Page 11 of Wildly Inappropriate

“And you get to stay in a swanky house on a golf course with a dog…and get paid for it…”

“You make a good point. Things really are looking up for me.”

Chapter six

Lila

“I can’t believe it’sover,” I say to Elise as we stand on the front lawn, staring at the little tan house that holds so many memories. Our parents were here yesterday, helping us pack things up after our graduation ceremony in the morning.

“I’m going to miss it,” Elise says, nodding toward the house.

“I’m going to miss you,” I reply.

“I may just miss you too. Luckily, we’re only going to be three hours away, so we can see each other all the time.”

“We better,” I threaten before looping my arms around her middle and pulling my tall friend into a tight hug.

After a long embrace where we both pretend not to notice the other one is tearing up, Elise lets go of me and climbs into her truck.

“See you later!” she calls through her open window.

“Bye!” I yell as I wave.

I climb into my navy blue SUV, and after a mental pep talk about how capable I am of pulling a trailer, I shift into gear and slowly creep out onto my street.

Luckily, traffic is fairly light, and I manage to navigate the city portion of my drive without incident. Once I’m on the highway, it’s practically a straight shot to Wild Bluffs, so I loosen my grip on the wheel and turn on my audiobook.

I’m just reaching the third act breakup when I pull into Wild Bluffs. With the help of my map app, I navigate to the single-story, square house with a cute wraparound porch I’ll be renting for the foreseeable future. There is a concrete driveway from the street to the attached garage, so I pull forward, intent on backing the trailer into the spot before I let Bryn’s sisters know I’m here. There is nothing more embarrassing than trying to back up a car into a spot with people watching.

After a few unsuccessful attempts at getting the trailer going the direction I need it to be, I finally give up and pull straight along the curb. What’s a few more feet to the house? I make my way to the porch, only to stop halfway there. Four people are sitting on chairs on the deck, drinking what appear to be beers.

“We didn’t want to interrupt your work,” Izzy Harper says, standing from her chair and heading down to me. I feel my cheeks turn pink with embarrassment as I realize they watched my horrible trailer parking.

Bryn’s other sister, Kelsey, who also is about to be my boss—yes, it does seem a bit awkward, but I’m told these types of complex relationships happen all the time in small towns—stands from her chair as well. “We brought help,” Kelsey says, gesturing to the man and woman making their way down to us. I wave, realizing the two middle-aged people must be their parents. I haven’t had a chance yet to meet Jen and Ken, but with names like those, I at least remember them from the stories I’ve heard.

“Hi,” I say. “Thanks so much for coming.”

“Of course. You’re practically family now,” Jen says.

“Mom,” Kelsey says in a warning tone.

“What? I know they are ‘just dating.’ But it just seems like they are going to get—”

“No.” Kelsey cuts her mom off as Ken chuckles from next to her.

“You know how kids are these days, Jen. They like to take their time. Let’s not put any carts before any horses.” He turns his full attention to me then. “Plus, we would be happy to help move in Kelsey’s employees even if they aren’t related to Jameson.”

I nod my head in thanks before Kelsey asks, “So where should we start?”

It takes the four of us just shy of an hour to move all my boxes into the garage. It shouldn’t have even taken that long, but Izzy insisted we stop halfway through to walk through the house and make a list of all the furniture I’m going to need to buy. While I knew I was moving into an unfurnished place, it hadn’t hit me just how much I was going to have to find to fill the place. Thankfully, Jen knows of a few families in town who have some of the bigger things in storage, so I won’t have to worry about somehow getting a table and chairs or a bed frame delivered out here. And, apparently, you can now get mattresses delivered directly to your house in a normal box, so that won’t be quite as big of a challenge as I worried it might be.

After we finish unloading, Ken invites me out for a bite to eat, and I almost jump for joy at the offer. Now that I’m here, heading out to Jameson’s house and eating dinner alone seems kinda…sad. Kelsey hops in my car with me and, on the way to the restaurant, we return the rental trailer to what is apparently a field behind someone’s house.

“How is this associated with a national moving-vehicle chain?” I ask.

“No idea,” she replies. “But it’s super handy for the few times that you need to move something out here from Denver but don’t want to have to drive the trailer all the way back to the city to return it. It’s why I suggested this company to you when you asked about moving out here. It’s the only one with a return spot in town.”

After unhooking the moving trailer, I navigate to Main Street, pleased by how much I remember from when I was here for my job interview. I park across the street from the two-story brick building that houses the bar and restaurant, and we head up the steep steps to the dining area on the second floor. Kelsey glances around, and I follow her to a long booth against the front windows where the rest of our group is waiting for us.

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