There was a scuffle, and Nash cried out. “Did you seriously just try to pinch me? I’m injured.”
“Baby,” Grae shot back.
I made my way down the hallway and into the living room, stopping dead. My living room was no longer some massive, empty space. It was filled with furniture.
My eyes first settled on a huge sectional that looked like you could sink into it and get lost for days. But it didn’t only appear comfortable; it was gorgeous, too—a beautiful gray fabric with the brass studs I’d always loved on furniture. There was an antique-looking coffee table and two overstuffed chairs in a bluish gray that reminded me of the colors of the sky on a stormy day. And someone had picked out throw pillows that brought pops of brighter colors into the space.
But that wasn’t all. Gone was the picnic table in the dining area. It had been replaced by a rustic dark wood table with space to seat eight, decorated with a smattering of candles.
My jaw went slack. “What…?”
“Don’t be mad,” Grae hurried to say. “We wanted to do something for you.”
“I didn’t tell them anything,” Nash added quickly.
Grae sent a sidelong look at him. “No, my brother has been annoyingly tight-lipped about whatever is going on. But all we needed to know was that you were upset, and we wanted to do something to make you feel better.”
Wren moved closer to me, worry lining her face. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I feel a lot better.” Then I shook my head, still staring at my house. “How?”
Nash chuckled. “You should know by now that when G is determined, nothing will stand in her way.”
Grae huffed. “I’m taking that as a compliment.” She turned to me. “I know Jordan left this place with like two pieces of furniture. Nash said you were planning on grabbing a couch from the secondhand shop, but I heard that store in Brookdale was going out of business, so I grabbed Wren, and we made a quick trip.”
Laughter bubbled out Wren. “You should’ve seen her. I’ve never witnessed someone pull together a look that fast. Then she talked the owner into having one of his delivery trucks follow us back here.”
The burn in my throat made my eyes water. “You guys…”
Grae’s hands went to her hips. “Don’t even think about fighting me on this, Maddie.”
“It’s too much…”
Wren wrapped an arm around me. “It’s best not to argue with these Hartleys. They’ve got more money than they know what to do with, and they love the people in their lives like crazy.”
Grae lifted her chin. “She’s right. Don’t try to argue. Since everything was on sale, it’s all final anyway.”
“G…”
“Love you, Maddie.”
These women had dropped everything they were doing to make my house a home, and I hadn’t even told them the truth about what had brought me back to Cedar Ridge. I glanced at Nash. “Can you give us a few minutes?”
His smile was gentle. He crossed to me and brushed a kiss across my temple. “I’ll be in the bedroom. I need to make a few phone calls. There are wraps from the deli in the fridge if you’re hungry.”
“Thanks.” I tried to put all my emotion into that one word. Because I knew that Nash had told the girls what my favorite colors were. He had shared my weird love of brass-nailed furniture and told them that I desperately needed a couch.
“I got you, Mads. Always,” he whispered.
My heart gave a panicked flutter against my ribs—panicked because I loved this man so damn much and knew he’d never be mine.
Nash disappeared down the hallway. When the sound of the door closing reached my ears, I turned back to Wren and Grae to find them both staring at me.
Grae threw up her arms. “If you think my idiot brother isn’t head over heels in love with you, then you’re dumber than he is,” she whisper-hissed.
Wren pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. “I don’t like to call anyone stupid, but I’m going to have to agree on this one.”
I shook my head and crossed to the couch. “I know he loves me. He’s just notinlove with me.” And there was a massive difference between the two. The kind of difference that could shatter a person’s heart into irreparable pieces.
