Page 52 of Falling Too Late

“Ow, damn it, Gavin, that hurt!” Troy whined.?

Troy and Gavin wrestled their way into the kitchen. Troy had Gavin in a headlock, and Gavin had Troy around the waist, trying to pick him up. Alex followed behind the two knuckleheads.??

“Not in the house!” Alex had his hands on his hips, shaking his head, doing an amazing Gloria impersonation. Alex started working for Dan’s Construction as soon as we graduated high school. Gavin and Troy had started a few months after him. The three of them had been inseparable since.??

They were goofballs who just liked to joke around and play pranks on one another.?

“Okay, you three.” I set the pizzas down onto the counter and Alex took the beer from my other hand, putting them in the fridge. “We don’t need someone breaking something already.”?

I maneuvered my way around the boys and the boxes.??

“Hey, what else did you get us?” Troy said as I tried leaving the kitchen.?

I still had ahold of the black bag that had the sex toys in it. I knew if I made a run for it now, Troy and Gavin would both chase after me until they got their hands on whatever I had. Troy and Gavin were like the brothers I never had. Teasing and tormenting me to no end.??

With flushed cheeks, I turned around, holding the bag out. “Oh, I didn’t know you also used tampons, here,” I offered.?

Gavin and Alex busted out laughing, and Troy’s face turned several shades of red.??

“Didn’t think so.” Before he could make a move, I turned around and ran up the stairs.?

My room was right across from Alex’s, last door on the right. We had both bought brand-new mattresses and upgraded ourselves from the twin we had been sharing to full sizes. The beds were delivered this morning. I set my purse down on my desk and pushed the bag underneath my bed. Grabbed a hair tie, throwing my hair up into a messy bun. I had let my hair grow out since moving in with the Harpers; now it fell around my waist. I loved it.?

Back downstairs and in the kitchen, they already had a pizza open, and half the thing was gone.??

“Jesus.” I went to a box that was labeledfragileand opened it to find some glasses. I filled it up with tap water and took a long drink.??

“Don’t judge us. We’re growing boys,” Troy said around a mouthful.??

Out of my peripheral Alex handed me a slice of pizza. “Thank you.” I took it, taking a bite and pulling it away the cheese stretching from my mouth to the pizza. I had to break it with two fingers. “Mmm,” I hummed my approval.??

“What’s the game plan?” Alex leaned against the counter and bumped into my shoulder.??

“Kitchen and bathrooms first, then our rooms.” We really didn’t have much stuff but had been buying more every time we saw something. Yard sales were our favorite things on weekends lately. “Where’s Ma?”??

“She and Candy had to go get their hair done.” Alex grinned. “I told her that we could handle unpacking the rest of it. She unpacked her room this morning.”?Gloria had been able to move to part-time from working at Tony’s. We didn’t see her a lot lately, she had been going out with her friends and even started up on a bowling league.

The house had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Twobedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, the other downstairs. It even had central heating and air.??

Alex was adamant about not living in a place with baseboard heaters.??

“What’s in the bags?” Alex nodded to the floor where I had left the bags from my solo shopping trip.?

“Sheets sized to fit our beds.” I had been saving all my money for the last year. My only expenses were the necessary ones. I had a nice little cushion now to go a little crazy to get the things we needed for the house, like new sheets for all three of us.??

Alex bent down, opening the bag. He pulled out the sheets I had picked out for him—navy blue—a deep purple for Ma, and a deep forest green for me. “Wow, Wren, you didn’t need to do that.” He smiled down at me, and I grinned, pleased he liked them. “And guess what?”?

“Hmm?” I said around a mouthful.??

Alex leaned down to my ear and loudly whispered, “We have a laundry room.” We had spent many nights hauling clothes baskets to the closest laundromat on laundry days. Now, we had our own.??

It was odd to be excited over something as simple as our own washer and dryer.?

Troy whispered loudly, “Now kiss.”?

Alex looked to the ceiling and rolled his eyes. “If you two are done stuffing your faces, why don’t you go unload the truck.” He picked up a dishrag and tossed it at them.??

“Ah, Troy, you made Mom and Dad mad at us again. Come on.” Gavin grabbed Troy in a headlock and dragged him out of the kitchen.?

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