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Lisa isn’t at the clubhouse when I get there, and neither is Wren. This is slowly turning into the worst day of my damn life.
When I stride back out of Lisa's office, Palmer is talking to Justice at the bar. He catches sight of me, waving me over. Justice wanders off, and Palmer smirks at me.
“Why do you look like someone killed your grandmother?”
Flipping him off, I shrug belligerently. “Shelley’s fucked off.”
Palmer’s eyebrows shoot up as he claps me on the shoulder.
“Come back to ours. Lisa will be there. She might know what’s going on.”
She fucking better. I trail after Palmer, glowering at the world. I have no idea why Shelley asked Wren to take her home. We were dealing nicely. We fucked every night. We ate dinner together. Hell, we watched YouTube videos to learn tocooktogether. Why the fuck would she leave? We had a good thing going on.
Parking beside Palmer, I start to follow him into The Pines, hanging back, toying with my phone again.
“I’ll meet you up there.”
Palmer nods, waving at me over his shoulder as he strides off. I try Shelley’s number again, swallowing down the worry when it rings out, going to voicemail. I shove it back into my pocket and jog inside.
What if something happened to her? I don’t know what the fuck would happen to her in Pinedale. But there has to be some reason she isn’t answering. She can’t have gone off me in one afternoon. Right?
Fuck. I’m spiraling. I need to get my head in the game to figure out where she is and get my girl back. I have no idea when I turned into such a fucking pussy, but I’m starting to understand Strafe’s clinginess with his wife. When I get Shelley back, I’m never letting her go again.
Reaching Palmer’s door, I hammer on it impatiently. I need to speak with Lisa. She’s got to knowsomething. Palmer opens the door with a smirk. He jerks his head to the entrance of the second bedroom. That must be where Lisa is. I have no idea why the fuck he’s looking at me like he’s a schoolgirl with a secret, but I shove past him.
As I open the door and walk in, my eyebrows shoot up, and my heart calms the fuck down. Lisa is in here. She’s sitting on the bed, watching as Shelley unpacks a suitcase into the closet. Thank fuck she’s safe. But why thehellwasn’t she answering her phone? It would have saved us both a lot of time.
“What the fuck are you doing, kid?” I spit, my frustration and annoyance bleeding into my tone. She turns, blinking in surprise at me.
“Unpacking,” she says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
“I’m not getting involved. I’m out,” Lisa mutters, sliding off the bed and leaving the room, pulling the door shut behind us to give us some privacy – from Palmer, Lisa can’t hear.
Stalking across the room, I snatch the clothes out of the closet, dumping them back into the suitcase. Why the fuck is she unpacking intoPalmer’swardrobe and not mine? That makes zero fucking sense.
“What are you doing?” Shelley hisses, trying to take the clothes back out. I snatch them back out of her hands, shoving them into the suitcase and zipping it up, slapping at her hands when she tries to stop me.
“Packing your shit,” I reply, lifting the suitcase off the bed. How is it not obvious?
Shelley glares at me, her shoulders slumping. “Look. I don’t have anywhere else to go, okay? Lisa said I could stay here until I get my own apartment.”
I freeze, the suitcase halfway to the ground. What the fuck does she mean? She doesn’t have anywhere else to go? She’s been living in my apartment for a whole week.
“What the fuck does that mean?”
Shelley shrugs, chewing her lower lip, unable to meet my eye. She fidgets with the hem of her T-shirt. Fuck that. Setting the suitcase down, I place two fingers under her chin and tip her head up so she’s looking me in the eye. That’s better.
“I only need somewhere to stay until I’ve earned enough money to pay the first and last month's rent. Wren and I discussed me looking after Ethan and Arianna at the clubhouse.”
My heart thuds in my chest. She got a job at the clubhouse? That’s fucking permanent.
“Why wouldn’t you be staying with me?”
Shelley blinks in surprise. “Well,” she blushes. “I figured I would stay with you sometimes. But I’m not about to move myself into your apartment.”
Why the fuck not? That sounds like an amazing idea.
“Fine. I’ll move you in.”
