She kissed him, quickly, and opened her car door. “I have laundry to do.”

“I’ve never seen a woman so happy to do laundry.”

“Don’t get used to it.”

Damn, she made him smile. “I won’t.”

“Let’s get back to work.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Parker asked Erin to be on standby with emergency wine should Mallory be delivering crazy news. Her sister had never been so cryptic in the past. All she was praying for was for her sister to not be pregnant.

Which was the first thing that went through her mind.

Why else would she want to have a family meeting and make sure Colin wasn’t there? Maybe she was breaking up with Jase and didn’t want Colin to know . . .

The suspense was killing her.

Austin had come home from school and wanted to rush off. Parker cut him off before he got too far.

“Your sister has something important she wants to talk to us about, so I need you to stick around for a while.”

He moaned. “When is she getting home?”

“Anytime.”

He rolled his eyes. “If she’s not home in an hour, I’m out of here.”

Parker was folding laundry in the den when she heard the gate signal her sister was home.

A few minutes later she heard the garage door open and close and her sister running up the back stairs.

“Hey!” she said as she tried to skirt on by.

“Whoa, wait . . .”

“What?” Mallory said.

“What do you mean what? You asked for a family meeting.”

“Yeah . . . give me a minute to put my things down.”

Parker took a deep breath.

Mallory made it two steps.

“Just tell me you’re not pregnant.” She held her breath.

Mallory turned. “I’m not pregnant.”

Relief flooded through her. “Okay, go. Grab Austin on your way back. He wants to go out and is waiting for you.”

Ten minutes later they were sitting in the den waiting for Mallory to tell them whatever was eating at her.

“You know how I’ve been dating Jase.”

“Yeah, so?” Austin wasn’t amused.

“Well . . . it’s been getting serious.”

“Two months, Mallory . . . How serious can it be?” Austin asked.

If anyone knew how a couple of months could be in a relationship, it was Parker. “You’re too young to get married.”

“Oh my God, Parker, I’m not pregnant and I’m not getting married.”

“I’m sorry. I’m jumping ahead.”

“Yeah, you are.”

“Sorry. Go ahead.”

Mallory took a deep breath. “I’m moving out.”

Of all the things that could have come out of Mallory’s mouth . . . I’m moving out was not what Parker saw coming.

“You’re what?”

“During spring break. Jase and I have been talking and—”

“I get Mallory’s room.” Austin didn’t miss a beat.

Parker waved her brother off. “You hardly know him.”

“I’m practically living with him now with all the flooding and drama around here. We want to take the next step.”

“You’re still in school.”

“I’ll still go to school. My college fund has provisions for me to live on campus, so I’m going to move out. Jase has a job, I have a job . . .”

“We had plans on how to make it work around here,” Parker argued.

“Yeah, and now you won’t have to worry about me. I’ll take care of myself.”

Something inside of Parker broke. Shattered in a million pieces.

“If it doesn’t work out, I’ll be back.” Mallory was staring at her.

“I still get your room.”

“God, Austin, you can have her room. Let it go,” Parker yelled at him.

Mallory tilted her head. “I thought you’d be happy.”

She was devastated. “I’m shocked.”

“You had to know that I’d move out eventually.”

Yeah, she did . . . but that eventually wasn’t supposed to be for a while longer.

“Our original plan was for us to go our separate ways after Austin was out of high school . . . You remember that, right?”

“We changed that plan. After the fire.”

Mallory stopped smiling. “I know. But this is something I want to do. Knowing you’re keeping the house means I just have to work a little harder to make it happen. I can do that. If Mom and Dad were still alive, I wouldn’t have money from the sale of a house to rely on. So I won’t rely on it now.”

All kinds of emotions ran around inside her like screaming kids on a playground. The bottom line was Mallory wanted to do something different in her life than what Parker thought she’d do . . . and who was she to stop her?

She tried to think like her parents . . . What would they say? How would they react?

The photograph of them on the wall stared down at her.

It pained her to voice the words running through her head. “I think it might be a mistake for you to rush into living with Jase—”

Mallory started to talk, but Parker cut her off.

“But . . . I’d rather you rush into living with him than get married or anything else equally as permanent.”

Mallory slowly started to smile. “So you’re okay?”

“Nope.” Nowhere near okay. “But I get it. And you have a home to come back to if it doesn’t work out.”

Mallory lunged off the couch to hug her.

Tears threatened to spill in big, ugly waves.

Then Austin opened his mouth. “If you move back in, I still get to keep your room.”

Parker picked up the pillow on the sofa and tossed it at her brother.

Someone was pounding on Colin’s front door.

Had he locked it without thinking? Both his brother and sister had a key and they were the only ones who knocked on his door after work.

“I’m coming . . .”

He hustled down the stairs and yanked on the front door. “Did you forget the . . . Parker?”

She was in tears. Launched herself at him as soon as he opened the door.

“Hey?” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her inside. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

She sucked in a breath like a bad cartoon character, bottom lip flapping in shuddering waves and blowing out in big sighs.

Colin started to panic. He’d never seen her like this. In everything he’d watched her go through, never once had she broken down. He didn’t like it. “Parker?”

Just her name had her squeezing him harder.

“I got you, okay. Whatever it is we’ll get through it. I’m right here.”

Her shuddering sobs went to staccato breaths.

Slowly she started to calm down.

“Come on.” He led her into his den and sat with her on the couch. “Tell me what’s going on.”

She blinked several times until she gathered enough courage to speak. “Mallory.” Another big breath. “M-Mallory is m-moving out.”

“Okay.” He waited for the punch.

Parker stared at him. “Of the house.”