I know you don’t subscribe to that sexist bullshit, Web; otherwise, I’d have to beat the crap out of you.”
“You know better than to push her buttons. Did the skating rink incident teach you nothing?” Adam asked, kissing the back of my neck.
Kyle shuddered. “Dude, I’ve repressed that particular memory. The humiliation has haunted me ever since.”
“That’s what you get for telling Meg she skated like a chick. What’d you think she was going to do? Go and cry? Of course, she was going to show your pansy-ass up,” Skylar said, opening a box and pulling out my sketch pads and pencils.
“Those are going in the studio downstairs,” Adam told her.
“The studio?” Skylar asked. “That sounds fancy.”
“Adam insisted we convert his workout room to a studio for me to paint in. I told him I can paint anywhere, but you know how stubborn he is.”
Adam wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me flush against his side. I fit perfectly. I had always fit perfectly. “Yeah, because I’m the stubborn one in this relationship.”
The four of us all exchanged knowing glances then busted up laughing.
Adam started wheeling my suitcase into the walk-in closet. He had already cleared out the right side for my clothes. When I agreed to move in with him, he had hired a decorator to redo the entire house to my specifications.
“This will be as much your house as mine. I want it to feel like home.”
I knew he didn’t want me to feel like I was moving into the house he used to share with Chelsea. He worried that it still bothered me, no matter how often I told him that she didn’t matter.
And it was true.
Chelsea had signed the divorce papers and moved to Miami not long after Adam and I got back together. By the end of the year, after the twelve months required separation, they’d be officially divorced. We all breathed a sigh of relief. Adam hadn’t heard from her since, except through her attorney.
Skylar moved into a cute house downtown and was working from home. Adam hired her to revamp their website and to come up with some new marketing materials. She was working closely with Robert, Adam’s other partner. I noticed they seemed to be putting in a lot of hours on the project. I knew not to ask about it until she wanted to tell me. Skylar was funny like that.
I could relate.
The doorbell rang. “People are starting to show up. Come on, baby.” Adam took my hand and pulled me out of the room. The term baby no longer made me want to run away screaming. Now I kind of liked it.
We opened the door to find the porch crowded with people.
My sister handed me a lovely potted plant. “Don’t kill this one, okay?” she said as I put it on the table inside the foyer.
“I killed one plant, Whit. One,” I replied with a roll of the eyes.
“Hey, Whitney,” Kyle said, moving to stand close to my sister. She gave him a sweet smile in return. The way he looked at her, I knew that was a childhood crush that had never gone away.
I still hadn’t been able to find out what happened between them that week years ago, but I’d weasel it out of one of them eventually.
“I made you two a carrot cake. And Tom thought you could use an electric bottle opener. I told him that Adam had all the kitchen gadgets he needed. It’s not like you’re moving into a brand-new home. But he insisted.” Marion kissed my cheek, and Tom handed me a bag overflowing with tissue paper.
“Thanks, Dad. We appreciate it. My old one actually broke not long ago.” Adam hugged his dad.
Lena was the next to arrive, and I noticed she did so exactly five minutes before Jeremy Wyatt showed up. I wondered if that was planned so it didn’t look as if they were together. Though Adam was still oblivious, I was pretty certain something was going on between those two.
It seemed there was a lot of that going around.
Mrs. Hamilton arrived not long after that—with her son Daniel. It seemed he was, in fact, out of town for work and had held down a job for the last eight months. He had moved in with his mother and seemed to be taking care of her. Adam was still wary of his intentions, but it made her happy to have her son home, so he refrained from snarling every time