Page 148 of Anyone But Her

"When was she at the house?"

"A few years ago. Apparently she and Albert used to date."

"Albert dated?"

"Oh, yeah, he was quite the ladies' man but he never dated anyone for very long."

"Did you ever meet the lady? Do you remember her?"

"I think this happened before I was living with him. He didn't bring many ladies over after I moved in. Anyway, she's not able to do the yard work so I'm going to ask my dad to do it, along with taking care of any maintenance issues that come up. In exchange, I'm going to give him the rent money. He's not going to find another job anytime soon and as long as he's helping me out I have no problem giving him the money."

"I think that's a great idea."

Luke and his dad aren't best buddies but they're getting along much better than they did before. And Luke's dad actually likes fixing up the house. He likes it better than his job at the shipyard. I think that's another reason he's being less of a jerk to Luke. He finally found something he likes doing that makes him happy. Maybe now he'll finally understand why Luke golfs.

My phone dings with a text.

"It's my mom," I say. "She asked if I'd be home for lunch. She's making pizza. You should come over. You could help me pack."

He kisses me. "We won't get much packing done, but yeah, I'll come over."

We go out to my car and drive to the house, which is only ten minutes away.

When we go inside nobody's there. We go out to the patio and find my mom and Cal sitting by the pool.

"Hey, Mom, what time is lunch?"

She gets up. "In a few minutes. We were waiting for you two to get here." She smiles at Luke and me. "Cal just told me the news."

"What news?" I ask.

"That Luke is moving to California. Aren't you excited?"

"Well, yeah, but we didn't tell anyone yet."

"I told Cal," Luke says.

"When?"

"Last night."

"You told Cal before you told me?"

"I wanted to know if your dad would kill me if I asked you to move in with me. I knew you wouldn't tell me the truth so I had to ask Cal."

"Don't be silly." My mom laughs. "Taylor's an adult. She can make her own decisions."

"Tell that to Dad," Cal says. "I told Luke there's a small chance Dad will kill him." He looks at Luke. "Sleep with one eye open, man."

"Cal, stop it," my mom says. She smiles at me. "So did you agree to it? Are you moving in with him?"

"Yeah." I smile up at Luke. "We're going to live together."

"You're what?" I hear Birdie's voice and see her coming through the sliding glass door to the patio. "You're moving in with Luke? You're not going back to school?"

"I'm going back, but Luke's coming with me. It's a long story. I'll tell you later. So what are you doing here? You didn't tell me you're coming over."

She rolls her eyes. "I'm here for my stupid swim lesson."

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