Page 102 of Crave Thy Neighbor

Nevertheless, the things he’s saying about my child are pissing me off.

Sam doesn’t deserve his ire.

I step into him. “I don’t know what your problem is, but you need to get a grip and stop blaming a twelve-year-old for whatever is going on in that thick head of yours.”

“Nothing is going on other than I’m tired of not having my space to myself.”

I lift a brow. “Really?”

“Really.” He doesn’t back down. If anything, he doubles down on his convictions…whatever the fuck they are.

“Well, lucky for you, you don’t have to worry about that any longer. We’re moving out—next weekend.”

He swallows once. Twice.

And then, he nods, casting his eyes away from me.

“Good.”

The word is final and sounds eerily like a goodbye.

“Good,” I echo.

“I think that’s for the best.”

“I do too.”

He steps back, then around me, making sure not to brush against me as he passes by. “Let me know if you need help moving.”

I don’t move a muscle.

If I move, this is real.

We’re done.

It’s over.

If I move, I’m going to break.

“Well, that should be the last of it.”

Cooper sets the heavy box down with a grunt, then wipes the sweat off his forehead.

“Thank you, Coop. I know I took you away from a day of gaming, but I appreciate it so much more than you know.”

“It’s not a problem at all. Besides, if I said no, I’m pretty sure Caroline would withhold sex from me for at least a week.”

“Two!” she calls from my bedroom, where she’s hanging clothes up in my closet with River.

For the second move in as many months, Sam’s at his dad’s. Though it would be nice to have him here for the help, it’ll be good to have one more night to myself before I have to go pick him up tomorrow.

This past week has been one of the most tiring of my life. Who knew avoiding someone requires so much energy?

I boxed all of my and Sam’s things back up throughout the week and asked Cooper and Dean to help me move.

This morning when I walked out of the apartment with my last box in hand, Nolan was nowhere to be found.

We haven’t said a word to each other since I told him I was moving out, and I still don’t know what went wrong.

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