AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I reach out to flip her hair. “You better get used to it, you’re stuck with me now.”
Sophie is watching the pair of us, an amused expression on her face. “Are you two done?”
I nod, squeezing her into my side.
“Be good and don’t be obnoxious. We won’t be out too late. Love you.” Sophie pulls Emma in to kiss the top of her head before I drag her out the door.
We’re halfway down the stairs when Emma calls out from above us. “Love you too! Don’t come home too early, I’m having a raging party while you’re gone!”
Epilogue
The pile of boxes sitting in Teddy’s doorway is pitiful, really. The old me would have been mortified that the contents of mine and Emma’s lives could be contained in so few boxes, but the old me also would have argued longer with Teddy when he asked us to move into his house.
A year ago, after we’d been dating for a few months and the lease was up on the minuscule place Emma and I had been living in, I was still too afraid of things falling apart to take him up on his offer to move in together. With my new job at Hype, I’d been able to afford to move us into a much nicer, and bigger, two-bedroom house, and my pride had dictated that I do that, rather than move in with Teddy right away.
But when it had come time to renew that lease, Teddy and Emma had teamed up to point out the myriad ways our lives would be better if I would just accept the inevitable. I’m trying not to think too hard about Emma’s final point—that she was going away to college next year and she didn’t want me to be all alone in the house. Teddy had done his convincing in private. He was very persuasive.
“Hey, Sunshine.” Teddy’s lips tickle the back of my ear as his arms circle my waist. “Is that the last of them?”
I lean back against him, letting him support me. I’ve been practicing, letting Teddy support me as much as I support him. It took me a while, and more than a few arguments to get used to the fact I didn’t actually have to ask him to help me. He just quietly notices where he can make my life easier and does it. “Yup. Emma’s stuff is already in her room. This is mostly books, I think.”
“Good. Come out to the backyard—this can wait.” He tugs me through the house, toward the voices I hear out there. I’m sweaty and tired, my clothes smudged with dirt and my hair knotted up on top of my head. All I really want is to use the amazing shower in Teddy’s, no, our, bathroom.
“But—”
“No buts, we have guests, you know.” He grins over his shoulder at me and I stop arguing. He’s up to something, but I don’t want to ruin his fun, even if I am exhausted.
“Do family count as guests? Can I at least shower?”
“They do when they fly in from LA for our housewarming.”
“Is it a housewarming party if you’ve lived here for six years already?” I smile as we have the same argument as two days ago, when Teddy informed me his sister and her family were coming to visit the day Emma and I were moving in.
He doesn’t answer me, just pulls me through the French doors into the backyard. Garrett is already grilling while Emma and Frankie play with Ethan and Clara out on the grass, Max barking and dancing at their heels. Lauren is chatting easily with Casey, a sharp contrast to the first time she’d met Teddy’s famous sister and husband.
I think we were all a little star-struck the first time we’d met them.Frankie in particular—she isn’t nearly as timid now as she was when Lauren and I first introduced her to Casey and Garrett. She’s become a regular staple in our little squad, Emma’s adopted her as a sort of big sister.
“Sophie!” Garrett, sets his tongs down and picks me up in a bear hug, my feet swinging uselessly beneath me. “You look fucking fantastic as always!”
Laughing, I squirm until Garrett puts me down. “Yeah, right. I’m disgusting, but thanks Garrett. Are your muscles even bigger than last time I saw you?”
Casey laughs, pushing Garrett out of the way to give me a hug. “He wishes.” She adds in my ear, “He’s got a complex because Chris Hemsworth got the ‘muscles of the decade’ award by some magazine last month. He’s been working out twice a day ever since—it’s awful.”
Teddy rescues me with a grin, pulling me into his side. “How come you were out here with the grill while the movers and I were sweating it out with all those boxes, huh?”
“Oh, you know. Didn’t want to draw a crowd.” Garrett winks and my cheeks go pink in response. He may be Teddy’s brother-in-law, but no one with a uterus is immune to the effect of that face, not even me.
“Have you shown her yet?” Lauren comes to my rescue, calling out from the lawn chair she’s draped over.
“Not yet, give me a minute.” Teddy grumbles. Why is he all grumbly and growly?
I slide my hand down to twine my fingers with his. “Show me what? Can I see it now?”
“No time for that, burgers are ready.” Garrett flourishes his tongs. “Kids! Food!”
Hours later I’m full of food and falling asleep in Teddy’s lap as he jokes with Casey about some prank they pulled on Garrett when they were kids. “Hey,” Teddy wakes me up with a kiss to the side of my head. The sun is setting and the late-summer air is crisp, the dried sweat on my body chilled in the night air. “You okay?”
“I’m exhausted. But happy.” I snuggle back into his lap, seeking the warmth of his body.
