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“Hey.”

“Where are you? We decided that we weren’t going to stay in here another night. We packed up all our stuff and we’re going to head to the apartment.”

I smiled when he mentioned apartment. That was the first place I’d seen all of them. I’d been spying on them because I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into. In fact, I still didn’t know what I was getting myself into but going to the apartment sounded fine. Sounded better than fine. Almost as if we were coming full circle. “I’m…” I spun in a circle trying to find where I was. “I’m by the Pirate’s Museum.”

“Okay, stay where you are. One of us will be by to pick you up, and we’ll all meet at the apartment.”

I ended the call and looked around. Seeing the life-sized cutout of the pirate, I decided to stand right next to him. This was one place I hadn’t been yet. One place I wasn’t sure I’d like either. I wasn’t really a pirate person. The artifacts they had in there were probably fascinating, but that was probably one tourist trap I could skip, and it wouldn’t break my heart.

It only took a few minutes for Travis and Randy to pull up in the Jeep to get me. Randy rolled down the window, so I could see into the interior. They were both just sitting there as if their earlier argument hadn’t even taken place.

Damn. To be a man, huh?

“Hey there, Sexy.”

I smiled and shook my head, then I pulled open the back door to get in. We hadn’t brought all that much to the Order headquarters by the wharf, but apparently it was enough to fill up the back of the Jeep and most of the backseat too. Who knew what Gabe and Liam had in the car. “What about your bike?” I asked Randy as soon as I hopped in.

“I’ll go get it tomorrow.”

Travis pulled out onto the road and I buckled up. The drive to the apartment wasn’t all that long, but I was silently pleading with them not to say anything about what had happened. I didn’t want to talk about what we were going to do now. I didn’t want to think about the future, I just wanted to think about the right now. The right now where all of us had stuck up for one another when someone had tried to break our bonds. I was proud of us. No matter what, I could always say that about what had just happened tonight.

“Is Liam okay?” I asked, unable to help myself.

Randy snickered. “It’ll take him a day, maybe.”

I sighed, thinking about how lost he looked. He’d get over it. And, like I’d come to terms with during my walk. I wasn’t sure there was anything to get over.

“So…” I said. “I think we should order a pizza and grab some beer.”

Travis stared at me through the rearview mirror, the corners of his mouth crinkling. Randy turned in his seat, a full-on smile gracing his face. “I knew there was a reason we got along so well. To the store, Travis.”

Travis took a quick right, driving up a side road. “Gabe and Liam are probably already there. Want to text them to order the pizza?”

“On it.”

I sat in the back, smiling to myself. Some people may have thought I was losing it. I’d just been effectively fired from a job, but inside, I felt like we should celebrate. We had a lot to be thankful for and now seemed as perfect a time as any.

When Travis pulled into the parking lot of the corner store, I got out with him. Randy answered his phone. Apparently, Liam was unsure what he really meant when he said order us pizzas in his text.

Travis reached his hand out and I interlaced my fingers with his. He held the door open for me and we went inside and straight to the coolers in the back. Travis picked out a thirty rack and then we made our way to the front of the store to pay. It was stupid, but this was the most normal thing I’d done in a long time. When you were a witch for all your life like I was, things like this just didn’t happen all the time. There was more abnormal in my house than there was routine. And when I had stepped inside the box to do things normal kids did, Granny always found out, which somehow turned it into something “other” again. God, I missed that woman.

“Have fun,” the guy behind the counter said after he ran Travis’s card. We walked out of the store and I hopped back into the backseat. Randy was laughing when we got in. “Jesus. You guys look like you’re doing something wrong.”

“I think Norah’s giddy,” Travis said.

I couldn’t disagree with him.

“Just drive us home,” I said. As soon as I said it, a cascade of warmth hit me. The Order headquarters was never home. The apartment was, and Liam’s parents’ house was becoming one.

When we pulled up to the apartment, the little car was parked out front. I pushed open the backdoor and got out. For the first time, I was going to walk into the apartment feeling like I was a part of it. That wasn’t just the guy’s apartment anymore. Or the place where I had to do the walk of shame, but it was a place for all of us together.

Randy grabbed a few boxes from the back of the Jeep, and Travis grabbed the beer and followed me in. Gabe already had the TV on while Liam’s head was stuck in a book. I went right over to him and shut it before planting myself on his lap. “Hey,” he said in protest.

“Tonight, is a worry-free night,” I said. “No Order, no witchy stuff, just us.”

He looked unsure, so instead of trying to convince him with words, I handed the book off to Randy on his way through the apartment and pulled Liam to me. I kissed him softly at first, enjoying the way he always seemed surprised at first, then willing and able to do whatever I wanted.

I pulled away, then gave him a chaste kiss on the lips. “We have beer.”