Page 6 of A Very Grumpy New Year

“No, there’s not a lot left there for me. My parents split up a few years ago, but they both still live in town. I’ve gone back to visit and I can’t handle the constant arguing. The holidays are the worst because they both want me to spend them with each of them, and it gets tough having to choose and upset one or the other.”

“I bet,” I say softly.

He clears his throat, and I know that he’s about to shift the conversation to me.

“What about you?”

“What about me?” I ask with a smile, and the corners of his lips tilt up.

“Where are you from?”

“Raleigh, North Carolina.”

“You’re a long way from home.”

“Yep.”

“You don’t like North Carolina?” He pries, and I shake my head.

“No, my parents divorced when I was really young, but they had started a business together, so they never really got any space from each other.”

“They didn’t sell the business? Or split it?”

“Nope, neither one of them wanted to give it up. Both too stubborn, I guess.”

“And you were in the middle,” he guesses, and I nod.

“Always. I hated it. I always had to try to lighten the mood and diffuse any of the tension. When I got older, I just started leaving. I would say I was going to help with accounting just to escape them and I ended up kind of disappearing into the math. Stuff made sense there.”

He nods, and I swallow hard. I hate talking about my family and childhood, but Huxley doesn’t make me feel judged. If anything, he seems to understand how hard it is to be stuck in the middle.

“I’m sorry that you had to go through that.”

“You too,” I whisper.

“So, that’s how you decided to go into accounting?” He asks, and I nod.

“Yeah, I loved it. I think that my parents thought that I would come back and work for them again after graduation, but I just couldn’t. I mean, you should have seen them at my graduation ceremony. They got into a screaming match at dinner, and I decided for sure right then and there that I was going to go far away from them.”

“Why Wolf Valley?” He asks, and I shrug.

“There was just something about this town. Some kind of magic,” I say with a smile, hoping that I don’t sound crazy.

“Yeah,” he agrees, and my smile widens.

“Are you hungry?” I ask, and he nods.

“Almost always.”

I giggle as I push to my feet.

“Want to make dinner with me and then watch a movie or something? Looks like the weather is going to be too bad to go out tonight.”

“Sure.”

He follows me into the kitchen, and I ask him about helicopters and how they decided to start Semper Fly as we make spaghetti and carry it into the living room. He lets me pick the movie as he adds some more wood to the fireplace, and soon I’m snuggled under a blanket, watching Bridesmaids.

He’s not that bad of a roommate,I think as my eyes start to drift shut.

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