Luke swallowed. “Really?”
“Really. Now, I just have to decide who I’m going to picture blowing whom.” She moaned ever-so lightly. “Since you know how much I love your cock, I think it’s going to be Nate giving you head.”
Luke was at a loss for words, and Nate seemed to be speechless as well.
Her voice returned to normal. “Oh, crap, I’ve gotta go. Make sure and invite me over if you two do end up having sex. Or at least take pictures. Have fun tonight. Bye.”
And she was gone.
Nate sat up. “Holy shit, man. You’d better fucking marry that girl because, if you don’t, I will.”
Elise’s alarm went off on her phone, and she threw back the covers. She practically jumped out of bed with excitement, despite the fact that she’d gone to bed late and only gotten five hours of sleep. Today was moving day, and nothing was going to ruin her enthusiasm.
She had closed on her new house yesterday, but because it had been Friday and everyone had to work, she had waited to move until today. She’d planned to hire movers, but when she’d told Rachel and Luke that, they had both been adamant about helping her move. So far, they had recruited Sean, Heidi, Tera, and Nate. Also, her sister and brother-in-law were going to come and help, too, and give their daughter a little time to spend with Grandma and Grandpa.
The day before, Elise’s dad had insisted on helping her take over a few things that the two of them could manage. So, she was glad that her dad would be babysitting today and wouldn’t be able to do any heavy lifting. She had appreciated his help the day before though. He’d gone with her to pick up the U-Haul, and he’d helped her take all her kitchen stuff over to her house and put most of it away. After that, she’d gone grocery shopping and stocked her fridge, freezer, and pantry, so she would be prepared to feed all of her helpers.
Knowing that today would be filled with sweat and grime, Elise threw on an old tee and shorts, put her hair in a ponytail, and didn’t even bother with makeup. She went downstairs to find something to eat before everyone arrived. She wanted to be ready to go. She loved her mom and dad, but it was time to move out.
Elise had just poured her milk into her cereal when the front door opened, and Kristen, James, and Jennifer walked in.
“Aunt Elise!” Jennifer said, running over to her.
Elise leaned over and gave Jennifer a big hug. “How’s my favorite niece?”
Jennifer pulled away and cocked her head. “I’m your only niece, Aunt Elise.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure you’d still be my favorite if I had more.”
Jennifer grinned. “You’re right. I would be.”
Elise laughed. “My, aren’t you the modest one?”
“Where are Mom and Dad?” Kristen asked.
Elise picked up her cereal bowl and sat at the counter. “I think they’re still in their room.”
“We’re right here,” her mom said, coming down the stairs, tying the belt around her robe.
Her father followed, finger-combing his hair.
“Grandma! Grandpa!” Jennifer exclaimed.
Elise’s mother held out her arms. “Hi, sweetie. How are you?”
“Good, except Mom and Dad made me get up early to come here.”
Elise swallowed her bite of food. “That’s my fault, Jen. I’m the one who made your mom and dad come here so early.”
“We’re more than happy to help. Aren’t we, James?”
“Yeah,” James said, but he didn’t sound like he meant it.
James was standing as far away from Kristen as he could while still being able to say he was in the same room. It looked like things weren’t any better between the two of them.
Poor Kristen.
“When is everyone else getting here?” her mom asked.
Elise glanced at the microwave. “About twenty minutes.”
“Oh my. I’d better get in the shower. I can’t let your friends see me like this.”
“Mom, they won’t mind,” Elise said.
Her mom clucked her tongue. “Well, I mind.” She turned around and started back up the stairs. “I’ll be back as soon as possible. Come on, Ward.”
“Suzanne, I look fine.”
“Come on, Ward,” her mom said again.
“Fine,” her dad said, marching after his wife.
“Jennifer, why don’t you get something to eat? I’m sure Aunt Elise bought some good cereal while she’s been staying with Grandma and Grandpa,” Kristen told her daughter.
It was true. Elise bought way better-tasting cereal than what her parents usually had stocked in the house.
Jennifer skipped over to the cupboard and started rummaging through it. “Lucky Charms. Score.” She went to the next cupboard and pulled out a bowl and a spoon from the drawer.
“Jennifer, please find something else to eat,” James said. “Kristen, I thought we talked about Jennifer’s sugar intake.”
“Dad,” Jennifer whined.
“One day isn’t going to hurt her, James. It’s kind of a special day.”
James threw up his hands. “I don’t know why I even bother.” He spun around and headed for the front door.
“James,” Kristen called after him, her face red.
Elise tried not to look at her sister with pity in her eyes because that was not what she would want if their positions were reversed. “What’s wrong with him?”
Kristen shook her head and lowered it, obviously upset. “Nothing. Everything.” She looked up at her daughter, who seemed to be busy pouring her cereal. “It’s complicated.” She sighed. “I’m going to go talk to him.”
After Kristen left the room, Jennifer hopped up onto the stool next to Elise.
“How’s summer treating ya, kid?” Elise asked.
Jennifer took a huge bite of cereal. “Good,” she replied, not bothering to swallow her food first.
“Don’t let Grandma catch you talking with your mouth full,” Elise joked.
“Mom and Dad are going to get divorced,” Jennifer said, surprising Elise.
“What? Where did you hear that?”
“From my friend Becky. She said her parents were sleeping in different bedrooms and fighting all the time before they got divorced.”
“Your mom and dad don’t sleep in the same room?”
Jennifer shook her head. “They never have. So, I don’t think that counts.”
What? How could Elise not have known this?
“But they have been fighting an awful lot. And Mom stays at Aunt Ashley’s house a lot. And, when Mom’s home, Dad goes over to Uncle Adam’s house. They’re hardly together anymore.”
Adam was James’s best friend. Elise had had no idea it was so bad that they weren’t even staying the night in the same house with each other.
“How do you feel about that, kiddo?” Elise asked.
Jennifer stopped eating and appeared to be thinking about it. “I don’t know. I think I’m supposed to be sad, but Mom and Dad don’t love each other anyway. Not like Grandma and Grandpa do.” She shrugged. “I don’t think I would care if they got divorced.”
Elise was baffled. Where was all this coming from, and how did a six-year-old get this insightful? And was Jennifer even right about Kristen and James? Had they really never loved each other? Elise didn’t understand because, in high school, they had been inseparable. Back then, they had been each other’s best friends.
The front door opened, and the two of them came back in. Kristen looked stressed, and James was frowning. They definitely weren’t the same people they had been back in high school.
Jennifer picked up on their tension and shifted in her seat. Elise ran her hand over Jennifer’s hair and gave her a one-armed hug.
“You can always come and stay with me if it gets to be too much at home, okay?” she whispered in her niece’s ear.
Jennifer looked up at her and grinned, Lucky Charms marshmallows stuck in her teeth. “Thanks, Aunt Elise.”
Elise kissed Jennifer’s fo
rehead. She loved the kid.
Elise was just trying to figure out what to say to her sister and brother-in-law to break the silence when there was a knock at the front door.
Kristen went to open it, and Luke, Rachel, Sean, and Nate spilled into the house.
“Hi, Kristen,” Rachel said, giving her a hug. “Do you remember my fiancé, Sean?”
Kristen nodded her head and held out her hand. “Hello, Sean.”
Sean shook it. “Hello.”
“This is my husband, James,” Kristen said.
James stepped closer, offering his hand as well.
For the first time that morning, James smiled.
“These two are Luke and Nate,” Sean told Kristen and James.
They shook their hands as well, and when James got to Luke and Nate, he seemed to blush slightly. It was the oddest thing. She didn’t think James knew Luke or Nate.
Nate broke away first and came toward Elise. “Hey, FB, you ready to move today?”
When he reached her, she grabbed his T-shirt in her fist.
Nate just grinned as she lowered her voice and said, “You’d better not call me that again. One, my sweet niece is behind me.”
Nate’s eyes flickered to Jennifer and back to Elise.
“Two, nobody knows about Luke and me, and we’re going to keep it that way. Okay?”
Nate mockingly saluted her, still smiling. “Yes, ma’am.”
She let him go.
“You’re kind of kinky, you know that?” he said to Elise. He looked around her at Jennifer. “Is your aunt always this feisty?” Nate asked, grabbing an apple from the bowl on the middle of the counter without even asking.
Jennifer giggled. “Yes.”
Elise’s mouth dropped open. “Jennifer.”
Nate rubbed the apple on his shirt. “That’s what I thought.” He took a big bite. “No worries, FB. I’ll just call you Wildcat instead.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“Don’t you dare what?” Rachel asked, stepping into the kitchen with everyone behind her.
“Do you want to tell her, or should I?” Nate asked.
He isn’t really going to say anything, is he? Elise’s eyes flew to Luke, who looked as confused as she felt.
“Hall, you—” Luke started.
Nate cut him off, “Oh, you know, Jennifer over here asked me to be her boyfriend, and Elise’s all like”—his voice rose an octave—“‘Don’t you dare.’” His voice dropped back to normal. “But Elise doesn’t understand true love, does she, Jennifer?”
Jennifer was cracking up so hard, she could barely sit up straight. “You’re funny,” she told Nate.
“Funny, my a—butt,” Elise said. “Jennifer, this is my friend Luke, and this is Luke’s friend Nate. If you’re smart, you’ll stay away from both of them and any guys like them.” Elise got up from the counter and carried her bowl to the sink.
“Hey,” Luke and Nate said at the same time.
“She’s right, Jennifer,” Rachel said. Then, changing the subject, she asked, “Where should we start?”
“All my big stuff is downstairs. I was thinking we should do that first before we start with all the boxes, don’t you think? I’m going to finish cleaning up breakfast, and then I’ll meet you down there.”
“Sounds good to me,” Rachel said. “Let’s go, guys.”
“Come on, Jennifer. You can help us with the light stuff,” James said.
Elise turned back to the sink and cereal boxes on the counter. She heard everyone trudging out of the kitchen and down to the basement.
Strong arms slipped around her waist and pulled her back against a hard male body.
“Mmm,” Elise said, closing her eyes, as she melted into Luke. She put an arm up and back to curl around his neck.
“I hate having to stay away from you,” Luke whispered in her ear.
“Me, too.”
“What did Hall really say to you?”
Elise smiled. “I told him not to call me that ridiculous nickname, so he said he was going to call me Wildcat instead, and I told him, ‘Don’t you dare.’”
Luke nipped at her ear. “Well, if the name fits…” He turned her head and kissed her.
Elise was just getting into it, wanting to get Luke naked, forgetting all about her parents being upstairs and her friends being downstairs, when she heard a giggle. Elise pulled far enough away from Luke to see her niece sitting at the counter still, hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh.
“Jennifer, I thought you went downstairs,” Elise said.
Her niece shook her head, as if Elise had asked a question. Then, she tilted her head. “Is Aunt Elise your girlfriend?” she asked Luke.
Luke let Elise go and walked over to Jennifer. He leaned down, putting his forearms on the countertop so that he could get closer. “Can you keep a secret?”
Jennifer’s eyes rounded, and she nodded enthusiastically, excited to be included in a private adult conversation.
“Yeah, your aunt Elise is my girlfriend. But nobody knows, okay? So, don’t tell.” Luke held up his finger to his lips.
Jennifer pretended to zip up her mouth, lock it, and throw away the key.
“That’s my girl.” Luke stood up tall. “I’d better go help them before they wonder what happened to me,” he told Elise. He winked at her and went to join the others.
“Your boyfriend’s cute,” Jennifer said, turning back to her breakfast.
At her niece’s words, Elise realized she’d been standing there, staring at the doorway where Luke had disappeared. The two of them had never discussed boyfriend-girlfriend status before.
“Yeah, he is,” she said, her mind still swirling on the little bomb Luke had just dropped.
“Is that why you’re smiling, Aunt Elise?”
Elise looked at Jennifer. “Yes, kiddo. That, and so much more.”
Elise shut the dishwasher and was headed for the basement when the doorbell rang.
Jennifer jumped off her stool. “I’ll get it.”
“It’s for me,” Elise said.
But her niece ran for the front door anyway.
Elise came up behind Jennifer right as she opened the door to Heidi.
“Hi.”
“Hey, girl.”
“Thanks for coming.”
“No problem.”
“Wait for me,” Tera said, running up the walkway. “Sorry I’m late,” she said when she reached them.
“You’re fine. Everyone else got here about ten minutes ago. They just went downstairs a few minutes ago.” Elise waved them toward her. “Come in, come in.”
Jennifer shut the door behind her friends.
“Who’s this?” Heidi asked with a smile.
“My niece, Jennifer.”
Jennifer moved closer to Elise and leaned back against her.
Elise put her hands on her niece’s shoulders. “Jen, these are my friends Heidi and Tera.”
Jennifer waved. “Hi.”
“Hi, Jennifer,” Heidi and Tera both said with a smile.
“My aunt Elise has a secret boyfriend. His name is L—”
Elise slapped a hand over Jennifer’s mouth and chuckled uncomfortably. “Kids,” she said as a lame explanation.
“A secret boyfriend, eh?” Tera said, her eyes big and questioning.
“Ooh,” Heidi said, “do tell.”
Elise shook her head. Think, think, she commanded her brain. “Jennifer, can you go in the other room and finish your cereal?”
“But I’m done.”
“Then, go and put your bowl in the dishwasher.”
“I never get to hear the good stuff.” She kicked the floor and then went and did as Elise had asked her.
That’s because you can’t keep the good stuff a secret, kid.
She’d lasted all of two minutes before telling the first person she saw.
“So?” Tera asked, practically bouncing up and down.
“Yeah, don’t keep us waiting,” Heidi ad
ded.
She felt bad for bursting her friends’ bubbles, but it had to be done.
Elise lowered her voice. “Look, my sister and brother-in-law are going through a rough time. Jennifer thinks they’re going to get divorced. She saw me talking to Nate and then to Luke, and I think she got the wrong idea about one of them. I think she is looking for a healthy relationship to attach herself to right now.”
Tera and Heidi both went from excited to frowning.
“That’s so sad,” Heidi said.
“Poor thing,” Tera said.
“I know. It’s so sad for everyone all around. I think my sister is really trying, but I don’t know if my brother-in-law is anymore.” Elise brought her voice up to a normal level. “Anyway, why don’t you go downstairs? Thanks again for helping today.”
“You’re totally welcome,” Heidi said.
“I am more than happy to help. But you have to tell me who this Nate guy is,” Tera said.
Elise laughed. “He’s Luke’s friend.”
“Ooh, is he hot like Luke?” Tera asked.
“Yes.” And No. “He’s gorgeous.” But not as gorgeous as Luke. “The problem is, he knows it.” Although Luke does, too. “I think they might be two peas in a pod.” She headed for the stairs, waving her friends to follow. “Come on, you can come meet him.”
Several hours later, the group had moved in most of Elise’s furniture, and they had put a big dent in the pile of boxes. They’d actually had to leave some at her parents’ and go back to fill the U-Haul again.
When she’d moved out of her house in Denver, she remembered how much she’d gotten sick of packing the boxes by room and labeling them. Now, she was grateful because no one had to ask what went where.
Rachel, Tera, Heidi, and Kristen were upstairs, working on the bedrooms and the bathrooms, while the guys brought in more boxes. She was very lucky to have friends and family who weren’t just willing to move her furniture and boxes, but who were also willing to help her unpack.
Elise let them do their thing while she concentrated on bringing in other stuff from the truck. She trusted her friends to do a good job, and she didn’t want to sound like a dictator, directing them to do this and that and to put things here and there. She could always move things around later.
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