Page 142 of Any Second Now
Sunday, August 24
“Kellen and Lucy want us to come over for dinner tonight,” Atticus says. “If you’re up for a trip to the suburbs after we all help you unpack for a few hours.” Atticus leans against the doorframe of the kitchen in my new one-bedroom apartment, watching me unpack one of the boxes that just arrived.
After I decided I was staying in Fort Collins, I got on a plane back to Connecticut—with Atticus. We spent a week in my house, packing and donating and cleaning so it could be put up for sale. Atticus paid to have a bunch of my boxes driven out to Colorado, and some went to a storage unit. It was therapeutic having him there with me as I sorted through all of the things in that house. So much was left over from my marriage to Jacob, and some stuff even from my first marriage.
I donated almost all of that, especially what I couldn’t use right away here.
And when the moving van arrived in FoCo yesterday, Atticusran up and down the stairs—why doesn’t this building have an elevator?—along with Lachlan and Barrett.
Mom was really down when I told her I was staying in Colorado, but she said she’d come visit whenever she can. Her first trip is already planned for Thanksgiving when she knows she has time off.
She’s nervous I’m going off-spreadsheet and will ruin my life plan.
She’s nervous I’m going to marry Atticus and repeat my mistakes.
Somehow, I’ve managed to convince her to trust me to handle my own life. Probably because I’m a grown-ass woman who can make her own decisions.
And by the time she comes to visit, I should have a lineup of completed cross-stitch hoops for sale at Rocky Gifts, the gift shop in Fort Collins that I visited last week with an example hoop. They said they’d love to carry some hockey-themed hoops. Maybe that’ll make her smile. Or roll her eyes. Hard to predict.
“Sure. Can we stop at Bri’s to go visit Megghen and Peggy?”
“Obviously.” He cracks a smile and crosses his arms.
“I can’t wait to meet the new chicken.” Bri got Megghen a friend, and her daughter named her Peggy. She was so excited to explain to us that she chose that name because it hadeggin it, just like the way I chose Megghen’s name.
“Kellen is bringing a bunch of eggs for us.”
“Ha. I bet Bri doesn’t have the problem of them laying eggs all around her house like I did.” I grab the scissors and slice open the next box. “I miss Megghen.”
I’m lucky Megghen got a good home with Bri. But one of the biggest conundrums I had with the whole staying-in-Colorado thing was what to do with the Pink Palace. I still had—have—buyers interested in her, but once that one couple talked about painting over the mural? I couldn’t handle it.
Luckily, I have a rich hockey player boyfriend who is morethan happy to pay the fees at an RV storage park right outside of Fort Collins.
We have tentative plans to travel next summer in her, but Atticus declared that with my permission, he was going to completely gut the Pink Palace and make it as luxury as possible inside, including adding the most comfortable bed we can find that’ll fit in the tiny bedroom.
“Have I told you how incredibly hot you look wearing my jersey?”
“You have, actually.” I look down at the purple and yellow Blizzard jersey, at least two sizes too big, hanging below my shorts and making it look like I’m wearing nothing else. And yup, it’s gotmore than just a playerstitched on the back under his name. “I need one a little smaller for games.”
“I’m on it.” I glance over at him and his eyes are dragging down my body. I know that look. I freakinglovethat look. It means he has something in mind for the near future that involves me wearing nothing at all. Waves of heat wash over my body. I try to shake it off—we have company arriving soon.
“And you’re really going to live here instead of with me, huh?” His eyes finally meet mine, but he remains where he is in the doorway.
“Yes.” I pull out a stack of plain white dishes and sigh. Why did I pick out the most boring dishes ever when I married my first husband? But for now, they’ll do. “We are only like five blocks from each other.”
“I’d rather have you with me. In my bed. At all times.” Atticus stalks toward me and takes the dish out of my hand and sets it on the counter before pulling my arms up and around his neck. “I can’t believe you lived with me for weeks and after all that sex and love you’re still leaving.”
After we got back from Connecticut, I stayed with Atticus until my apartment was ready. I finally relented that his bed is really much more comfortable, so we chose to stay at his place overthe Pink Palace. I felt all sorts of things when we moved her out of the campsite to the storage facility. That RV and the campsite meant a lot to me. It was even hard to say goodbye to Elizabeth, who had been keeping an eye on the Pink Palace while we were away. She and her husband and their dog, Tuna, were heading back to Cincinnati, and she invited us to come visit sometime and watch an FC Cincinnati soccer game or a Cyclones minor league hockey game.
“The sex and love has been amazing, and you can have me in your arms whenever you want.” I lean up to kiss Atticus and can feel him smile against my lips. “But it’s been my fantasy for a decade to live next door to Lucy again.”
It really felt like fate when Lucy called me two weeks ago to tell me her neighbor was moving out soon and the building manager hadn’t filled the apartment yet. We get to live next door each other, almost as close as we were as college roommates.
The only person missing is January, but she promised to come see us. Unfortunately, that might be soon as her grandmother’s condition continues to deteriorate.
“I’m glad you’ll have Lucy next door. Hockey starts soon. I’ll be away a lot.” Atticus presses his forehead against mine.
“And I’ll be here when you’re not away.” I weave my fingers into the back of his red curls, tucked beneath his backwards baseball cap.
