“I don’t understand,” I said. “What is all this?”

“It’s your housewarming party. Duh.” Kristen tapped the side of her head and looked at Rafe. “You’d think she’d have caught on by now.”

“Well, it was sudden,” he said, defending me. “There’s a lot to take in.”

She sighed dramatically. “We all have a lot to take in. She gets a house, and I get to be as big as a house.”

The world stopped spinning for a second and the only people in existence were my best friend and me. “Really?” I whispered, eyes wide.

“Really.” She nodded. “I’m going to be a mother, can you believe it?”

We stared at each other for a long moment. Then I squealed with delight and flung my arms around her.

“Where do you want this?” Chris asked.

I gave Kristen a final squeeze and turned. Chris was holding a small vacuum cleaner that looked a lot like the one on my houseboat. “Um . . .”

“Downstairs,” Rafe said, and once Chris was on his way, Rafe said to me, “There’s something else you should know.”

“You haven’t told her yet?” Kristen yelled. “Do you have the sense of a soap dish?” She turned to me. “This man has lined up every person you’ve ever known in Chilson, and that includes everyone in town, to move your belongings from the houseboat. And out of the boardinghouse attic.”

All of my . . . ? Panic seized me and I turned fast, getting ready to run. “Eddie—”

“Is upstairs,” Rafe said. “I brought him over first thing. He’s upstairs in the bedroom, getting cat hair all over.”

His calm tone relaxed me and I nodded, believing him. Which was when the full implication of the situation thumped me in the head. “I’m moving,” I said. “I mean, you’re getting me moved. I’m living here. Starting now.”

Ignoring the eye rolls of my best friend and fiancé, I wandered through the house, watching the activity. Pam Fazio was carrying an armful of my hanging clothes up the stairs. Camille Pomeranz, the newspaper editor, was hauling a box of food to the kitchen, where I was pretty sure Kristen would direct it into a wastebasket. Holly and Kelsey came in the front door with bedding that went upstairs, and my aunt brought in a box of toiletries, followed by Celeste, who was carrying tote bags of my clothes.

After them came another parade, with the book boxes from the boardinghouse attic. Leese Lacombe, Chris, Mitchell, Graydon, the sheriff herself, Gareth the library’s maintenance guy, and Ash, who was followed so closely by Chelsea Stille, the sheriff’s new office manager, that I was suddenly happily sure they were a couple. Then came Hal, Josh in his suit, and half a dozen of Rafe’s friends, the door held open by a glowing Mia, still in her wedding dress.