Page 33 of Healing Hearts
It causes warmth to race across my skin. Obviously it means as much to her as it does to Trent that he’s on this path.
“Little Falls is lucky to have you,” Tyler says.
“Well, we’ll see how Little Falls feels about that,” Trent says with an uneasy laugh as he slides back into his seat. “And to that end, because it’s a bit of a risk, I’m giving up my apartment. I’m going to rent Em’s spare room.”
“Oh,” my mom says. “You could have had a room here for free.”
“Once the renos are done on our house,” Grady says, chiming in, “you can stay there or stay at Maggie’s for free too.”
“Oh my god,” I say, “I’m not charging him anything, okay?”
Everyone turns and stares at me like my outburst was completely inappropriate, and I flush with embarrassment. Maybe I’m a little more sensitive about what we’re about to embark on than I like to believe.
“No one was judging,” Maggie says. “You’re doing the whole fertility treatment thing, and that’s expensive. If you and Trent are happy for him to pay you rent and it helps both of you, that’s fine.”
“Yeah,” Grady says. “I wasn’t implying anything. Just trying to help him out.”
“Em’s been very kind,” Trent says, trying to catch my eyes, but I avoid him. “I’m happy with the deal we’ve made.”
“Well then,” my mom says with more enthusiasm than is needed, “that’s wonderful. Isn’t that wonderful everyone?”
“We should do a toast,” Mia says, raising her glass. “To new beginnings.”
Everyone raises their glass, and beside me Amir whispers, “I love when we do the cheers thing.” Then he stands up and goes around the table doing a “cheers” with every single person.
“Have you installed a revolving door?” Lila asks as we’re shoulder to shoulder doing dishes at the double kitchen sink.
“A revolving door?” I ask, confused.
“Yeah, on the spare bedroom. One girl in. One girl out.”
“Lila,” I say, exasperated.
“Are you really going to be okay with him having girls over there, probably having loud sex while you’re trying to sleep? Or explaining to Amir what all those noises are coming from Trent’s bedroom?”
“You’re making a lot of assumptions,” I say.
“Have you even talked about it?”
“We’re both adults, and despite what you might think right now, Trent is a reasonable human being. He’s not going to put me or Amir in an awkward situation. What happened between you and him actually really bothers him.”
She goes quiet and finishes the dishes without another word. Just when I think I should say something, Amir comes and tugs on my leg.
“Mom, can you go look for those Lego pieces I lost? I need them for the set.”
“Which room, again?” I ask, drying my hands.
“The green room,” he says. “Thanks, Mom.” And then he’s racing outside with Grady and the dogs.
I didn’t realize I’d be looking alone.
“I can help you look,” Trent says from behind me.
I give him a grateful smile, and he follows me up the stairs to the green bedroom. Once we’re inside, we both fall to our hands and knees, searching under dressers, the bed, the closet.
“What exactly are we looking for?” Trent asks when we both stand up again.
“Lego pieces,” I say with a shrug.
