Page 106 of Rent Free

“Do you have room for me, too?” I asked. “I can take up a couch.”

“It’s a king-sized bed,” Everest laughed. “My sister is bougie and feels like she needs a big bed.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’ll warn you that the walls are thin, though.”

Pepper’s cheeks pinked. “They are.”

I focused on her, seeing her cheeks go even pinker by the second. “Heard ’em a time or two, eh?”

Pepper did a full body shiver, causing me to laugh.

“Hey,” Everest shrugged. “We tried to make it happen when she wasn’t around, but when you have a wife as sexy as I do…”

“Everest!” Wendy snapped, slapping him on the chest.

He chuckled and pulled away, rubbing his chest where she’d slapped him. “Sorry, sorry.”

“The walls really are thin,” she said, embarrassed.

“It’s okay,” Pepper teased. “Y’all can borrow the noise canceling headphones I had to purchase for those times.”

Tarrant choked. “All right. On that note, it’s been a great day. I can only think of one thing that’ll make this better.”

He picked Ida up and started walking off.

“Tarrant, put me down!” Ida cried.

Tarrant ignored her and walked her all the way to a beat-up white truck in the corner of the lot.

The rest of them dispersed, and I walked Pepper and Forest to her Jeep before hustling back to my own. She waited for me to join her at the exit, then led the way to her brother’s home.

The house was cute. A single-story farmhouse-esque white number that was in the middle of town.

Wendy and Everest were just going up the stairs to their place when I saw the person on their front porch.

I parked haphazardly in the yard, half in the drive and half in the yard—I’d feel bad about denting their grass later—and rushed around the truck.

“Stop,” I ordered.

All of them froze.

Even the woman on the porch in the shadows.

Everest and Wendy came back down the stairs just as Sage appeared from the shadows.

“Well, well, well,” Sage said sweetly. “Just one big, happy family. First the baby. Now the in-laws. You’re busy, aren’t you, officer?”

I crossed my arms over my chest.

“What are you doing here, Sage?” I asked carefully.

She flipped her hair, a smile on her face—one that didn’t meet her eyes—and gestured to herself. “My family lives here.”

“Your family doesn’t want you anywhere near them,” Everest snapped. “Your family wants you to disappear into a black hole and never come back again.”

Harsh.

But Sage had done a lot to their family.

I couldn’t feel bad about his words to my one-time friend anymore.

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