Page 45 of Home Game

“I slept in,” I said as I walked into the kitchen. I needed a coffee like an addict needed his next hit. She would probably be okay if I told her we would go out another day.

“I’ve got your smoothie stuff ready.”

The kitchen was immaculate. She had filled the blender with my smoothie ingredients. I stood there looking at the blender and noticedthat she had her boots on. Keeping my word with this chick was suddenly important.

The words tumbled out of my mouth. “Give me 15.”

I tookmy smoothie to go. We walked down to my SUV. As we got in, I looked over at Zoey.

“Aren’t you curious about where we are going or what kind of help I need?”

“Where are we going?”

“I need furniture.”

She brightened. “We’re going furniture shopping?”

So there was normal female DNA in her. “We are.”

I didn’t want to tell her we were buying bedroom furniture for her. Zoey had weird hang-ups about money. I wanted her unfettered view on what she wanted, regardless of how much it cost.

I pulled up my phone, looking up high-end furniture stores. I wanted to be served an espresso while some very professional sales person organized everything for us.

Curious. “Zoey, if you were going to buy yourself some furniture, where would you go?”

“IKEA.”

I wanted to laugh, but she sounded so serious. IKEA wasn’t even on my radar. I continued to scroll through my phone, “Really? Why?”

“It’s so stylish and modern.” Longing traced her voice.

I looked up at the dreamy look on her face. I rubbed one eye. IKEA on a Saturday morning. With all those people. Not a chance.

“You know, they make you put your own furniture together.”

She giggled. Like a full on, joyful noise. “Yeah.”

I realized that I hadn’t heard her laugh before. “Why do you like IKEA so much?”

“It feels so homey in there.”

“Homey?”

A small shrug. “It feels like a home should feel.”

Oh fuck. Without even knowing it, this chick was hitting all my soft spots. IKEA it was. I glanced in my backseat to make sure I had a baseball hat. “I’m going to need some coffee.”

“They have a cafeteria there. They have every kind of food. Swedish food.”

Again, I wanted to laugh, but her earnest expression had returned so I refrained. “Okay.”

CHAPTER 12

ZOEY

Ryanand I walked into IKEA and took the elevator up two levels so we were on the showroom floor. I felt a sense of giddy joy being here. It felt safe and so stylish. One day, if I ever got on my feet and got my own apartment, I would decorate my entire home with IKEA furniture. Beside me, Ryan towered over me, with his baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. We were in the living room section. Everything looked so warm and happy. Just like it did on the commercials. I sat down on a couch and then spied a chair I needed to try out. I opened the drawer of a coffee table and inspected a lamp.

Ryan stood outside the showroom and watched me. “You really like IKEA, don’t you?”

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