Changed

by Alicia Renee Kline

  “Will will be here in a few,” Chris briefed us as he got out of the truck. “He was running a couple of minutes late.”

  My already upset stomach clenched even further at the update. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

  “No reason we can’t start unloading without him,” Matthew said with a shrug.

  I was glad that no one else thought that was a big deal. Me, I was on the verge of hyperventilating.

  “Hey, Gracie,” Matthew greeted me in earnest as he rounded my car to go to Blake’s truck. He paused to give my arm a squeeze and gift me with one of his dead sexy smiles. Even though he was clearly Lauren’s man, he was still quite possibly the hottest person to walk the planet and the virtues of that were not lost on me.

  “Hey, yourself,” I grinned back.

  Seriously, I was shocked that it had only been thirty-six notches on his bedpost prior to meeting Lauren. Some of those had likely been obtained by a similar look alone. I allowed myself a moment of swoon, then headed over to his wife to say my hellos.

  “Hey, sweetie,” she crooned as I made my way to where she stood on the sidewalk leading up to the front porch.

  “Hey, girlie,” I responded, falling into her outstretched arms. “You cut your hair again.”

  “Yeah,” she said as she pulled away from me. She ran her fingers through her newest execution of a pixie cut and smiled. “I told you I would after Sadie was born. Long hair is a pain in the butt.”

  Lauren was a short hair girl through and through. Back in the olden days, when she’d still been my almost neighbor in Indianapolis, she’d rocked an extremely short style. It had driven Eric nuts, as he’d made no doubt about his preference for longer locks. When she’d broken up with him, she’d grown it back out, the emotions of ending their relationship prompting her need for a change. Then she’d hooked up with Matthew and she’d just kept the longer hair, which worked out well since they’d gotten engaged shortly after officially beginning to date. Considering that she was pregnant with Sadie by the time the wedding rolled around, her raging hormones had provided her with an exquisite head of hair for her big day.

  “And you’re wearing your hair different today, too,” she teased, firmly placing the attention back in my court.

  I shrugged. “Sick of ponytails.”

  She accepted that at face value, grabbing my hand and dragging me to the front door. “We’ve got some stuff to talk about. Let them worry about the moving part for a while.”

  I was afraid of exactly what it was we had to talk about, but it turned out I didn’t need to worry. I followed her into the the kitchen, where on the table she had a whole range of information laid out for me. We took our seats and she began going through it with me.

  There was the land contract I’d insisted on being drawn up. She addressed that first, knowing in my mind it was the most important. I didn’t want to be her renter, didn’t want her to cut me a break just because she was my best friend. I wanted to buy the house from her outright. However, with my employment history, I wouldn’t qualify for a loan until I’d been working for Blake at my much higher anticipated salary and could show stability there. Since that would take at least a year, the only option that left us with was the land contract. Lauren didn’t care either way - bless her - but I did.

  “I already had the lawyer draw up the deed,” she told me as she slid the paperwork over to me for my signature. “But I know you don’t want it recorded until you refinance this.”

  “Right.” That was exactly what I wanted, and she’d delivered. I signed and dated the form, then pushed it back to her.

  The high financing portion of things had been dealt with while Matthew, Chris and Blake had been in the background, hauling in my boxes. We’d managed to drown out their voices. But one voice in particular cut through the rest, and it was calling my name.

  “Gracie,” Will shouted from somewhere in the vicinity of the living room, “I need your keys.”

  I jumped to attention. Lauren laughed, though she admittedly would think my reaction was due to me being zoned out rather than to the owner of the words said. I reached into my purse, which I’d flopped onto the table upon sitting down, and began digging.

  This gave Will the opportunity to stroll into the kitchen and stand in the doorway. He rested a shoulder against the entryway and waited. Unfortunately, his presence did nothing to speed my search along. My heart rate was a different story altogether.

  “Here,” I said, thrusting the keys at him.

  He walked over and grabbed them, saving me the embarrassment of trying to toss them over. This also gave him the chance to brush his fingertips against mine, the electricity of our touch burning through me.

  “Thanks, darling,” he said with a grin and disappeared.

  “That’s the happiest I’ve ever heard him,” Lauren commented, not even bothering to look up from the land contract she was busy signing. She’d thankfully missed a visual of the whole exchange.

  “Whatever,” I said and the subject was dropped. Apparently she didn’t think anything of Will using a term of endearment towards me. I supposed that happened when your husband addressed you as “gorgeous”; “darling” seemed relatively innocent by comparison.

  Not to me. I was still reeling.

  Lauren babbled on about mail delivery and trash and recycling pickup. She continued on about utility companies, then finished with a monologue about where the owner’s manuals for all of the appliances were kept. Listening to all this was optional; she’d made me a list of everything she told me. This list was in plain sight on the very same table we were sitting at. My eyes began to glaze over and it was then she understood I hadn’t heard a word she’d said.

  “You could have just told me to stop,” she said with mock anger.

  I shrugged. “You were on a roll.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s just the first time I’ve sold anything.”

  “It’s fine. I’m sure I’ll figure it all out. And if I can’t, you live fifteen minutes away. I’ll just come and get you.”

  She smiled, a grin that consumed her face. “You’re right. I’ll only be fifteen minutes away. That’s closer than we were to each other when we both lived in Indy.”

  “Taking traffic into account, yeah.”

  She leapt up from her chair and rounded the table to engulf me in a hug. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  I closed my eyes and leaned into her embrace. For once, she was taller than me, what with her standing and me sitting. “Me, too.”

  It was partially true. Maybe proximity to one another could fix some of the distance that had occurred in our friendship after she’d gotten pregnant. Though she was still my bestie, things just weren’t the same between us now that she and Matthew had multiplied. I wasn’t suited to understand motherly instincts, and those were all she had right about now.

  “What’s wrong, hon?” she whispered.

  “Nothing,” I lied. “I just got up way earlier than I’m used to for a Saturday. Then I helped load two vehicles and drove two hours to get here. And my day’s only begun.”

  She accepted my excuse. Though she decided not to press, the look she flashed me as she pulled away told me that she’d be willing to listen whenever I was ready to spill. And how I wanted to. I wanted to tell her everything, all the little details that I was afraid to admit to myself.

  Instead, I bit my lip. “I suppose we’d better help them. They’re probably already almost done.”

  “Carrying in is only the first step. Then comes the unpacking.”

  Shit. I hadn’t thought of that. I had to make sure that I grabbed the boxes that went into the bedroom before someone else got to them first. How would I explain away having a man’s shirt tucked underneath my bras?

  I pushed myself up from the table and stalked out to the driveway. Since there weren’t any large items to speak of to unload, the crew hadn’t even opened up the garage. They were carrying everything in through the front door. If I ti
med it right, the box in question would still be in the backseat of my car. I’d had enough presence of mind to not let Chris and Blake transport it, just in case it popped open or something.

  I’d almost timed it right.

  Will was reaching into the back of the Taurus, his fingers just brushing the cardboard.

  “No!” I shouted.

  He jerked away like I wanted him to. I ran the last couple of feet to my car, pushing past him to grab the box myself. I pulled it out of the car and saw everyone’s eyes focused on me, wondering why in the world I was screaming.

  “It’s my underwear. Nobody touches my underwear.” I clutched the box possessively to my chest. A dull rumble of laughter passed amongst the crowd, though Will did not join in. Likely because he did touch my underwear on a regular basis. “Nothing to see here. Carry on.”

  With that, I fled up the sidewalk and into the house. I didn’t stop to drop the box off in the living room to join the rest of the stuff that needed unpacking. I carried it right back to the master bedroom, sliding it purposefully under the bed.

  I was still kneeling beside the bed, my left hand gripping the mattress for balance, when I felt rather than saw someone there with me. I didn’t need five guesses to deduce who it was.

  “What are you doing back here?” I asked him. I still hadn’t turned to face my guest; I’d feel really stupid if it ended up being Lauren or Blake. But it wasn’t.

  “I came to help you,” Will said, sounding slightly confused.

  With a sigh, I pushed myself up to a standing position. He stood before me, holding a box in his hands. A prop.

  “We’re done unloading. It’s time to start unpacking. Everyone else is in the kitchen for now. So I grabbed this box that’s helpfully marked as jeans and headed to your bedroom to put them away. I know you’re possessive of your underwear, but how do you feel about me touching your pants?”

  A slow smile spread across his face as I stared him down. Once again he’d gotten the best of me and left me speechless.

  “Pants are cool,” I said once I’d recovered.

  “Good.”

  He set the box on the bed and opened it up, removing the contents and setting them down in neat, obsessive-compulsive stacks. This totally went against his typical housekeeping standards, if his bathroom cabinet was any indication. I had a feeling that he stepped up the cleanliness game when he knew I’d be around - the truth was always hidden behind closed doors. He methodically pulled out pair upon pair of jeans, treating them as if they were some sort of precious cargo.

  “Dressers or closet?” he asked when he was done.

  I flashed my own grin at him as an idea formed in my head. “Closet.” I jerked my head over to one of the doors inside the master. One was the closet, the other the bathroom. “It’s a walk in. Wanna see it?”

  In case he didn’t catch my drift, I laced my fingers in his as I walked past, pulling him with me. Once we were both in the closet, the overhead light beaming down on us, I closed us in.

  Within seconds, he’d pushed me up against the door, his lips burning mine, his hands up my shirt. My own hands followed suit, deftly running up his chest and down his back. Things became serious fast, and I pulled away before we both reached the point of no return. I fumbled behind me and turned the doorknob, letting the vision of my currently empty bedroom serve as a reminder that we weren’t alone. Anyone could come around the corner at any time and we’d be caught in the act if we didn’t stop.

  “Fuck,” he whispered. Maybe he’d forgotten about that.

  “I know, right?”

  Both still breathing heavily, we resumed our positions at the bed and worked in tandem putting my pants in the closet.

  “You need to stop being so happy,” I said quietly.

  “Huh?”

  My eyes narrowed. “Lauren mentioned it already. Keep it up and we’ll have a problem on our hands.”

  “So I need to be all brooding and depressed?”

  “Around these people, yes. Besides her, we’ve got Matthew and Blake with their ‘we’re sex on a stick’ genes. They’ll be able to smell a hookup a mile away. And Chris knows you better than anyone else.”

  “No he doesn’t.”

  I didn’t take the time to analyze that comment. Or maybe I did; I just didn’t want to know what it meant. Either he was trying to tell me that no one would ever know him better than that bitch Stephanie or he was letting me know that we’d gotten to the point where he could admit that he’d let me in.

  “Whatever. If you become all sunshine and rainbows right after I move up here, they’ll all put two and two together.”

  That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I wasn’t about to share that.

  His mind was working, digesting what I’d just told him. For a moment, hope bloomed in my heart that he’d see how dumb the secrecy was and he’d grab my hand and drag me down the hall to our friends, where he’d announce that we were casually screwing each other. Those same dreams were dashed as soon as we heard movement headed in our direction. The guard came back up and he instinctively put a few more feet of space between us.

  “Got it,” he said under his breath as Blake and Lauren entered, both carrying more stuff.

  Will turned and he was gone, no doubt to search out the guys. It was difficult to tear my gaze away from him to focus on my new bedroom helpers.

  “I’ve got your bedding here,” Blake said as she unearthed my comforter. It was apparent she’d assigned herself the task of making my bed.

  “Hold your horses,” I commanded before she could begin. “I’m sleeping on the couch for the near future.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Because I’ve heard stories of what’s gone on in this bed. I’m not sleeping here until I get a new mattress.”

  “About that,” Lauren said sheepishly, “I’m not sure that the couch would be any better.”

  “Or the kitchen table, the hallway, the garage,” Blake added. “Or the shower, for that matter. Girl, you’re pretty much due for a complete remodel if you’re afraid of cooties.”

  One look at Lauren confirmed that her sister-in-law knew exactly what she was talking about. The same phenomenon was probably happening over at Blake’s place, so she could speak from experience. The giddy, drunk in love feeling that overpowered your inhibitions and allowed you to be demonstrative with your affection. Any time, any place.

  I’d had that once for a month in Indianapolis.

  “So you want to rethink the couch decision?” Blake pressed.

  I shrugged. “Sure.”

  Blake set to work beating the fitted sheet that I’d packed away into submission. She held it up in front of herself, assessing. With a throat clear, she announced it wasn’t big enough. “This won’t work on a king sized bed.”

  “Well, excuse me for being preoccupied with completely changing my life around to not think about bedroom furniture,” I snapped, more harshly than I’d intended. The whole sex in random places talk had really gotten me out of sorts.

  “It’s okay,” Lauren jumped in, always the peacemaker. She hated to see conflict, even though it wasn’t like Blake and I were anywhere close to coming to blows. “I think I have some spare sheets in the linen closet.”

  Lauren hurried out into the hallway, returning seconds later with a stack of bedding, which she handed over to Blake. “Freshly laundered,” she assured with a grin.

  “Thank God for small favors,” I said with an eye roll.

  Blake snorted. If she’d been offended by my outburst, she’d gotten over it quickly. After all, I’d said much worse in her general direction before, including at least a couple “fuck yous” and she’d still hired me. I doubted she took anything that came out of my mouth personally. Generally a wise decision.

  Lauren and I focused our efforts on my clothes, loading them into my closet and dressers. Everything except for the box of underwear that I’d hidden away - I’d do that myself in private. All the while, she snu
ck glances at me as if I was hiding something much bigger than my unmentionables.

  “You’re sure everything’s good?” she whispered in between loads. As if Blake and I weren’t close enough for me to feel comfortable with her hearing my innermost thoughts. Hell, Blake and I had had a moment of our own when she’d confided in me about her miscarriage. Before she’d told her brother, which was both baffling and flattering all at once. If that hadn’t bound us in some way, I wasn’t sure what would.

  Of course Lauren would ask me. Of course she’d also phrase it in a way that didn’t involve her uttering the words “Are you okay?” which was one of her pet peeves. Pretty much everyone in attendance today had asked her that same question, repeatedly, during her own ordeal with Eric and Matthew. It was enough for her to order us to scratch that wording right out of our lexicons. Occasionally I slipped, but never on purpose.

  “I’m fine,” I insisted.

  Her eyebrows lifted at my less than committal response. I’d heard it before from her when she was lying. Blake had said it before when she was lying. My turn.

  “If you ever want to talk about it, you know where to find me.”

  “I know,” I allowed.

  Blake finished with the bed and helped us with the rest of the clothes. She prattled on about random things, oblivious to the air of something major that hung over us. She was lost in that newlywed fog, combined with the excitement that she felt regarding taking me on as her apprentice. She put away as quickly as she spoke, so within a short amount of time, we were all finished.

  Our work in the master bedroom done, we made our way back out to the living room, where the guys were perched on my new-to-me couch and loveseat, eyes glued to the television. The stack of boxes that had adorned the doorway were missing, and they were clearly done with work for the day.

  “Your bathroom stuff we didn’t mess with,” Matthew explained, the only one who acknowledged us when we came into view. “We just carried it to the bathroom.”

  “Good enough.” I really didn’t want them rifling through my toiletries, either. “Want to go out to lunch? I’ll buy for all of you helping out.”