Page 37 of Yolo

My mouth was agape. “You know, that’ll only make him try harder. He doesn’t like to lose.”

He curled his hand around my hip and said, “The fucker literally changed your entire life when he left you on the mountain. But another thing he did was put you under my protection. And though we may not be seeing each other like I want us to, it doesn’t mean that I won’t protect you from afar.”

That made my belly burst into butterflies.

“You don’t have to watch out for me, Gee,” I admitted, looking at what I thought was his face. “I…” He took my face and rotated it a few degrees so that I was facing him. “Can take care of myself.”

“Is that why you haven’t left your house in a month?” he questioned.

I snapped my mouth shut.

“Your mom told me in the hospital that you’re terrified of being alone,” Gee said.

I sighed. “I was…am. Was.”

I didn’t know what I was anymore.

“Resigned, maybe. But you still don’t like to be alone,” he said. “And since it literally breaks something inside of me when I know you’re up there, afraid to leave, I brought you here to get a dog.”

I clenched my fists to keep myself from reaching out to touch him. “Do you like him?”

I found my fist unclenching and moving down to the dog’s head that was at the same level as Garrett’s hand on my hip. “Yes.”

“Then we’re getting him,” he said. He caught my hand and said, “Let’s go talk numbers with Trance.”

Too stunned to come up with an excuse to keep the conversation going, I allowed him to guide me all the way up to the porch where the rest of them were sitting, talking quietly.

“There’s a chair right here,” he said as he placed my hand on it.

But Rooster took over, guiding me to the chair with practiced ease.

Everyone was quiet until I was fully seated.

It was Pace, Oakley’s husband, that said, “Looks like you found a match.”

I placed my hand on Rooster’s soft head and scratched him behind the ears as I said, “Yep. Now, let’s talk numbers.”

If I die after I pay my rent, make sure that y’all leave me til the 30th.

—Bindi to her mom

BINDI

“The rent is going up in June,” my mother read. “What the fuck?”

“By how much?” I asked.

“Not much. Only a hundred dollars, but I thought that you were locked in rate-wise?” She sounded angry.

I laughed. “Mom, rent going up is normal, especially in this economy. Plus, it’s not like I’m paying for the rent, anyway.”

That was another thing that Joseph’s family had agreed to pay—my rent for an entire three years.

A loud woof had me spinning around to where I’d heard the bark.

“You need to go outside, Rooster?” I asked.

Another softer woof.

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