay that long. I told her she could stay as long as she wants, and she seemed to be okay with that. I’ll tell you this, she loved the kitchen.”
I grinned. “No doubt. I bet her wheels were turning for sure at all the delicious things she could make.” My stomach starts to grumble at the thought of her baking treats.
“Yeah, I have a feeling that if she does stick around, we might need to up our gym time.”
I roll my eyes at his comment. Like he would ever be anything but fit. The man lives at a gym. I’m just about to ask the million-dollar question of why now when I hear muffled talking in the background. Shit, is he talking to her? I freeze at the thought.
“Hey, man, how was dinner?”
Okay, clearly not Dani. Must be Ky.
Zach laughs in the background, and I pull the phone back from my ear. “Hey! What’s going on? I’m missing everything.”
“Ky sends his love, babe.”
Yeah, why do I have a feeling that is not actually what he said? Those two are something else. I hear some more mumbling into the phone and take that time to close my books and set them back on the nightstand. I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be getting any more work done.
“You still there?”
I stretch out on the bed against the pillows. “Yeah, I’m here.”
Cami’s apartment is nice, but it’s not home.
Silence takes over the call as we both listen to the calming sounds of our breathing. There’s nothing more I want now than to be wrapped up in Zach’s arms.
He’s the first to speak. “I miss you.”
I choke back the emotion trying to fight me. “I miss you too.”
“Hey, hold on.” I wait, and moments later Zach returns. “Sorry I heard a commotion in the hallway, but when I got there both the bathroom and the guest room doors were closed, so I don’t know what it was. Weird. Anywho, let me walk to the bedroom.” I hear the door click.
Rolling to my side, I prop my head on my elbow. “So, did she say where she’s been, what she was up to, and what brought her home?”
“Yeah, it’s kind of an interesting story actually. She said there had been a few times over the past few years that she thought about coming home and had even gone as far as packing up her apartment, but just couldn’t do it.”
I hate that my best friend was in such a dark place that she felt couldn’t reach out to us. We would’ve helped her through it—hell, we still all have our moments. It definitely has not been easy, that’s for sure.
“So, what changed about this time? What made her call?”
“Well, she had a dream that gave her a feeling she couldn’t shake, and remember that Bruno Mars song we were all obsessed with that last Thanksgiving we were all together? She said she kept hearing that everywhere. After hearing it for like a week straight, she finally decided to press ‘send,’ and well, here we are.”
I shoot up from the bed, my hand covering my mouth in disbelief.
“What? Did she say that?” My voice raises.
“Say what?” He seems a little panicked by my extreme reaction.
How do I explain that of all songs she kept hearing, I heard it too? Was that my brother’s way of bringing her home? Okay, those are goose bumps up my arm. I squeeze my eyes shut and allow the tears to fall.
“Hold on. Zach, say that again. You said that she kept hearing ‘Count on Me’ by Bruno Mars, and that made her call home?” I begin to breathe heavily.
Is this really happening? My hand runs through my hair before clutching to my chest.
“Hails? W
hat’s wrong? You’re kind of scaring me, baby girl.”
“No.” I shake my head as if he can see me right now. “It’s just that the morning we fought after you had spoken with her and I went to the cemetery to talk to Em, I heard that song.”
“Woah, what the fuck?”
“Right? What are the odds? That’s just a coincidence, right?”
He blows out a deep breath. “I don’t know, babe. That’s pretty crazy.”
I just can’t wrap my head around this.
“Maybe it was my brother’s way of finally bringing her home to us.”
“Whoa! What happened in here?” Entering the kitchen, I find Kyler dumping a dustpan of broken glass into the trash can. I set my keys and workbag on the counter before stalking to the fridge.
Jackpot! Leftovers of my sister’s veggie lasagna. I hadn’t planned to miss dinner tonight, but I got caught up with files on my desk after another day of nonstop meetings. Nothing better to relax with after a long day than good food, cold beer, and snuggling with my girl. The first two I can easily accomplish especially with my sister’s talents in the kitchen. The latter? Well, Haylee has a late class tonight anyway, so I couldn’t even stop by the apartment to see her.
I open two beers and hand one to my best friend. I wonder what broke?
“Care to explain?” I ask as I tip my fork in the direction of where the dustpan and broom sit next to the trash can. I shove the fork in my mouth and have to bite back a moan as to how good this is, even cold. I sure have missed my sister’s cooking and baking. Hmm, speaking of Dani. Where is she? I know she’s home because one, her SUV is outside, and two, she never goes anywhere.
Kyler shakes his head as if he is unsure what happened. “Honestly, man, I don’t have a clue. I mean, your sister and I had a nice evening chatting, she was standing there doing the dishes, and I just had to try one of those amazing cupcakes she made. That shit is heaven, like borderline orgasmic.”
I mentally high-five myself at the thought of my sister’s cupcakes. I’m going to have to step it up at the gym with her living here. But that still doesn’t explain the broken glass.
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