Page 25 of Married Into Love

“You and I are going to stick with the light stuff only.” She pointed at a stack of them near the kitchen. “Those are the heaviest of the bunch, so Alec can lug them downstairs. They’re fragile, so be careful,” she warned. “I decided I’d might as well take the dishes and pans with me since I’ll need them sooner orlater.”

I glanced at the counter and noticed all the small appliances were missing. “You’re taking the coffee maker andstuff,too?”

“Yup.”

“What about Mom? You won’t need them while you’re at thehotel,and—”

Ariana held up a hand to let me know she didn’t want to hear it. “She’s welcome to anything we leavebehind.”

“It’s not going to be much,” I replied softly, feeling Alec’s hand at mylowerback.

“Which is no less than what she deserves.” Ariana looked over my shoulder at Alec. “You’d better make sure you protect my sister’s soft side. She’s too nice. Too forgiving. It opens her up to people taking advantage of her. Like our mom. And that damn boss of hers who fuckedherover.”

“I’ve got her,” Alec promised. “I’m already taking care of the situation where she used to work, and I’ll make sure your mom doesn’t take advantage of hereither.”

“Good.” Ariana nodded firmly, walking into the living room. “Then let’s get a move on. Alessia bragged to me about how amazing the tubs are at the hotel, and I’m dying to take a bath whenwe’redone.”

She grabbed a couple small boxes off the couch and brushed past us out the door. I turned to follow after her, but Alec stopped me with a gentle touch on myshoulder.

“You told her about the bubble baths, eh?” he asked with a cocky gleam inhiseyes.

“Whatever,” I grumbled. “You heard my sister. Get a moveonit.”

It only took us about an hour to finish packing up everything we wanted to take from the apartment and loading into the back of the rental truck. When it was all done, I wandered through the place to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything important. Not that we owned a lot, but with the eviction only two days away I knew we wouldn’t get another chance. It was weird walking through and seeing the empty closets and cabinets, with only my mom’s personal belongings left behind along with thefurniture.

Ariana rapped on the doorway to my bedroom to get my attention. “You readytogo?”

“Yeah, I think so. But we should probably leave Mom another voicemail and let her know we’re gone and she has two days to stop by and pick up her stuff before the landlord clears out the apartment and sells whatever he can to try to make up for thebackrent.”

“Like I told your hubby, you’re too nice for you own good,” shegrumbled.

“She’s our mom, Ariana. Nothing’s going to change that, no matter how badly shemessesup.”

“Fine,” she huffed, yanking her cell out of her pocket to make the call. “But if someone’s got to do it, it’s going tobeme.”

I moved closer as she put the phone to her ear. Once again, it only rang once and was sent to voicemail. Underneath the anger in Ariana’s eyes was the same pain I was feeling. Seeing it in my sister made me want to yank the phone from her hand to yell at our mom, but it wouldn’t have done any good because she probably wouldn’t listen to the whole thing anyway. Not with how she was ignoring our calls. So I just listened as Ariana warned her about the looming eviction date and what would happen to her stuff if she didn’t come pick it up. When she was done, she offered me a weaksmile.

“Your hubby’s waiting in the truck with the engine running. He said something about not wanting anyone to steal our stuff. I didn’t have the heart to tell him nobody would bother since none of it’s worth anythinganyway.”

With the quick change in topic, it was obvious she didn’t want to talk about our mom anymore. So I followed her lead. “That wouldn’t stop them from stealing itanyway.”

“Yeah, you’re probablyright.”

“Of course I am. I’m the smart sister,” Iteased.

“Since you found me a lush place to crash for free, I’m not going to argue with you over which one of us is smarter than the other.” She reached for my hand and tugged me out of my room and through the apartment. “Except to remind you whose idea it was to walk into that wedding chapel on Fridaynight.”

“Yeah, but which one of us got married to the whiteknight?”

The smile she flashed me this time was genuine. “The one who deserved himthemost.”

“Hey! You deserve an amazing guy, too. Once I figure out what I’m going to do with mine, we’ll be on the lookout for yours,” Ipromised.

“You’d better keep him, that’s what youshoulddo.”

“We’ll see,” I told her as we neared the truck, where the topic of our conversation was leaning against thebackend.

“We’ll see what?” heasked.

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