“Hey, Sugar, you have a phone charger?” Grease called quietly from her bedroom, taking her attention away from me instantly.

“I’m gonna go help him. You guys have dinner yet?” she asked, already walking away.

“No, we crashed a couple of hours ago. Have you seen Gram yet?”

“Yeah, we thought Will was with her so we stopped there first. She said she’d make dinner for everyone, someone just needs to go let her know.” She paused outside her bedroom door, her gaze roaming over me. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

She spun around and entered the bedroom before I could reply, so I made my way into the kitchen. I wasn’t sure if I should wake Farrah up or not, but figured I’d wait until I knew what Callie’s plans were. We’d barely gotten any sleep the night before, and Farrah needed the rest.

Thinking about her body needing rest brought to mind another thing that had been bothering me, but I knew last night hadn’t been the time to say anything to her about it.

She was skinny.

For as long as I’d known her, Farrah had had a pretty slender body—small tits, very little ass, and a tiny waist. Her weight seemed to fluctuate pretty often, only a few pounds making a big difference in the way she looked, but this was the smallest I’d ever seen her. She didn’t necessarily look sick, but it wouldn’t be very long before she did.

I’d watched her as we had breakfast with Gram, and hadn’t noticed anything off, but I had no idea what I was even looking for. She looked so delicate and fragile, completely at odds with her personality, and it freaked me out to the point of being nervous I was going to accidentally hurt her when we had sex. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but at some point I had to say something to her about it, and I dreaded her reaction.

“Did Will do okay?” Grease rumbled quietly, jerking me out of my train of thought as he came into the kitchen.

“Yeah, he was fine. Farrah’s good with him, and he does good with Gram,” I answered, pulling two beers out of the fridge.

“I see your balls finally dropped,” he said with a head tilt in Farrah’s direction and a shit-eating grin.

“Fuck off,” I shot back, then downed half the beer he handed me in one go. “She was dealing with a lot of shit. I was giving her some time.”

“I know, brother.” Grease’s face fell. “Just fuckin’ with you.”

“You and Callie good?”

“Yep. Finally moving on, I think.” He took a sip of his beer and sat down on the stool as Callie came into the kitchen.

“I’m going to go help Gram with dinner,” she told us, leaning in to give Grease a kiss. “Wake Will up in fifteen, would you? If we don’t, he’s going to be up all night.”

“Got it,” he mumbled, pulling her in for another kiss that made my stomach turn. Fuck, Farrah was going to need to get her own apartment in Oregon so I didn’t have to see that shit.

We were quiet as we watched Callie walk out, but as soon as the door closed, Grease’s gaze came back to me.

“I’m gonna feel a hell of a lot better when her shit’s actually moved.”

I didn’t blame him. Grease and Callie had been playing this game for a long-ass time, and the move had never happened. He’d been driving from Eugene to Sacramento for years just to spend little bits of time with her. Every time they decided she’d move north, something would happen to derail their plans. I didn’t know if I’d be that patient in his position, waiting and waiting on the mother of my child to actually move in with me.

I was just glad I wasn’t going to have to deal with that shit with Farrah.

Chapter 6

Farrah

“I have my own money, I don’t need you to pay my moving expenses,” I told Callie for the fourth time in an hour.

“But you’re going to need that money to buy furniture and live until you find a job,” she argued back, her eyes narrowed in defiance.

We’d gone back and forth since we’d sat down for dinner about how we’d split up the moving costs, and three hours later we were no closer to a resolution. The guys had taken one look at our stubborn faces and hadn’t said a word as we’d argued in circles, and they’d eventually moved out of the danger zone to watch cartoons with Will.

I wondered how Grease felt about paying for even more of my shit, but I was sure he wouldn’t have argued with Callie even if it bothered him. They’d finally gotten their relationship worked out, and I knew he wouldn’t willingly upset the apple cart.

They were being super generous, offering to pay for the moving van and gas to get us to Oregon, but allowing them to do it made me uncomfortable. No, uncomfortable didn’t fully encompass my emotions on the subject. Frankly, it made me feel ashamed, like I was a charity case. For a long time I’d taken advantage of their generosity, living in their apartment and eating their food while I lost my damn mind, but that Farrah was gone. I made okay money at the salon where Callie and I worked, and I’d been paying my half of the expenses for a while now. I was proud of the fact that I could pay my own way, and she was embarrassing me by acting like I couldn’t take care of myself.

“Why don’t Farrah and I share an apartment? That way she doesn’t have to worry about furniture and all that nonsense just yet, and I’ll have some company.” Gram spoke up with a reassuring pat on my hand, trying to defuse the tension at the table.