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Chapter Twenty-Two
“Does someone want to fill me in?” Zack asked. Whatever it was, it was something they’d stopped talking about the moment he came in.
“It’s nothing,” Laurel said.
“We were saying that Laurel needs to get out of the apartment into better housing,” Harlan said.
Light began to dawn. “I take it your brothers are preaching about safety and telling you to move?”
“You got it in one,” Laurel said.
“She agreed with us,” Travis said. “So I asked her why she didn’t just move in with you if she’s planning to move anyway.”
“Shut up, Travis,” Laurel said. “This isn’t your business.”
So she agreed she needed to move and obviously she still had doubts about living with him. Great.
“It is our business,” Harlan said. “We worry about you. And now with this robbery—”
“No offense, guys, but Laurel’s right. This isn’t your decision. It’s Laurel’s.” And his, though he wasn’t sure she’d admit that. He started toward the kitchen. “Come on, Laurel. I don’t know about you but I’m hungry.” As he left the room he added, “There’s extra if you two want some.”
Zack walked in and set the bags on the kitchen table to parcel out the food, figuring the other three would be in shortly. Tobi walked in the back door as he was doing so.
“Oh, my God, that smells delicious.” She tossed her keys on the counter. “I missed dinner.”
“You’re in luck, then. I bought extra. Hamburgers and fries from the Diner.”
“Are you sure there’s enough?” She washed her hands at the sink, then took a ketchup bottle from the refrigerator and got paper plates from the pantry.
“Absolutely. I bought enough for all of us. Assuming Harlan and Travis are through trying to screw things up for me.”
“Ah.” Placing the plates and ketchup on the table, she took a seat and reached for a paper-wrapped burger. “Let me guess. They want Laurel to move right now and see no reason why she can’t just move in with you.”
“You got it. And the last thing Laurel needs is pressure to move in with me.” Zack sat down, grabbed a paper plate and put his burger and fries on it.
“Even though you want her to?” Tobi asked, dumping the food on her plate and snatching up a French fry. She took a bite and moaned happily. “Their fries are to die for.”
“Especially because I want her to. I’ve been doing my damnedest not to push her into something she isn’t ready for. I don’t need her brothers doing it for me.”
Laurel and Travis entered from the other room so they let the subject drop. But Zack was far from finished talking about what Laurel’s next move would be.
“Where’s Harlan?” Tobi asked.
“He went home,” Travis told her. “He said Savannah was waiting for him. Plus, he probably got tired of trying to talk sense into Laurel.”
A little bit to Zack’s surprise Laurel didn’t take the bait. No one talked much while they ate. Zack wanted to talk to Laurel alone but he knew she wouldn’t want to leave Tobi’s for fear the children might wake up and need her. And it was August so it was too damn hot to go outside and sit. Luckily, Tobi wasn’t clueless and she dragged Travis off as soon as they finished eating.
When he’d come back with dinner and found Harlan and Travis nagging Laurel about moving in with him, he’d thought it was a mistake. But maybe they were right. Maybe it was time for cards on the table. “Travis and Harlan have a point.”
Laurel had gotten up to take the paper plates and other trash to the can. “About what?”
“About you and the kids moving in with me.”
She gave him a look he couldn’t decipher. “Do we have to talk about this now?”
“If not now, when?”
“I don’t know, but not tonight. I’m exhausted and still shaky from reaction.”
