Parting Chances (Fighting Chance #1) (2 page)

I dropped the last moving box on top of my bed. Glancing around, I took in the complete disaster that was my new bedroom. Why did I ever agree to move into a new apartment? This is going to take hours to put away. Sighing, I turned to my parents who were standing in the doorway.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked them. Even though my parents’ house was two hours away from school, I had wanted to stay with them this year. When I mentioned this to them, my mom yelled how that was not living my life. And yet, I still had to ask anyway. I’d be willing to move all these boxes back into the moving truck.

“Of course, sweetie. You and Kyler have been planning this move for months.” Mom wrapped me in a hug. “You are not changing your plans for me. Plus, two hours is a long drive to take every day.”

“I could take the year off,” I mumbled into her shoulder.

She gripped my arms and glared at me. “You will do no such thing. You’re not leaving Chapman University. We are only two hours away. You can still visit whenever you want.”

“Just don’t visit too often. We still want you to be a typical college senior,” Dad said with a grin. I rolled my eyes and followed them as they headed to the front door.

“I’ll still see you in two weeks, right? Caleb is still coming home, yeah?” I asked giving them hugs.

Mom nodded. “He is. He’s also bringing someone with him.” She nudged me in the shoulder, giving me a wink.

“He’s been there all of a month, and he’s already met someone?” I found it hard to believe my serial dating brother would settle down within a month
and
bring the woman a thousand miles back home. I knew Mom’s announcement hit him hard, but I guess I never realized just how hard.

I waved as they pulled out of the parking lot, watching their taillights disappear. I walked back to my room and groaned. I didn’t realize I had hoarded so much stuff. Every other time I had moved, I lived in the dorms. This year was the first in an apartment, and due to my parents’ wishes, I brought
everything
I owned from home.

Too much stuff.

“Good thing we have a storage unit in the basement, huh?” a voice said behind me. I turned toward the door and smiled at my best friend and new roommate.

“I don’t think the storage unit is going to help, Ky. I’m pretty sure I could throw most of this away.”

Kyler smiled and tossed her long wavy blonde hair over her shoulder. “Listen, I know you have a ton of unpacking to do, and of course, I’ll help. But do you want to come over to Noah’s with me?”

I pursed my lips, exhaling a breath, blowing the brown hair out of my face. I had just moved my entire life into this apartment. I was sweating like crazy, exhausted, and I still had this whole freaking room to unpack.

Kyler rushed on after she saw my less-than-enthusiastic response. “I’m cooking the guys dinner tonight, and since it’s your first day here, I feel bad leaving you.”

“Ky, I’m really not in the mood to hang out with your boyfriend and his roommate right now. And I have so much to do here.” I waved my arms around the mess of a room.

“Okay, one, Noah is
your
best friend. So don’t give me this crap about him just being my boyfriend. And two, aren’t you hungry? We’ll eat, then come back, and I’ll help you unpack.” Kyler thrust her clasped hands out and batted her big blue eyes at me. “Please, Hales!”

“You don’t think they would mind if I tagged along?” I asked.

Kyler laughed. “You and Noah have been friends longer than you and I have been. I wouldn’t call it tagging along.” She tugged my arm. “Come on, Hales. We’ll be back before nine.”

“Fine. Just let me shower.” Moving sweat is not a good look.

“Okay. I’m going to run to the store to pick up the ingredients. We’ll head out when I get back.” She gave me a quick hug before leaving.

I searched for my suitcase, which held most of the clothes I wore daily. Once I found it, I pulled out a pair of skinny jeans and a heather gray Chapman University shirt and headed to the bathroom. I wasn’t about to look for my shampoo, which was buried in the sea of crap that was my room, so I’d just have to use Kyler’s bath products.

Kyler came through the door ten minutes later, right as I pulled my long chocolate hair into a low side ponytail.

“You’re quick!” Kyler said holding the door open for me.

“Yeah, well, when you grow up with an older brother and he leaves you all of five minutes of warm water, you learn to take quick showers.”

I followed Kyler’s laughter to her car and hopped in the passenger seat. After buckling, I turned to her. “Do I even know his roommate this year?”

“You know Eli, right?” Kyler asked. “He and Noah were roommates freshman year in the dorms.”

I thought back to that time, picturing Noah’s computer geek roommate. “Yeah, I do. Whatever happened to him?”

“Eli ended up transferring sophomore year to a college closer to his mom. His parents got divorced and he went back to help his mom out.”

“Okay…” If he could do that, why wasn’t it okay for me to stay at home while my mom was dying?

“Anyway, Noah kept in contact with him. I mean, they loved rooming together. So when Eli’s mom told him to come back here, he asked Noah if he wanted to split an apartment.” Kyler steered the car onto the highway.

“They got this awesome place. Three bedrooms.”

“Are they going to rent that room out?” Thoughts of three guys in the same apartment made me shudder. That much testosterone in one place. It’d be like living in the dorms all over again.

“No. Rent is amazingly cheap, so they’re just going to keep it for people who need to crash for a night or whatever.” She took the exit toward downtown.

“Wow, it’s actually like Noah is being all civilized now. Spare bedroom—huge step up for him.” I grinned at Kyler, laughing when she swatted at me. She pulled onto a side street and parked in front of a cute light blue, two-story house.

“Is it just a bottom apartment or the whole house?” I asked while stepping out of the car. I headed to the trunk to help Kyler with the groceries.

“The whole house. Some elderly couple owns it. They live in Florida now, but they always rent it out to college kids at a reasonable price. Usually whatever they can pay. It’s pretty amazing they found this.”

“They trust college kids not to destroy anything?” The house wasn’t exactly in the college neighborhood. It had taken us fifteen minutes to get there, and we lived right next to campus. I just couldn’t see why someone would trust college kids, when they could clearly rent it out to
anyone
else.

“They did a pretty extensive background check. Contacted previous landlords, the dorms, and their parents.” She grabbed my free hand and pulled me up the stairs.

“I’m sure Noah loved that.” I laughed.

“I’m pretty sure that’s exactly why they got the apartment. His mom went on and on with the old man about how she raised her son to clean up after himself and how he was pretty handy with fixing things.” She opened the front door without knocking, and we stepped into a small foyer. There was a bench and decorative doorknobs hanging on the wall opposite it for coats. Just looking at the foyer, I realized Kyler was right. These boys weren’t your average male college students. I mean, even their shoes were lined up perfectly on a rug under the coat rack.

Kyler slipped off her flip flops before heading through a large arched doorway to the left. I kicked off my shoes and followed her into a huge living room. An oversized worn leather sofa, loveseat, and reclining chair were positioned in a semi-circle around a black entertainment center, which sat between two windows that looked out onto the front porch. Behind the couch was a large wooden table with bench seating. There was a smaller arched doorway behind the table, which I assumed went to the kitchen. To the right of the table was the staircase that led up to the second floor, where I guessed the bedrooms were located.

I followed Kyler through the living room and into the kitchen at the back of the house. Everything in here had been remodeled recently. Stainless steel appliances, granite counter-tops, and tile flooring. It was a smaller kitchen but felt very open due to the layout and the large window over the sink, along with the patio doors located on the right side. There was a small powder room located just off the kitchen.

God this house is beautiful.

I set the bag down on the counter and walked over to the patio door, looking into their backyard. There was a small deck and an average yard. It was all fenced in and well-maintained, with little flowerbeds located strategically around the fence line and up against the garage.

“Nice, right?” Kyler broke me out of my trance, bumping me in the shoulder.

“Why couldn’t we find this place first?” I complained. She just laughed and headed over to unpack the bags. With one last look outside, I turned and helped her with the ingredients.

“So, what’s for dinner?” I asked and pulled out a bunch of produce from my bag.

“Spaghetti.” She started opening drawers and pulled out a pot and a pan.

“Your mom’s famous spaghetti?” I asked hopefully.

“Would I make anything else?”

My mouth started salivating at the idea of homemade sauce. Her mother had never left the countryside of Wisconsin, yet she was the most phenomenal cook I had ever met. She learned everything she knew from flipping through cookbooks and reading cooking blogs. Anytime she made something for a potluck, it was gone in minutes. Eventually, she started bringing two of everything she made. I asked her once why she didn’t open her own restaurant or even train to be a chef at one of the prestigious ones in the city.

“I don’t want it to be a job. I love cooking for family and friends. I never want to lose the love I have for it,” she told me.

I understood. And maybe I was glad that we were able to keep her all to ourselves.

“Wipe your drool.” Kyler flung a towel at me, breaking me out of my daze. I laughed and grabbed the cutting board she was holding out to me. I’d done this enough times with her and her mom to know what my role was. I walked over to the knife block, grabbed a chopping knife, and got to work cutting the vegetables into small pieces.

“Mmmm. That smells amazing,” Noah said, walking into the kitchen and wrapping his arms around Kyler, who was busy stirring her sauce. “I knew you loved me, but I didn’t realize how much until now.” He took the spoon from Kyler and sampled the sauce. He licked his lips as she swatted his bicep and reclaimed the spoon.

“It
is
a special day. Haley moved in with me,” she said as she rinsed the spoon and returned to the stove.

I started laughing while folding bread dripping with butter and garlic inside a foil wrapper. “Ah, she loves me more.” I placed the foil on a cookie sheet and slid it into the oven, wiping my hands on the towel sticking out of my back pocket.

“Well, thank you Haley for
finally
moving here. I get to eat like a king tonight.” Noah grinned, before pulling me into a hug.

Noah and I had been friends since birth. Or that’s what our parents tell us. His mom and mine were best friends and were ecstatic to find out they were pregnant at the same time. Noah came into the world first, and I followed a day later. Our moms tell us we were destined to be best friends. They were slightly upset when Kyler moved into the neighborhood in the second grade, and Noah chased her for years before she finally agreed to go out with him our junior year of high school. Noah’s mom and mine were sad their romantic plans for us were derailed but quickly realized Kyler was the girl for him. I was perfectly content just being his friend. Now I got to hang out with my two best friends, and I wasn’t going to complain about that.