Page 90 of Perfectly Us

“Oh yeah?” I pull into the driveway and cut the engine. Dad’s still at work. I took the day off to meet with the landlord of an apartment complex at four o’clock.

“Mhm. We can reenact our first kiss in the projection room.”

“That’s what you said last week,” I remind him as I unlock the front door and step inside the house. “And then you ended up giving me head.”

Alex snickers. “You liked it.”

“I can’t argue with that.” I get hard at the memory. Damn him.

“Maybe bring a candy bar for me this time so I can have some chocolate with my nuts.”

I laugh as I walk up the stairs to my room.

“What time are you meeting the lady for the apartment?”

“Four.”

“I hope it goes well.”

“Thanks. Me too.” Even though a part of me is scared as hell to be on my own. The unknown is nerve-racking.

“I just got to work,” Alex says, sighing. “Let me know if you’re gonna stop by later, okay?”

“I’ll be there.”

Three weeks and three days. The clock is ticking. I’m a creature of habit and thrive off routine. Moving to my own place, Alex going off to college, it’s a shake-up of that routine.

I snap the rubber band against my wrist, centering myself.

I can do this.

Chapter Nineteen

Alex

“You know what this means, right?” I say, throwing myself on Shiloh’s bed after we set it up in his new apartment. “We have to bless your new home by havin’ wild sex.”

“Hey,” Landon says from the living room where he and Jesse are unloading boxes. “I heard that.”

“Oops. Sorry, Mr. Walker. Should I wash my mouth out with soap, or do you wanna spank me?”

Laughing, Shiloh plops down beside me, sweat shining on his brow.

We’ve been moving and unloading boxes all afternoon. He didn’t have much stuff, so Landon bought him a bunch of new shit. A couch, dishes, lamps, things for the bathroom, a table and chairs. Plus, it’s an upstairs apartment. Going up and down the steps is a leg workout.

“I was totally serious about the sex,” I whisper, wiggling my eyebrows. “Later though. After your dad leaves. I might even run through the apartment naked and everything. No one can stop me. How does it feel being a big, bad adult now with bills and your own place?”

“Stressful.”

“What doesn’t stress you out?”

Shiloh puts his arms around me and tugs me down as he falls back on the mattress. “You.”

“You sure about that?” I wiggle against him. “I can be a handful. Just ask Ruben. And basically anyone else who knows me.”

“I know you.” He buries his face against my neck.

“And?”