After three months of no word, she called me two weeks ago. She had left my father and she felt the need to report that information over Jesse’s landline. She knew my cell phone. She knew my email. She even knew my mailing address, but she could only call me over his landline. It irked me. And then she dropped the additional bomb that she was moving to Clarkson. She wanted to be close to her granddaughter. I was supposed to pave the way since I had grown close to Claire and her mother.

That hadn’t gone over well with me. I hung up on her.

She called a second time. I hung up again. After the fifth time, I finally listened to her and regretted it immediately. And now she had moved into a small house on the same street as their home. It was still touch and go with them. It was less than that with me. I couldn’t stomach an entire conversation with her, not after all she’d done to me.

He swept a hand through my hair, tucking it behind my ear, and he pulled me against his chest. Wrapping an arm around me, he pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’m sorry your mom’s a bitch.”

It was so much more than that, but I sighed. “I’m trying to forgive them. I have no idea how, but I’m trying. Ethan would want that.”

“Yeah, he would.”

The bickering started again inside. This time something thumped against a wall and we heard glass shattering.

“Fucking hell,” Jesse bit out. He clenched his jaw and headed inside. As he disappeared through the door, I heard him yell, “What the hell is going on? Stop trashing my place!”

“He started it!” Hannah shrieked back. “Do you know what he called me?”

“I don’t care. Put the damn vase down.”

“But—”

“NOW!”

I grinned to myself and shook my head. These were now my friends. This was now my family.

Cord poked his head out and held his phone in the air. “We’re going to order pizza. You in?”

I sighed and started towards him. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else.” And as I stepped through the door, he closed it behind me before moving around me. He and his girl were positioned in the living room. Hannah and Jamie were in the dining room. Tiffany was sitting on the stairs and Jesse had his back turned to me. It was rigid as he continued to yell at Jamie, who had taken the condom bowl from its hiding spot. He’d been throwing condoms at Hannah. They were all over the floors.

I glanced up to the portrait. I felt Ethan laughing down at me. I could only imagine him saying, “And you love your new family. You know it.”

The corners of my lips curved up. He was right.