He smirks at me from the floor. “Is that it or is the actualthank youstill coming?”

“Don’t push it.”

Chapter Four

GRACIE

“You know, I don’t ever remember beingthatobnoxious, even in middle school. Oh, hi, Gracie.” Keava stumbles through the back door and starts piling her belongings on the kitchen table. She’s somehow carrying twice as many things as she had when she left this morning. “Do you remember seventh grade?” she asks, heading for the fridge. “Demons. All of my kids aredemons, I’m telling you.”

I watch wide-eyed as she pulls a bottle of wine from the fridge, screws off the top, and takes a huge gulp straight from the bottle. Her head falls back with a sigh, then she sets the bottle on the counter in front of her, seemingly taking in the room for the first time.

“Where’s Leo?”

I jab my thumb toward the basement. “He and Liam are finishing with the moving stuff.”

She snorts. “I’m surprised Liam showed up.”

I don’t bother telling her it was actually Leo who nearly bailed on me and slide onto one of the bar stools, my muscles exhausted from going up and down the stairs. And I can definitely feel a bruise forming from that damn table.

She pulls a glass from the cabinet and glances at me as she pours the wine. “You want one?”

My eyes shoot to the bottle she just wrapped her entire mouth around.

“There’s another bottle,” she adds.

“You going to drink that whole thing yourself?”

She shrugs and shoots me a wink. “Probably.”

I wave a hand. “I’m good.”

“I was thinking we could order in for dinner. Chinese or pizza—you have a preference?”

“Either is fine.” I chew on my lip, debating my next words. “Does the name Hailey ring a bell?”

Her eyebrows practically disappear into her hairline as her eyes dart from me to the basement stairs. “He talked about her?”

“No,” I admit, shifting my weight. I don’t know why I brought this up. “She was just calling a lot.”

“Oh. Figures.” She flicks her wrist at the questioning expression on my face. “Not really my place to say anything. And to be honest, I can’t keep up with whatever is going on between the two of them these days.”

Okay, so together. Or used to be together. Or something in between.

Not that it matters. Not that I care.

“Oh, hey, babe. Didn’t know you were home.” Leo bounds around the corner and plants a kiss on the top of Keava’s head before ducking into the fridge for a beer.

“You guys all finished?” she asks.

Leo wipes the sweat from his forehead and nods. My eyes drift to the hall, but no one comes in after him. Did he already leave?

Not that it matters.

Not that I care.

Keava starts complaining about the kids in her class again as Leo digs a second beer out of the fridge and pushes it across the counter. At first I think he’s giving it to me—weird, since he knows how much I hate beer—but then there’s a voice beside my ear.

“Thanks.” Liam takes the bar stool on my right.