“He arrived home last night. He was with my Phillip.” Her voice was low, and I could tell she was gearing herself up to ask me something. My mom was like this, too, when she wanted something.

“Can he stay here for a day until he can get a hold of his . . .” She trailed off, stopping for a second. “Until he can get into his place. Sorry to ask like this, I—”

I held up my hand. “How do you know this guy?”

“Oh—I met him right before they left. He’s a good guy, Karina. Honest. He’s Phillip’s closest friend over there.”

“What’s he doing back?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “I didn’t ask. Should I ask?” She peered into the living room.

“I wouldn’t now,” I told her. “He can stay here, but if he ends up being a problem, he’s out. So are you,” I teased her.

She smiled at that and touched my arm. She was always so affectionate. Me, not so much.

“Thank you. You’re the—”

“I know, I know. I’m the best. Now I have to shower so I’m not late to my dad’s.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you should thank me.”

We both laughed and I shut the bathroom door in her face and sank against the wall. I’m not the kind of person to let a stranger, especially a man, stay in my house, but there I was, muddying my judgment for the first of many times when it came to Kael.

CHAPTER TWELVE

My house was in dire need of a few-ish repairs. It’d been that way since I’d moved in nearly a year ago. Every day it was the same dance, bouncing from foot to foot, completely naked, waiting for the water to heat up. That wasn’t even the worst of it. Once the water got hot, it didn’t stay that way—not for long, anyway.

The water went from hot, to cold, to hot again. I could barely stand it. I loved my slightly shabby house, but there were a lot of things that needed fixing and it was going to take a while to get through them all. I tried to do some of the smaller renovations myself. Like the shower tiles I bought during an overly adventurous Saturday afternoon at the hardware store. I bought cans of paint, little tubes of white gunk to patch the holes in the hallway walls, some knobs to replace the ones on the kitchen cabinets, and some tiles for the bathroom. The knobs found their way onto the cabinets. I had to admit they really did update the cabinetry like HGTV told me they would. I wasn’t necessarily good at home demo, but I really loved doing it with the little bit of money I had.