Then I hear, “Don’t come whining to me, you’re the one that got off the couch. I was comfortable.”
There’s another whine.
When I step into the main room, I see black jeans and socked feet crossed at the ankle on my couch. Rory’s lying there, her laptop half open on the coffee table.
“Fine,” Rory says, and Princess leaps onto Rory’s stomach, which causes her to grunt and push my dog off. Princess burrows into the space between Rory and the back cushion while Rory chuckles.
“Well, hello.” I saunter into the living room.
Princess’s tail thump thump thumps and she whines in pleasure.
I lean over the couch, putting one fist above Rory’s head on the arm of the couch and the other fist on the back, caging my two girls in.
“Are you stalking me?” I ask. “If so, I’m into it.”
Rory rolls her eyes. “I was driving through and I stopped to visit Grandma and wanted to talk to you. And check on the car.”
Sure, check on “the car.”
“You weren’t home,” she continues with a how-dare-you tone. “So I waited on the porch. And Princess heard me and she was whining and I couldn’t just sit there while she was all alone so I went to your back door and found the key under the mat—not very secure by the way—and thought I’d wait for you inside. Keep her company, you know.” Rory sniffs as if she’s done me a favor.
“Uh-huh,” I say. “How long did you last before you decided you’d rather do a B and E than listen to Princess cry?”
The dog in question squirms. She’s lying on Rory’s arm, which has got to be numb by now. Princess wiggles her way up to Rory’s face and gives her cheek a lick before she tucks her nose behind Rory’s neck.
“Twenty minutes.”
“Liar.”
“Fine. Seven. But I?—”
Whatever Rory is about to say is cut off by Princess’s giant sneeze. Rory’s whole face contorts into a half grimace, half wince, and I’m sure she’s got dog snot all over the back of her neck and in her hair.
“That,” I say to Princess, “was disgusting. Did no one teach you that it’s impolite to sneeze on guests?” I reach up to the side table and grab a tissue, offering it to Rory. “Need this?”
An eye cracks open and Rory glares at me. She moves to sit up and there’s a scramble while Princess ungracefully gets to her feet and leaps over Rory.
“So you wanted to talk to me?” I settle my butt on the coffee table while Rory wipes the dog snot off the back of her neck.
“Yeah.” She sighs. “Grandma is calling our bluff. She wants to come see my ‘new place’ and have dinner with us.”
“Sure, no problem.”
Rory’s hand drops. “Morgan. That means I’d have to actually move stuff in here. My grandmother will be coming over and she’ll snoop.”
I spread my hands wide. “So move in. It’s not like we have to share a bed. We’ll make it look believable and then after she leaves you can move back into the guest room. And look, you travel a lot, I work nights, we’ll hardly ever see each other.”
“Right,” she says slowly. “And I don’t know how long we’ll need to keep this up. In two months or so, Grandma’s going to insist on moving again.”
“Exactly. No big deal.”
Rory blows out a breath. “That means I need to actually move here. I figured since you’re off on Monday we could have dinner then, but that only gives me two days to move in, and I need someone to come with me and drive my car and the van back. And you’ve got work. Although . . .” She pauses, thinking. “I can’t fit all of my stuff in my car anyway.”
I pull out my phone. “Think my truck would have enough room? You wouldn’t need to bring furniture, right? Just your personal stuff?” She agrees. “Okay, let me rally the troops and see who can help.” I fire off a text to my friends and stand. “Has Princess been out?”
Rory nods. “When I got here.”
“Have you eaten?”
