Page 48 of Keep On Loving You

“Why would she be happy?”

Craig shot him a look. “Because she loves her family, and you know you’re family, Andy.” Craig rolled his eyes.

“Right. Of course.” He swallowed hard and sucked in a breath. “But I didn’t tell her yet.”

“Why not?”

That was an excellent question, and not one he could answer honestly. Not if he didn’t want Craig to punch him in the jaw. It’s not like he could casually mention that he’d missed his window before agreeing to continue sleeping and living with his little sister for the next six months.

“I just didn’t want to give her anything else to concern herself with.” Andy shrugged and hoped it came off more casual than it sounded.

“I guess that makes sense.” Craig shot him a look, but if Craig was really bothered by him staying at his little sister’s house, it didn’t show. “And really, if you want to stay at her place, it’s good with me. It’s probably quieter. Ultimately, you are going to be around a lot more now anyway. Have you had any luck finding anything yet?”

Andy glanced at the clock on his phone. “Actually, Jess is meeting me here in a few minutes to go over a few options. Charli hooked me up with her.”

“I bet she did.” Craig laughed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s trying to hook you up with more than a place to live. Jess is a nice woman, and she’s super cute, too, hey?”

He shook his head. “She’s very nice. And I’ll take your word for the cute, I haven’t actually met her yet, but I’m not really looking to get involved with anyone right now.”

Because I’m already involved with your little sister.

“Who said anything aboutgetting involved?” Craig made air quotes. “I know that’s never been your style.”

“I could have changed.”

He’d completely forgotten that he’d told Craig a bunch of bullshit about how he didn’t think he would ever settle down and how he preferred to date around. It was stupid and totally unnecessary, but he’d panicked after he’d almost slept with Kat because for the first time, he’d let himself believe that maybe there could be something more between them if it weren’t for the distance between them.

And the fact that he’d lose his best friend.

“Yeah,” Craig said. “You could have. But I doubt it.”

The bells over the door chimed, alerting them to an attractive brunette woman with a stack of papers in her arms.

Jess.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then.” Craig winked in his direction and pushed up from his chair and cleaned up the ice cream cup and napkins. “Hey, Jess. Nice to see you.”

There were definite drawbacks to living and working in the plaza in the center of town. Most days, Kat loved the convenience of being only steps away from her business, theshops, restaurants and cafés of Trickle Creek, and of course her brother’s ice cream shop and her sister’s flower shop.

She loved hanging out with her siblings. Along with Annie Darling, they were all her best friends and were her favorite people to spend time with.

Which was why it was so strange that she’d been actively avoiding them all for the last week. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone even a day without speaking to one of her brothers or her sister. And it wasn’t that she wasavoidingthem—well, maybe she was, a little bit—but mostly she just needed some time to process…well, everything.

They all must have sensed her need for space, too, because if any of them thought it was strange that Kat had mostly withdrawn from the family since the last meeting, they hadn’t said anything. Kat knew they were probably going crazy trying to figure out what was on the list their father had left her. Just the way she would have been if she’d been the one left in the dark when it had been their turn.

There was no real reason why Kat didn’t want to tell her brothers and sister about the list, and she would. But for the time being, it was nice to have it all to herself.

Truthfully, she hadn’t kept it entirely to herself. It had felt natural to share it with Andy. A lot of things with Andy felt natural. A whole lot of things.

She couldn’t let herself go down that trail of thought right now. She needed to focus on the matter at hand: her family. And the fact that it was only a matter of time before they finally banged down her door and demanded to know whether she was okay.

And that was exactly what she was trying to avoid. Especially considering Andy was still staying with her and was no longer sleeping in the guest room.

What she really should do was make the first move and go to one of them. At least that way it would keep them away from her apartment, where they might see something they shouldn’t.

“Might as well get it over with,” she muttered to herself as she finished reviewing the accounting on her laptop.

Even though she’d canceled or rescheduled most of her regular clients, Kat still liked to be in the shop, and she’d been working from the front desk of Strands for most of the morning. Her little salon had grown fast over the few years she’d been in business and not only with her own clientele: she also had a nail technician and an aesthetician who each rented space and saw regular clients. And more recently, Kat had gotten over her fear about being a manager of employees and had hired two additional stylists for the shop, which had turned out to be a blessing because Carla and Alison had been able to cover everyone she had to reschedule because of her wrist.

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