Speaking of families, I look over at my phone right as a text from Allysa comes through.

Allysa: Are you finished up at work yet? I need your opinion on furniture.

Me: Be there in fifteen minutes.

I don’t know if it’s the impending delivery or the fact that she’s not currently working, but I’m pretty sure I’ve spent more time at her house this week than I have at my own. I close up the shop and head toward her apartment.

• • •

When I step off the elevator, there’s a note taped to her apartment door. I see my name written across it, so I pull it off the door.

Lily,

On the seventh floor. Apartment 749.

—A

She has an apartment here just for extra furniture? I know they’re rich, but even that seems a little excessive for them. I get on the elevator and press the button for the seventh floor. When the doors open, I head down the hall toward apartment 749. When I reach it, I have no idea if I should knock or just go inside. For all I know, someone could live here. Probably one of her people.

I knock on the door and hear footsteps from the other side.

I’m shocked when the door swings open and Ryle is standing in front of me.

“Hey,” I say, confused. “What are you doing here?”

He grins and leans against the doorframe. “I live here. What are you doing here?”

I glance at the pewter number plate next to the door and then back at him. “What do you mean you live here? I thought you lived with me. You’ve had your own apartment this whole time?” I would think an entire apartment would be something a husband would bring up to his wife at some point. It’s a little unnerving.

Actually, it’s ludicrous and deceptive. I think I might be really angry at him right now.

Ryle laughs and pushes off the doorframe. Now he’s filling up the entire doorway as he lifts his hands to the frame over his head and grips it. “I haven’t really had a chance to tell you about this apartment, considering I just signed the paperwork on it this morning.”

I take a step back. “Wait. What?”

He reaches for my hand and pulls me inside the apartment. “Welcome home, Lily.”

I pause in the foyer.

Yes. I said foyer. There is a foyer.

“You bought an apartment?”

He nods slowly, gauging my reaction.

“You bought an apartment,” I repeat.

He’s still nodding. “I did. Is that okay? I figured since we live together now we could use the extra room.”

I spin in a slow circle. When my eyes land on the kitchen, I pause. It’s not as big as Allysa’s kitchen, but it’s just as white and almost as beautiful. There’s a wine cooler and a dishwasher, two things my own apartment doesn’t have. I walk into the kitchen and look around, scared to touch anything. Is this really my kitchen? This can’t be my kitchen.