Page 129 of Never Forever

“You can’t stay here alone,” Jonah repeated.

“I agree,” Matt said, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. The sleeves of his uniform pulling tight across his body in a way I found distracting. “Plus there’s a nor’easter coming in. A bad one.”

“What?” Annie asked.

“Really?” Star asked.

“It’s called a weather app, people. It’s on your phone,” Matt said.

“You could stay with Levi and me,” Annie said.

“No,” I said, thinking of the thin walls in Annie’s little cottage. “Thank you.”

“You can stay with me,” Matt said. “I have lots of room.”

“I’m fine out here,” I said. “I’ll lock the doors.”

“The locks are garbage, and I broke that window,” Jonah said. “I’ll stay out here.”

“No, you won’t,” I said at the same time Matt said. “If anyone stays out here, it’s me.”

“This is ridiculous!”

Star tipped my head forward. “Don’t move, honey. This is the tricky part.”

“If you insist on staying out here,” Matt said. “I’ll be out here, too.”

I was glad I couldn’t see him. That my gaze was forced on the black and white tiled floor between my feet. I didn’t want to reveal to anyone how…intriguing the idea of Matt staying here was. How I thought, maybe, I might enjoy that.

“There’s only one air mattress,” I said.

“Ooh la la, I know where this is going,” Star said.

“We’ll figure something out,” Matt said. The ferry whistle blew and Matt swore. “I gotta go. Anyone coming with me?”

“This repair is going to take a while,” Star said, draining her glass of mimosa and filling it back up with mostly champagne.

“No, I’ll hang with Carrie for a bit,” Annie said.

“I’ll come with you,” Jonah said.

The men left and it was a long silent pause in the kitchen before Star whistled.

“You got two men asking to sleep in this empty falling down house with you. You need to be a movie star to get that kind of treatment, or you got some other trick?”

“No trick,” I said.

“All treat.” Star sighed, and Annie started laughing. And I couldn’t stop myself from joining in.

29

Later That Day

Carrie

After all the excitement of the morning, I must have fallen asleep, not shocking given I was a napping machine lately. I was awakened by the incessant buzzing of my cell phone, accompanied by the pounding on the front door.

“Coming!” I cried, and rolled out of the air mattress taco I’d been sleeping in. I accidentally stepped on theMidnight and Madnessbook sitting on the floor next to my bed taco. I preferred fantasy fiction to the weird shit I was reading in the pregnancy book.

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