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talk to her, but I didn’t want to deal with Stone at the moment, either, so I considered her the lesser of two evils.
    “It’s my mom,” I said, pushing him away. “Gotta answer it.” I opened up the bathroom door and slipped out, leaving him stark naked behind me.
    I sighed in the hallway and then answered the call. “Hey, Mom.”
    “What took you so long to answer? It rang six times,” she barked, her voice clipped and obviously pissed. Great.
    “I was in the bathroom,” I admitted. I left out exactly what I was doing in there, though. “Is something wrong?”
    “Oh. Well okay then. How’s Nashville?” she asked, though I could tell she didn’t actually care.
    “It’s interesting,” I said, thinking about just how interesting it had been so far.
    “Is that all you’ve got to say about it?”
    I laughed. “Mom, it’s my first day here. Everything is fine
,
and I’m just getting settled in. You barely gave me any time to have anything to talk about.” Except for my smokin’ hot roommate.
    “Fine then,” she huffed. “Call me later this week, okay? And have something to say other than that you don’t have anything to say.” She hung up.
    I had to laugh at her brand of crazy. She always claimed to be busier than she was, as if to talk to anyone was a nuisance, taking up her precious time. I sighed, ducking back into my room. I needed a minute to process what happened in the bathroom. I went to toss my phone on the desk and noticed I had texts.
    I opened them up and smiled. The first was from Baker.
    Baker: Miss you kiddo. Hope things are well in Nashville. I’ll be coming through next week.
    He was so sweet. He did a good job keeping up with me, even if he wasn’t ever around. I was used to it, though. I looked at him at as older brother who checked in once in a while and I knew he cared about me as a little sister. Even with Rainey gone, he made sure to make an effort. His motorcycle trip had turned into him being a bit of a drifter, but I didn’t mind. I knew how hard my sister’s death was on him.
    The second message was from Mallory, who, despite being a new mom, still thought of me.
    Mallory: Checking in. How was your flight?
    I responded to each of them, letting them know how excited I was to be in Nashville, to get away for a little while, anyway. I knew it wasn’t permanent, but it was all so new, so fresh, and I couldn’t wait to get to know the city better.
    Baker responded first.
    Baker: Glad things are going good. You deserve to be happy.
    I sighed. Everyone I knew said that to me at some point or another. I knew it was true, but for a long time, I wanted to be sad. I wanted to live in the depressed state I’d been in for so long. Dad’s death had been hard on me, but Rainey’s was harder, probably because we’d gotten so close after Dad’s death. Not to mention I watched Rainey’s health deteriorate. I was helpless to do anything but hold her hand as she faded away to nothing.
    Just thinking about watching her die brought tears to my eyes. I blinked them away as best I could. With a deep breath, I wiped away the remaining drops off my cheeks and pushed all sad thoughts out of my head. After mourning so long, I realized how right Baker was. I deserved to be happy.

    Nine
     
    Stone
     
    I stood there, dumbfounded in the bathroom for a full five minutes before I was able to move or form a coherent thought. I didn’t fully understand what the hell just happened, but I wasn’t going to deny I enjoyed myself. The problem was, I enjoyed myself far too much. Ember was skilled and passionate. I wanted so much more from her.
    Her taking a phone call from her mother, of all people, was just a cop out. She was probably ashamed of her behavior. At the very least, I was willing to bet she regretted it. I wanted to regret it, wanted to say it was wrong or bad, but I couldn’t. We were explosive together, and we were practically strangers, something that struck me as more than a