I Never Expected You (I Never 2)

I shift on the couch to face my sister. “Pizza for dinner work for you?”

She nods.

“Ky, you want to join?”

Since we’re all going to be roommates, they can spend some time getting to know each other. However, Ky reaches for the keys on the coffee table and heads toward the front door, slipping his shoes on.

“Thanks, rain check. I’m headed out to meet the twins. I’ll catch you both later.”

I remember a time when I was jealous of his relationship with his sisters; it was something both Haylee and I missed out on these days, a relationship with siblings. Of course, she didn’t have a choice with hers leaving; mine did.

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“Nice to meet you, Dani. Welcome home.” He closes the door behind him, and I catch the disgusted look on my sister’s face.

I can’t help but laugh. “The twins are his older sisters, Lauren and Kate. They live here in town. They usually meet once a week for dinner. Sometimes they come out for karaoke night, so you might be able to meet them soon.”

My sister’s eyes go wide, but I’m unable to get a read on her. Is she overwhelmed with finding out that I have a roommate or that I want her to get out and meet people? Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut about that part. Fuck, if she’s overwhelmed with the idea of Kyler living here, I wonder how she’s going to be once she finds out Haylee lives here too.

I slap my thighs and rise off the couch, extending my hand to help her up. “Come on, I’ll give you the tour and show you the guest room. It’s yours for as long as you like. I’ll order a pizza, and we can get you settled and catch up. Still prefer ham and pineapple?”

“Sounds great.”

As I make my way around the house, showing Dani around, my heart breaks a little as I take notice of the few of Haylee’s things that are missing: the photos on the wall Dani was observing earlier—I’m surprised she didn’t question the empty nails; the blanket on top of her favorite chair; and whatever crazy romance book Lauren has got her reading now, both gone.

“Well, here it is. Feel free to do whatever you want with it. And then next door is your bathroom that you’ll share with Kyler. I hope that’s okay.”

She nods, but I see the apprehension on her face.

“Let me run and change out of these work clothes, and I’ll help you unload the car.” I leave her sitting on the bed, looking around.

Once safely inside my bedroom, I breathe for the first time. My sister is finally home.

In an attempt to distract myself from things out of my control, I lie on my stomach across Cami’s bed with my textbooks open and a rerun of How I Met Your Mother playing in the background. But no distraction can keep my gaze fixated on anything but my phone. I haven’t heard from Zach since he had gotten to the house. That has to be a good sign, right? I wonder how things are going back home.

Is she comfortable?

What does she look like?

Is she going to stay?

How did things go when she met Ky?

Did she ask about me?

Did Zach slip up about us?

I hate that I’m not there, but this was the right choice. I just have to sit and wait to hear from Zach. He and I are a team, through the good times and the bad. No matter what, we are always there for each other, but this is turning out to definitely be more difficult than I thought it would be when we came up with this plan. Maybe we should have just been a united front from the beginning.

Fingers crossed that the curveball of having a roommate doesn’t spook her into running again. I adjust myself on the bed, ready to dive right back into homework, when my phone rings. Even after almost three years, my heart still skips a beat when I see his name appear.

“Hey, I didn’t expect to hear from you for a while.”

“Hey, baby.” The tension in his voice from earlier is long gone, and I breathe a sigh of relief. “Yeah, Dani went to bed early, so I’m just sitting here on the couch.”

I roll over onto my back, and I imagine my teenage self laughing at me for being in almost the exact pose that I would have been in talking on the phone back in the day, just this time it’s with a different Jacobs.

“She’s really here? This all wasn’t a sick joke?” My voice catches.