About Tomorrow - Abbi Glines Page 0,23

a moment to get myself together and act normal. The way he made me feel felt like I was cheating on Griff, even though I had done nothing wrong. Facing my former emotions and overcoming them would be the smart thing to do. This was normal. It had to be. We had no real closure and I had battled depression that took me through too many dark days after Cora died and Creed exited my life.

“Christmas movies already?” he asked, walking into the kitchen from the living room.

I felt myself blush at being caught watching them but decided that was the least of my problems. “Yep,” I replied. “How are things in Boston?” I then asked, feeling as if that was safe conversation territory.

“Same.” His voice was close now. I turned to see he’d stopped only a few feet behind me. “Chet and Griff are either at school or studying. The food has dwindled in the apartment and when I checked for something to eat this morning, all we had was strawberry jelly, one egg, a quarter of a gallon of milk, and some leftover pizza.”

“Yum. Nothing like jelly and pizza for breakfast,” I replied, putting a slice of pie on one of Gran’s everyday gold butterfly dishes.

“I wouldn’t know. I stopped at Dunkin’ on my way here.”

Once I had his cup of cocoa ready, I picked up the plate and cup to turn and hand it to him. “This will be better than Dunkin’,” I assured him.

He took both from me and I waved a hand toward the living room. “It’s warmer in there. I haven’t started the stove in here yet today,” I explained.

I followed him back into the living room and picked my cocoa back up then went to the overstuffed tan chair, leaving him the sofa where he would have the side table to put his food and drink on. This was all very nice and friendly. I had nothing to worry about. It seemed we could do this. Besides, Creed lived in Boston. Not Portsmouth. I doubted we would have another visit in Gran’s living room.

“What business did you have to take care of here?” I asked him, just to make conversation and a little out of curiosity.

He shrugged then swallowed his bite of pie. “Getting the wood stacked at the house, having the furnace serviced, that kind of thing.”

Confused at his response, I waited until he took a drink and another bite then asked, “Your mom’s house?” I would have thought her husband could do those things. What kind of man had she married? I remembered Creed’s dad being handy around the house and making Creed help.

“No not mom’s, my house.”

His house? I let that sink in then sipped more of my cocoa. Why did Creed have a house here? Was he not moving to Boston? He was in a band there.

“The house I grew up in was given to my dad from his parents. The will states it can’t be sold; it has to be passed down to the next in line. When my parents divorced, and moved out, Dad had the deed changed to my name. I’ve been leasing it to a nice older couple for the past five years, but they moved to Florida to be near their daughter who just had her first kid. I decided not to lease it again.”

So…Creed was my neighbor? What?

“What about Boston and the band?” I asked him, not sure I was understanding correctly and hoping I was completely confused. For reasons, I didn’t want to think too deeply about.

He finished his pie and set the plate down. “That was temporary. I was going to make it work with the distance if I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t for me. I have only one more gig with them next weekend and then I move back here and finish what I started in college.”

“College?” I blurted out without thinking. My head was spinning and I was struggling to make sense of all this new information.

He smirked. “What? Did you think I skipped out on college to play in a band?”

I had no idea that he went to college or where he went or if he had a degree. He had shut me out six years ago. He’d lost his sister, his twin, and I understood that he was hurting but so was I. There had been no reason for him to act as if I no longer existed. He had told me he loved me and