I frowned, feeling like that was all I did anymore. “Got it all figured out, huh?”
“Sure do, Little Dreamer. Now, let’s get you out of here, and you can relax in a real bed.”
“I mean… this is no normal hospital bed,” I said, motioning to the fancy as fuck bed I was propped up against.
Nico just smirked and Darla wheeled over the wheelchair.
After shuffling around and only a small grunt of pain from shifting from the bed to the wheelchair, I was on my way out of the hospital. Hopefully I would be on my way to happier beginnings.
Marcos
Ilookedaroundthehousein awe. Jason had out fucking done himself with all the work he had done in the short amount time since we closed on the property. The newly redone hardwood floors were a dark stain that made the freshly painted white kitchen cabinets pop. The new counters in the kitchen and bathrooms made the house feel brand new. Add in the extra plush cream carpet Jason added up the stairs and onto the entirety of the second floor, I barely recognized the place anymore.
It was our home, but new. A fresh start.
I couldn’t wait for Nico to pull up with Maya.
Jason and I had spent the last two days moving in, including setting up a bedroom for Luke and moving Maya into the primary bedroom. Luke would still have his bedroom at Elaine’s house, as would Maya, but the plan was to move them both into the new house. It was their home as much as it was mine, Jason’s, and Nico’s.
Jason still wandered the place aimlessly, looking around, like he was searching for something else to replace or fix. “Maybe we should—”
“Maybe you should chill out. It’s going to be fine,” I said, trying to console my brother.
Jason shook his head but didn’t reply as both our phones dinged with an incoming message.
Nico:
Just leaving the hospital.
“Fuck,” Jason grumbled. He put his phone in his pocket and left the kitchen. Probably in search of something else to fix or fluff or add to the list to remodel.
I shook my head. I really couldn’t fault Jason for being nervous, shit I was nervous too. What if Maya hated the house? What if she didn’t want to stay with us? Nico hadn’t exactly been up front when he invited her to stay with him. She’d been to his condo before, but she had no idea that we bought a house together.
I could only hope that she would be happy to see the old house. We had two years of wonderful memories here, or so I thought.
Hopefully Maya thought the same.
Maya
I glanced at Nico for the hundredth time as he drove through the streets of Mourningside. He was being shifty, and for Nico that was saying something. Any time I asked where Marcos and Jason were, he just said they were ‘at the house’. Whatever the hell that meant.
“Hey, isn’t your condo back that way?” I asked, when Nico turned the opposite direction than he should have to get home.
“Just have to make a stop, really quick.”
I narrowed my gaze on him but didn’t respond. Instead, I watched as he drove toward the older unincorporated area south of the industrial district on Mourningside’s Southside. Where my mother lived. Maybe we were just picking something up at my mom’s house? Nico had said they grabbed my things, though.
I hated the cloak and dagger. The fucking secrets. It was utterly pointless and just drove up my anxiety. After all the shit we’ve been through over the years, I wanted nothing more than to have an open dialogue between us, at all times. Open communication.
It was the only way anything was going to work going forward between us. After all the shit I went through in last couple weeks regarding Hillcrest, I was honestly surprised that he still wanted me. But I wasn’t questioning it. I didn’t want to think about it, just like I didn’t want to think about everything else going on.
Processing could wait.
Nico turned into the neighborhood my mother lived in and I frowned. I didn’t really want to see my mother, not if Elaine was being a bitch again and not going to let me recover at home.Only, Nico didn’t pull onto my mother’s street. Instead, Nico pulled on to the road past my mother’s street. Our old street, from the rental house days when the four of us lived together: Primrose.
Our old rental house had been two blocks from my parent’s house, and Nico looked like he was driving right toward it. I turned in my seat to watch him. Nico was a shit liar when it came to me, I could see right through his bullshit nine times out of ten. There was only the smallest tweak at the corner of his lips, and I fucking knew.
“What have you done?” I asked, my voice soft. My throat still hurt from being intubated with the breathing tube, despite it being several days without it.
