Page 1 of Just Our Secret

ONE

ANDI

“Is this my room?” Liam asked, charging into the empty second bedroom of our new two-bedroom apartment.

We were right down the street from the university where I’d be attending next week as a junior majoring in psychology. And right around the corner was the public school where Liam would start a full-time pre-K program. It was income-based, and since I was a single mom and college student, we qualified by a mile. I was so grateful he’d get to attend school and learn and make friends all day for free while I went to Grand U. Things were definitely looking up for us.

I leaned against the door frame and grinned, crossing my arms over my chest. “Yep. This one’s all yours. What do you think?”

“It’s huge. It’s all mine? By myself? We won’t share a room anymore?”

“That’s right. Are you going to be okay without me?”

He stood up straighter. “Yeah. I won’t be scared.”

“Good,” I said with a nod of my head, even as my heart constricted in my chest.

Liam had shared a room with me since the day I’d brought him home from the hospital. That was four years ago now, and since I’d barely been seventeen at the time, it was my childhood bedroom in my parents’ house that I’d brought him home to. Since then, the two of us had been attached at the hip. He might be brave about having his own room, but I wasn’t sure how well I was going to handle it.

I started to leave the room so he didn’t see me looking all emotional about it, but then he frowned. “If I’m only brave during the day is that okay? At night I can still sleep with you?”

At this, I melted. As much as some part of me hadn’t wanted him to be in his own room, there was another part of me that was glad for this independence for both of us. Parenting, I’d learned, was full of these paradoxes.

I stepped up to him and wrapped him in a hug while he put his small arms around my waist. “Tell you what. Let’s take it one night at a time. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“Hey, Liam,” my older brother, Connor, said when he walked in. “What do you think of my new room? It’s pretty great huh?”

Liam looked around me and gave his uncle an exaggerated growl. “No way, this is my room!”

“Your room? What? Where am I supposed to sleep?” Connor asked in feigned disbelief.

“Your own house!” Liam replied.

“Oh, right. Okay, that makes sense.” Connor ruffled his hair and then nodded at me. “Wade’s outside with the truck. You ready to move in?”

I ignored the little thrill caused by the mention of Wade. He’d been one of my brother’s best friends since we were all kids, and I’d crushed on him and his baby blues for as long I could remember. In fact, he was my first crush. But since I was his best friend’s annoying little sister, he’d never returned the sentiment. Especially not after what happened the summer before my junior year—the summer I got pregnant with Liam.

“I’m ready,” I said, patting Liam’s back. “Are you ready?”

“Ready,” he yelled, taking off for the front door and hollering for Uncle Wade to unload his new bed.

“You’re gonna build the bed, right?” I asked my brother with a pleading expression.

“Which bed? Your bed or Liam’s bed?”

“Both? And also, maybe the kitchen table and chairs?”

Since we’d been living at my parents’ house this whole time, I’d had to buy new furniture for our apartment. But it hadn’t been too bad. I’d had a job since I was fifteen and had always been a disciplined saver, so I was able to get some decent stuff at Ikea this month.

My mom thought mattresses were the most important thing in your house since you apparently spend a third of your life in it, so she’d sprung for good mattresses for Liam and me. She’d called them housewarming presents, but the rest of the furniture I’d bought myself. And I was really proud of that.

Connor snorted. “Lemme guess. You’ll pay me in beer?”

“I’ll even spring for the fancy stuff,” I said as I clapped my hands. “No Natty Light for you. Even if it is the official beer of small-town colleges.”

“Hey, I like Natty Light,” he said as we headed out to the parking lot where Wade waited with the small moving truck. “Just make it a thirty rack and we’re good.”

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