Page 50 of Ghost

I led them down the hall, showing them the bathroom and the first guest bedroom. “It’s up to you guys, but I figured Toby could stay in here. It’s right across from the bathroom, and it’s closest to the kitchen for those late-night snacks.”

Toby looked around for a minute, then glanced up at his mother. “I get my own room?”

“You sure do.” Cricket pointed to the back of the room. “And look, you’ve got your own walk-in closet.”

“Cool.”

Toby walked over and collapsed on the bed, quickly kicking off his shoes. Seeing that he was content, I looked over to Cricket and said, “Your room is just down the hall.”

She nodded and followed me down to her room. As I opened the door, I told her, “You’ve got a walk-in closet, too, and it has its own bathroom. There’s also a lock on the door if you need it.”

“This is amazing, Sutton. It’s even better than I imagined.”

Her eyes met mine for a second, then dropped to the floor. She mumbled a quiet “thank you” and stepped inside the room, silently running her fingers over the edges of each piece of furniture like she was making sure they were real. I could see that she needed some time to settle in, so I stepped out into the hall and said, “I’ll go grab the rest of your things.”

She was still looking around the room when I headed back out to the truck. I started gathering the various boxes and brought them into the garage. I’d just started stacking them in the corner when I heard the rumble of Goose’s bike pulling up in the drive. I glanced back as he parked and swaggered over, that usual cocky grin plastered on his face.

“Hey, brother. What’s going on?”

“Nothing much. Just moving the last of this stuff.” I lowered the last box on the stack as I told him, “Cricket and Toby are inside. They’re checking things over and settling in.”

“I can’t believe it. I mean, I knew you were thinking about doing this, but I didn’t think you’d actually do it.” Goose glanced around at all the boxes. “Hell, you’re gonna be a regularMr. Susie Homemaker.”

I didn’t bite.

I just nodded and kept moving. “Yeah, whatever.”

Goose helped me grab the last of the luggage and followed me inside. We’d barely gotten through the front door when Cricket appeared with a smile on her face. She reached over and took thelarger bag from my hand, leaving me with a few of the small bags and a box. “I was hoping you were getting those.”

“I think this is the last of it.” I dropped the other bags on the counter. “I left the boxes in the garage. I figured we could get to those tomorrow.”

“Okay. That sounds good.”

When she started down the hall with her bag, Goose stepped forward and asked, “You need a hand with that?”

“No, thanks. I’ve got it.”

Once she was out of earshot, Goose leaned over to me and asked, “You really gonna leave them tonight?”

“I’ve got a shift.”

“Yeah, but I figured you’d wanna be around in case they needed something.” His voice was dripping with that familiar teasing tone, but I wasn’t in the mood for it. “I mean, I’m more than happy to step up to the plate and make sure...”

“That’s enough.” I set the box down a little harder than I meant to and turned to face him. “You’re here to keep an eye on them, not to be a pain in my ass.”

“Oh, I’ll keep an eye on ‘em,” he snickered. “You ain’t gotta worry about that.”

“Keep running your mouth and see where it gets you.”

“Hey, hey!” He laughed, holding his hands up in mock surrender. “Don’t gotta get your panties in a bind. I was just fucking around.”

“Yeah, well, what else is new?”

“Damn, brother. If I didn’t know better...” Goose gave me one of his looks, then shook his head and chuckled. “Nah, no fucking way.”

“I should be back around eleven. You good with that?”

Goose’s smile faded. “Yeah, eleven’s fine.”

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