Page 144 of Triple Play
“I have so many questions.”
“Ask them,” Grant says.
“What about money? Houses are expensive. I can’t—I’m still in school; I can’t contribute—”
“Already handled,” Wyatt says. “We split it three ways. Your contribution is dealing with us.”
“That’s not fair—”
“It’s absolutely fair,” Jordie argues. “Do you know how annoying Grant is? You deserve compensation.”
I’m laughing again. Can’t help it.
“What about furniture? And utilities? And—”
“All handled,” Grant says. “Furniture’s being delivered next week. We’ve got a moving company scheduled. Utilities are already on. We just need—” He stops and looks at me. “We just need you to say yes.”
“Yes to what exactly?”
“To this. To us. To—” He gestures around. “To coming home.”
Home.
The word sits in my chest, heavy and warm.
I’ve been living in that tiny studio for eighteen months. Studying alone. Eating alone. Sleeping alone except for the rare weekends when one of them could fly in.
And now they’re offering me—this. A real home. With them. All of them.
“I need to finish med school first,” I say. “I’ve got two more years.”
“We know.”
“And I’ll have rotations. Clinical hours. I won’t be here all the time.”
“We know that too.”
“And you’ll have your seasons. You’ll be traveling. Gone a few nights a week.”
“That’s why we got five bedrooms,” Jordie says. “So when we’re all here together, we have space. And when we’re not, you have the place to yourself.”
“You’ve really thought this through.”
“We’ve thought about nothing else for months,” Grant admits.
I walk to the window and look out at the backyard that needs work, at the fence that needs repair, at the space that has so much potential.
Behind me, I can hear them breathing. Waiting.
“There’s one more thing,” Wyatt says quietly.
I turn around.
He’s holding something—an envelope.
“What is that?”
“Open it.”
