Page 18 of Crave Thy Neighbor

I don’t want to be anyone’s burden.

“Why am I sleeping on the couch now?” Dean slips a neat bourbon in front of River and takes the seat next to her.

She leans over and presses a quick kiss to his cheek in thanks.

I realize in this moment that Nolan has nowhere to sit but next to me.

My heart hammers in my chest, so hard I can hear it in my ears.

Ridiculous since I just spent quite a while sitting next to him flirting.

He slides another whiskey sour in front of me as he drops onto the stool next to me, and I give him a small smile.

But he doesn’t see it. He refuses to look at me.

“How’d you know Maya loves whiskey sours?” River questions him.

He lifts his big shoulders. “Who doesn’t love a whiskey sour?”

Dean coughs out a laugh, and Nolan looks the other way.

Huh.

“So, the couch?”

River glances at me, then at Nolan. She’s asking for permission to share what’s going on.

She has no idea it’s pointless because Nolan knew before her anyway.

I nod.

“Maya’s lead fell through.”

“What?” Dean’s beautiful green eyes widen, and he runs a hand over his face. “Dude, that sucks. I’m…shit.” He shakes his head. “You know you’re more than welcome to stay at our place. I’m sure we can make it work.”

I adore him for the offer, but we both know it’ll never work, especially since I have no idea how long I’d be crashing there.

“Thanks, Dean. You’re not as bad as River says you are.”

“All her smack talk about me is just foreplay.”

I laugh because he’s not wrong.

River and Dean fight more than anyone I’ve ever met, but they’re so in love it’s almost sickening sometimes.

“What are you going to do?” he asks.

“Pray?” I laugh, though there’s no humor to it. Then I shrug. “I have several applications out—and have had them out for a couple weeks—but no bites yet. Finding something within the price range I have and within the school district is hard. I was lucky I even found my current apartment.”

Nolan shifts beside me, and I’m sure it’s because he’s feeling guilty about being part of the company that bought the building.

The guilt isn’t his to carry. It’s business, not a personal vendetta.

If anything, I find it comical it’s him.

And I mean comical in a way that is not funny at all.

It’s sort of the theme of my life. Nothing has gone the way I planned since the moment I found out I was pregnant at sixteen.