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CHAPTER 1
Nathan
“Doesshe have any idea how much you love her?” Val asks.
I look away from the spectacle of Crew proving how strong he is by carrying Danielle over one shoulder and a box of her books on the other up the front steps of our new house.
I look at Valerie instead. “Because I let her sleep with that jackass too?” I ask.
Val shakes her head. “Even more than that, this house that you bought her.”
I sigh. I’ve been trying not to let on that Ireallydo not like the new Cookie & Co. residence. But Val knows me well. And when Danielle isn’t looking, I probably let my frowns show.
“Hughes and McNeill helped buy it.”
Val shakes her head. “You know what I mean. The only reasonyou’rehere is that girl.”
I watch Crew carry her through the imposing black wooden front door. Her laughter reaches me and it makes my heart squeeze the way it always does.
Val is so damn right.
Danielle Larkin is the only person on the planet that could get me to give up my penthouse apartment near the lake to live in a brownstone in Lincoln Park.
The house is nice. Very nice. The remodel we did on it took forever–or so it seemed–and cost a fortune. But it turned out…very nice.
If a little skinny. Lacking in light. With an absurd number of stairs.
It’s no light-filled penthouse with floor-to-ceiling windows with a killer view of the Chicago skyline on the south side and Lake Michigan to the north.
Where I lived alone.
I already miss my doorman and concierge services and we haven’t even spent a single night here.
“Danielle and Michael wanted a more homey feeling home,” I tell Val. “They wanted a neighborhood and an actual house.”
She nods. “They are definitely home and neighborhood types.”
Yeah, they are. There had been talk about how fun it will be to have kids trick-or-treating at Halloween, and decorating at Christmas, and meeting the neighbors.
Michael and Danielle have a lot of things in common like that. It doesn’t bother me. Exactly. But there are definitely moments, like when we’re picking out furniture, choosing which rooms are going to be whose ‘alone space’ (yes, we absolutely all need our own alone space), and shopping for new dishes and towels, that I’m reminded of the ways that Michael is the perfect man for Danielle.
If she was a one-man woman, anyway.
Thank God, she’s not. Thank God she loves, needs, and wants me too.
Even though she knows that the idea of meeting the neighbors gives me heartburn. Home should be a sanctuary from the outside world, not a place where I get accosted by conversation just trying to get in the damn front door.
“Val! Get in here! You gotta see the game room and the theater room!” Crew calls from the doorway. “It’s fucking amazing!
Val looks up at me. She’s grinning. Fuckinggrinning. Crew McNeill can make Val grin.
“He said you bought a popcorn machine. Like the ones they have at concession stands. He’s told me all about the theater room with the recliners. And I believe there’s a pool table, ping-pong table, and two arcade video games?”
I roll my eyes. “Three. There are three arcade video games. And I didnotbuy any of that for him. McNeill is a fucking millionaire. He bought his own toys.”
“Come on, Val!” Danielle calls, poking her head under the arm Crew has braced on the doorjamb. “The recliners havemassagersin them!”
Yeah, she also loves, wants, and needs Crew.
