Friends with Benefits - Nicole Blanchard Page 0,68
making more money, I thought it was time we left the apartment for something with a little more room to grow. The girls needed something closer to school, and they needed their own rooms. While I had been taking it easy on bed rest, I had scanned the classifieds and found a nice, albeit older, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a bit of land and a fenced-in backyard. It was on the girls’ school route, so they could get on the bus right in front of the house. What they loved most of all was that they got their own space. Of course, more often than not, I found them curled up asleep together, but they were happy, and that was all that mattered.
“They love it. They’re trying to convince me to get a puppy now that we have a backyard.”
“A puppy!” Layla squealed. “I want a puppy.”
“Don’t gang up with them. It’s already hard enough to resist their charms. They’ve been doing all sorts of extra chores all week trying to get in my good graces.”
“It’s working, isn’t it?” Charlie asked with a big grin. She shoved back the dirty blonde hair that was falling out of her long braid.
I groaned and grabbed my own beer. I’d provided a couple of six-packs and snacks in exchange for their help. “Yes. They’ve even made their own chore chart of how they’d divvy up the extra chores for a puppy. Down to who will walk it on which day and whose room it gets to sleep in. That one caused a bit of an argument.”
Layla munched on a handful of chips and salsa before asking, “Have you heard from Tripp at all?”
The smile fell from my face. I sucked down half of my beer before I answered. “He texts every now and then when he can. He’s been practicing nonstop and traveling to games. The hope is he can still participate in this year’s draft, but we won’t know until August for sure.”
To think of Tripp not playing ball...the thought simply didn’t compute. He was meant to play. I couldn’t picture him doing anything else. God knows, he must be feeling horrible. I couldn’t even imagine. Having him show up at the hospital during the most important game of his life to be with me was exactly what I was afraid he’d do. Give up his dreams for me. I wouldn’t allow him to make the same mistake twice.
Charlie grunted, her eyes on the dishes she was packing into a box. “I’m just saying, if he was willing to leave that game to be with you, girl, he’s a keeper.”
“Let’s not talk about it for a while. Thinking about it too much makes my heart hurt.”
Which was exactly my problem. This whole arrangement was supposed to be so that feelings didn’t get involved. We were supposed to come out on the other side unscathed, without any strings. Somehow everything had gotten so tangled that we were both at risk for getting hurt.
They were both annoyed with me but acquiesced to my request. For the next few hours, we finished boxing up the rest of the kitchen and moved to the bedrooms. By the time the moon was high in the sky, we were all a little dusty, drunk, and exhausted, but the apartment was finally all in boxes. There were surprisingly few of them, considering the four years I’d lived there.
Charlie and Layla tried to convince me to let them stay, but I shooed them away. The weeks after the miscarriage had been hard, and I found that I often needed space to deal with my feelings. Tripp had stayed with me in the hospital until I was released forty-eight hours later. To be honest, I wouldn’t have made it without him. He hadn’t pushed, hadn’t demanded. He had simply been there to help. When I had learned that he’d left the game for me, I’d been furious, but he’d stubbornly insisted I was more important.
I hadn’t known whether to be flattered or supremely pissed off. Anger was easier, so I had gone with that. While I had healed, he had given me space to work through my feelings. Which had only pissed me off more. I hated that he knew what I wanted without me even having to request it. Who was he to think he knew what I needed?
That’s why, when he knocked on my door after the girls left, I was fuming. If it weren’t for the glass of