Chloé worried her lower lip.
“I know, I just—I…” She turned to look at her cousin. “What if they don’t like living with me? What if they decide it was better when I wasn’t there?”
“What?” Shayla shook her head and scooted in closer, reaching out to cover her hand. “They’re not going to decide that. Those two men are crazy about you. Trust me, I’ve seen the way they look at you.”
“But they’ve only ever lived with each other.”
“Which should tell you how much they want you.” Shayla shrugged. “Plus, who’s to sayyouwon’t like living withthem? And not just sleeping in their bed every night. I mean, really living with them. You’ll not only learn their good habits but also the bad. You’ll also have to share a bathroom withtwomen. Yikes.”
Chloé immediately went to refute Shayla’s points but stopped. She’d been so caught up in her excitement she hadn’t really thought about all of that. She’d grown up in a house full of men, so this seemed like a pretty easy adjustment. But Shayla was right—they were all about to undergo an extensive learning period.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Shayla patted her hands, and Chloé glared at her.
“Really? After all of that, you end with ‘I’m sure it’ll be fine’?”
“I’m sure it will be. You’re a lucky bitch. That’s not going to change because you’re mixing your dirty underwear together.”
Chloé’s eyes widened, and Shayla burst out laughing.
“I’m just messing with you.” She flopped back on the bed and gripped her stomach in a fit of hilarity. “You should see your face right now.”
Chloé shoved her in the leg. “Shut up.”
“I mean…” Shayla laughed some more. “You didn’t think it’d be all naked, sexy times, did you?”
Well, yeah, that was what she’d been imagining. Sure, it wasn’t logical or realistic, but—
“Oh, you did? That’s sweet.”
Chloé whirled on her cousin. “Seriously, if you don’t stop talking, Iwillkill you.”
“Sorry. Sorry.” Shayla sat up and held her palms up in surrender. “I’m sure it will all be fine.”
“Yeah, so you said.” Chloé shoved the blouse in Shayla’s hand and marched back over to the closet. “But suddenly I’m not finding you all that reassuring. Maybe we should just stick to packing.”
“Packing aaaand…” A flirty, upbeat song filled the air, and Shayla cranked it high. “Singingbadly.”
Now she was talking.
Chloé began to sway her hips to the beat and sing along with her favorite new song, as she picked out the clothes to keep and the ones not to. She hoped Ethan and Zayne had enough room in their closet because, well, she had a lot of clothes. In fact, that was the majority of what she was bringing with her.
But what did they expect? She was a girly girl, and with a dad whose nickname wasPrincesse, could anyone blame her?
Chloé finished with the closet and moved onto the bureau, and two drawers in… “Oh my God.”
“What?” Shayla lowered the volume of the music as Chloé pulled out her t-shirts and tossed them in a pile on the bed. “Uh, you’re not going through those?”
Chloé smoothed her fingers over the bottom of the drawer and to the corner, where she hooked her finger in, andpop.
The base of the drawer came up. “Oh my God.”
“Yeah, okay, you said that part. What is it?” Shayla got to her feet and moved over to where Chloé was pulling the base of the drawer free, and between it and the actual bottom of the frame was a ratty pink journal.
“It’s my diary.” Chloé grabbed it out and lovingly ran her fingers over the lock. “I hid this here years ago.”
“As in how many years?”
“Umm…” Chloé clutched it to her chest, thinking back. “Maybe four or five?”