Hot Mess

I now counted Blaire and Alex as my closest friends, along with Charity and, weirdly, the ladies of the Creek Keys Conspiracy Krew who were this close to finally convincing me to start them their own YouTube channel.

I was holding out by a thread.

I was unreasonably emotionally attached to Arielle who’d become somewhat of my shadow. If I was on my back deck, she was on my back deck. If I was on the beach for longer than thirty minutes, she would be, too.

It was more than just a kid who loved their idol.

I loved that kid. Probably more than I had any right to after only being here for five weeks. She made me smile, even when she talked ten miles an hour or made me watch an entire series of Ever After High in one sitting.

If I ever had a daughter myself, she was everything I wanted her to be.

As for Theo—that was dangerous territory, but I’d known that from the start. From the very start, if I was honest with myself. I’d known it when I’d first laid eyes on him in the diner on my first night in Creek Keys, but every single day I spent with him, the safer I felt.

That was it.

He made me feel safe. My feelings for him were unlike everything I’d ever felt, and when I looked back, I realized I’d always had them for him.

Hindsight was a wonderful thing, because it allowed me to see what I hadn’t been able to before. Not when we were painting the bathroom or at dinner or bantering in the kitchen.

He never pushed, he never asked for more than I was willing to give. Not once had he asked what my future plans were. I never felt as though I was being forced into making a decision, and that was part of why I’d never told him that I always knew I’d stay.

Not yet, anyway.

I would tell him tonight when Ari was in bed.

That I was staying in Creek Keys and I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Elle, I think I broke this plant.” Ari held up a rather sad-looking tomato plant whose stem was snapped at the top.

“Aw, that’s okay. It happens. They’re still really small, and that’s why we have to be super careful.” I sat down next to her. “We have lots more. Don’t worry.”

She nodded, then looked up at me. “Oh. Did you cry? Why did you cry?”

“Good news,” I assured her. “They were happy tears.”

She shuffled over to close the distance between us and wrapped her little arms around my waist tightly. “Here. Is that better?”

Smiling, I hugged her back and rested my cheek on the top of her head. “Much, much better.”

***

“What is wrong with you tonight?” Theo said, walking into the living room. “You’ve gone from crying to three hours on the phone to bouncing off the walls. Did you eat all the ice cream again?”

“No. Look at this.” I handed him my phone.

He took it. “What am I looking at here?”

“Read the email.”

His eyes darted back and forth. “A moving company? Why do you have an email from a moving company?”

I stared at him. “Why do most people have them from a moving company, Theodore?”

“God, I hate it when you call me that.”

“I know. That’s why I do it when you annoy me.”

He shot me a look. “Is that—your address in New York?”

I nodded. “To a storage facility on one of the bigger islands.”

“All your stuff?”

Again, I nodded. “You haven’t checked your bank account, have you?”

He stared at me. “No. Not today. Why?”

I took my phone from him. “Because I deposited another month of rent this afternoon,” I said quietly. “Until I can find a more permanent place to stay.”

“Stop pissing around and tell me exactly what you’re talking about, Elle.”

“I’m not leaving. I’m staying here, in Creek Keys. My sister arranged movers to pack up and empty my apartment and deliver it here. I paid you another month of rent to give me a chance to find a more permanent place, and—”

He yanked me against him. “A more permanent place? You have one. I told you that weeks ago. That house is yours as long as you want it, and I’m not taking your damn money.”

“Yes, you are. I’m not going to live there for free.”

His ice-blue eyes glistened with fire. “I’m not taking your money, Elle.”

“Fine. Then I’ll pay the mortgage, at the very least.”

“You already have been.” He ran one hand through his hair. “That’s all I ever charged you.”

My eyes widened. “What?”

“I thought you’d only be there a week. Up until now, I always thought you’d leave.”

“Theo…” I touched my hand to his cheek and turned his face so he had to meet my eyes. “I knew weeks ago I wasn’t leaving. I knew I was going to stay, but I had to get my life straightened out. I had to figure out what I was going.”