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“Circle,” Marcus said at the same time Joselyn said, “Square.”
“Why circle?” Joselyn asked him, baffled. “They are the same width, but look how much more space the square one has. Then everyone isn’t having to crowd each other, and you don’t get your drink cups mixed up with someone else’s.”
“Because if you’re in there with four of your friends or family, enjoying an ice cream cone, you each take one side of the table. If other people come in who are also your friends or family, you can’t just say, ‘Come on over and join us!’ because there’s not enough space to put two people on one side of a table like this, and it’s awkward to have someone sit at the corner. With a round one, you can just keep adding more chairs. How much space do you really need when you’re eating ice cream, anyway?”
Sandra rubbed her hands together in excitement. “All these clashings of opinions are so much fun! Maybe it’s because you started dating. You know what they say— ‘opposites attract.’ Okay.” With her hands still clapped together, she swayed them from the left to the right, like a pendulum swinging from one of them to the other. “I’m going to say that this round goes to...” she held out the word, and then aimed her hands toward Marcus, “the gentleman wanting the round tables. With all the straight lines we’re putting in the room, the round tables will contrast nicely.”
Marcus put his arm around Joselyn’s shoulders and kissed her temple to hopefully soften Sandra’s declaration.
He wished that was the last time they disagreed. But they had very different opinions about chairs, paint colors, lighting, uniforms for employees, and signage. Each time, Sandra would declare one of them a winner of that round and explain her reasons why, each disagreement seeming to bring the woman even more joy. He wished he could’ve felt joy about it. Instead, even though each of them had “won” about the same number of rounds, the fact that they were disagreeing so much filled him full of worry.
Exhaustion settled in as he drove Joselyn back to her apartment once they finally finished. Between the excitement of seeing their building for the first time and the mental toll of making so many decisions with the designer and the emotional toll of the worry about how their disagreements might affect their relationship, Marcus was ready to crash.
But when he walked Joselyn to her front door, she turned and smiled at him in a way that made every negative emotion and all the exhaustion in his body whoosh out of him. She placed a hand on either side of his face, down low where two fingers were on his neck and two were on his jaw, and he closed his eyes for a moment to let the warmth of her touch wash over him.
“We made so many huge strides forward today.”
He smiled and settled his hands on her hips. “That explains why today seemed like it was a week long.”
She laughed, a musical sound that his ears seemed to be tuned perfectly for. “You work until late tomorrow, right?”
“Until midnight, since it’s a Friday. But I’ll be there with bells on to help Macie move into her apartment Saturday morning.”
Joselyn’s hands slid from the side of his neck to the back, her fingers running through the hair at his neck, sending shivers down his spine. Then she pulled him forward and pressed her lips against his— a kiss that told him that nothing could possibly be wrong between them.
thirteen
JOSELYN
Bright and early on Saturday morning, Joselyn had already arrived at Macie’s brand-new apartment when she saw Marcus pull up out front. Her parents and four of her siblings showed up at almost the exact same time as Marcus to help Macie move in. They all made it to the door together, but Marcus was the first to walk in.
“Good morning, Sunshine!” He glanced around at the empty apartment. “Macie! Nice digs you’ve got here. I love what you’ve done with the place.”
“Thank you,” Macie said. “I’m thinking of turning pro.”
Marcus’s booming laugh echoed through the empty apartment, and Joselyn realized how much she loved that quick, easy laugh that always rumbled throughout whatever space he was in. And not in the same way that she loved Everett’s laugh. How had she ever managed to convince herself that Marcus was “just like a brother?” The difference between how each of them made her feel was so obvious.
Before they carried any boxes or furniture inside, though, her family scattered through the empty apartment to check out every room, look in every closet, and open every cupboard and drawer. It was practically a Zimmerman family tradition.
The apartment was narrow and two stories high— a living room, the kitchen, a tiny laundry room, and a bathroom were on the main floor, and two bedrooms and another bathroom were up a long flight of stairs. The place was just old enough to really have character.
Joselyn headed upstairs to check out what would be her future bedroom, and Macie’s dogs Reese and Lola bounded up after her. After Marcus had left her apartment in Denver on Monday night— when they had decided to be business partners and shared their first kiss—Joselyn had called her sister, hoping that her offer to share an apartment was still on the table.
Macie had squealed when Joselyn told her the news about her partnership with Marcus. Macie hadn’t squealed since she was about sixteen— back when they shared a bedroom instead of an apartment. Joselyn still had her apartment in Denver until the end of the month, so she wouldn’t be moving in until the next weekend. First, she needed to share the news with her family.
Joselyn was checking out the kitchen and Marcus was upstairs with Everett when Everett called downstairs to Macie, “Hey, Sis! You’ve got two bedrooms up here— you going to get a roommate?”
Macie glanced in Joselyn’s direction from where she stood in the living room, and Joselyn gave her a nod. So Macie called up the stairs, “Yep! It’s going to be Joselyn.”
Her family seemed to be pulled to the living room from every direction in the house, toward Macie’s declaration, whether they wanted to or not, all wearing expressions of confusion and curiosity. Joselyn shook her head, chuckling.
“You’re moving back to Nestled Hollow?” Nicole asked. “When?”
Joselyn couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face. “Next Saturday, if any of you are just dying to help a sister move in two weekends in a row.”
“That’s going to be quite the commute to work,” her mom said. “What made you decide to do that?”
Joselyn locked eyes with Marcus as everyone took the last few steps to congregate in the empty living room. Marcus gave her a smile that made her want to sigh in happiness, but she worked hard not to let it show. She waited for him to come to stand next to her, and then she said, “Actually, I put in my two-week notice at work, so it will only be one week of commuting.” Joselyn looked at Marcus, their grins a mirror of each other. “Marcus and I have decided to be business partners and run With a Cherry on Top together.”
