Chapter 13

chapter

thirteen

Cooper

The moving truck arrives, along with my brother.

I ignore that fact as I follow Harmony across the street.

I knock on the door. "Harmony? Are you okay?"

She doesn't answer.

"Hey, Cooper!" That's my brother with the moving truck. "You moving in with Harmony already?"

I roll my eyes.

I knock again.

Finally she responds. "I'm fine. I just need a minute."

I turn to my brother and cross the street to help him unload my things.

He listens while I tell him everything that happened.

Almost everything.

Mainly, I'm confounded that she's so upset I moved here.

"I wish she understood that this life is normal for me. Not the giant estate with a fucking moat."

Carter says, "Then you need to tell her that."

Together, we lug my mattress up the stoop and through the front door.

I've already assembled my bed frame, which I hauled in my SUV from the estate.

Once the mattress is situated in the back bedroom, we unload the TV.

"I can't believe you're moving out," Carter says. "After you had the pool and the entire backyard dug up and redesigned."

He has a point.

"I mean, what will we do with Aunt Gabby's house? Have you thought about that? If it's sitting empty it'll cost us a fortune in utilities just to keep the lights on," Carter prods.

"It's not sitting empty," I tell him after we have my living room furniture more or less situated. "You still live there."

"Yeah, until Summer and I build our house. Then what?"

"I don't know. We could rent it out?" I say, not quite believing it. The thought of strangers trashing the place — the place where our aunt took care of us after our parents died — makes my stomach queasy.

Carter explains the downside of that, and the cost of hiring property managers while we unload boxes and more furniture. He peppers me with more questions and lectures about practicality until my eyes glaze over.

"Thanks for your help," I tell him when we're finished, and he waves off my offer of beer and delivery pizza.

"I have to help Summer close up Little Spoon," he says. "Think about what I said."

Which part? "Has anyone ever told you you're exhausting?"

Carter slaps my shoulder before heading out. "Has anyone ever told you they were proud of you?"

This throws me for a loop. "No. Not since Aunt Gabby."

"Well, take that to mean I'm proud of you, brother."

I blink at him. "For what?"

He looks around. "A lot of people need words. But she's not a girl that needs a lot of talking. Harmony needs you to show her what you mean to her."

"She's not ready."

"She will be."

I watch my brother leave with the moving truck, then stand on the stoop and stare at Harmony's house. The light is on in her kitchen.

My stomach growls. I wonder what she's making in there.

I won't get to find out, because it's pizza night for me.