“You don’t have to apologize. I don’t mind picking them up. Anything else?”
“Take my credit card and buy Kieran a housewarming gift—he has a registry.”
My brows joined in the middle of my forehead.
“Why the hell does he have a housewarming registry when he moved into an already established home? And why are we entertaining this?”
Nori shrugged. “I just want to point out how much you sound like your husband. But to answer your question, he’s the baby and gets what he wants. You can use my card to buy a gift from you, or will you and Grant give a joint gift?”
“Um….”
“Never mind—don’t tell me. I want to be surprised. Kieran’s housewarming party is this weekend.”
“So now there’s a party?” I asked incredulously.
“What’s the matter, Ki? I thought you liked parties?”
“I do, but—”
“Have you stopped to realize thatmaybewe are entertaining this because our family has been through hell recently? We found out that you and Grant were secretly married, Grant was forced into rehab, you were about to become First Lady to a psychopath, Daisy and I were attacked, and Granddad is dying. So, forgive us if we want to get together to have a bullshit party and fellowship with the family.”
Well… when she puts it like that….
“I’m sorry, Nori. I didn’t mean to upset you. You’re right. The past couple of months have been… formidable.”
She snorted, ripped the page from her notebook, and handed it to me.
“I’d say so. You haven’t heard from that creepy fucker lately, have you?”
“No, thank God. I have him blocked on everything, and he hasn’t reached out.”
Nori rubbed her temple with a free hand before saying, “That should be a good thing, but he doesn’t seem like a man who’d give up that easily.”
That’s what I’ve been keeping to myself. The fear that Todd was lying in wait until the perfect moment to strike. Something he said keeps coming back to me.
“It shouldn’t have happened like that.”
I shivered at the thought and focused on preparing breakfast.
* * *
“You don’t look so hot, Flower Power,” I whispered to Daisy, tapping out a few Tylenol into my hand.
She groaned as she shifted against the pillows.
“You don’t look so hot yourself,” she grumbled.
“You should worry about yourself instead of me. You need to take your narcotics because these Tylenol aren’t cutting it.”
“Yeah, fuck it. Give it to me.”
“Are you serious?” I asked cautiously, not expecting her to give in so quickly.
“Yeah, I feel like I’m dying here.”
I returned the tablets to the pill bottle.
“Good, because Nori planned on calling your doctor about upping your dosage.”