Page 35 of How We Loved

“Thanks for asking. I’m excited to go on a shopping spree!”

She holds up a bank card. “Especially when we have Dalton’s card.”

“Oh! This is going to be fun. Have you seen the place yet?”

“Only pictures. He gets the keys today. We’ve already gone to pick out all the furniture, and that’s being delivered right now.”

All of us TimeLand kids have trusts in our name. We get a portion when we turn eighteen, and the rest of it when we turn twenty-five. Dalton’s lawyer called his dad, and to our surprise, he released the entire trust to Dalton. It kind of feels like it was a final salute, like you’re on your own from here on out, but in his case, that’s probably a good thing.

When I heard Dalton had turned himself into the police to spite his father, I about died. I’m just so grateful everything turned out the way it did, and Dalton is able to get his own place so he doesn’t have to put up with him anymore.

“I can’t believe his dad gave him his trust so easily. I guess he’s not the asshole we all thought he was.”

“Well …” Natalie recoils into herself as she shrugs her shoulders high.

I laugh out loud, forgetting for a second exactly why the Spencers and Wicks hated each other to begin with. “Oh yeah. I—never mind. My bad …”

She joins in my laugh. “But, yeah, I guess this makes us not hate him as much,” she drawls out.

We head to our local shopping center to see what all we can find for both Dalton’s new place and my costume.

As we enter the store, Natalie grabs a cart, hands it to me, then gets her own. “We’ll for sure need two carts, hoping not three!”

My eyes open wide as what we’re doing really sets in. “He has nothing, huh?”

“Nothing,” she says slow and long.

I inhale a breath as I nod, thinking of everything we use on a daily basis that he is going to have to purchase to fill his new place. This is way more than just designing the place, as I originally thought.

“Okay, should we start with the kitchen stuff?” I ask.

“Good call.”

We head to the kitchen department, where we both start filling the cart with plates, silverware, cups, and more.

I hold up a few different kitchen towels. “Does he care on the color?”

“He told me anything that’s not girlie.” She laughs.

“Then, we should get him these.” I hold up a country floral design with ruffles and all.

She grabs them from me and puts them back. “He’d literally kill me.”

“Okay, let’s stick to these gray, blue, and black ones.” I put them all in my cart.

“Good call.”

“I can’t believe we’re old enough to be buying things to fill his own place. To think, I could be doing this for my own place next year,” I say as I look at some towels that I would choose for myself.

“What is your plan after graduation?” she asks.

I think about that answer as I check out other items. “Not sure now,” I state truthfully, feeling indifferent all of a sudden.

She stops what she’s doing and looks at me, obviously sensing my hesitation. “Why?”

“Ben and I always talked about going to MSU together.”

“And that’s changed?”

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