Free Playing With Fire (Sweet Secrets #3) by Taylor Henderson

two houses rather than three. I was more than ready to start unloading all of my things into my new room at John’s house. Maybe I could also stop referring to it as “John’s house.” Now it was going to be my house too.
    It was strange that I was going to be living in a home with my mom and her boyfriend. Obviously he was much more than just a boyfriend—he’s the father of her youngest children, after all. I don’t quite know how best to refer to him. For now, he was just John to me. Maybe eventually he’d be my stepfather.
    I practically shuddered at the thought of that word. My dad was across the country, and I was here, moving in with a new father figure. It seemed wrong, like I was betraying him. I knew that logically I wasn’t, and even Lena told me that he wasn’t mad at me, but I felt like I was doing something wrong. After Lena and I video-chatted the other day, I called my dad the very next night. He sounded so happy to hear from me, and we spoke for a while. For the first time since my decision not to return to Virginia, we actually spoke about why I stayed. Normally when we talked we just went over the basics. “How’s school?” “How’s work?” Then we promised to talk soon and hung up. This time I apologized for not coming back, and he said that he understood why I didn’t. He missed me though, and hoped he would be able to see me soon. I sure hoped so.
    Mom lifted the box she’d finished taping up and let out a loud groan as she carried it toward the door. “Ella,” she said, “grab that last box, please.” She gestured with her head to a cardboard box that sat on top of my naked mattress. The room was bare to the bone, and all that was left was the furniture. It looked so sad without all of my stuff brightening it.
    I lifted the box from the bed and flipped off the light switch as I left the room. I adjusted the box in one arm and pulled the door shut with the other hand. It felt like I was closing the door on the past and taking a step into my future. In a week I would be celebrating my first Christmas with the twins, and I would hopefully be completely unpacked and moved into my new room.
    I held the box tightly to my chest as I descended the stairs to the foyer. The front door was propped open, much to my grandma’s dismay, so we could load the car more easily. I followed Mom to the trunk of her car and placed the box inside. John had given her one of his cars so she could get around easier. Once we were finished in the house, Mom went back to lock up, and we got in the car to head to our new home.
    As Mom backed out of the driveway, she glanced over at me and gave me a nervous smile. Her hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles flushed white.
    “You all right?” I asked, eyeing her hands and her pursed lips.
    Mom nodded and let out a breath of air that she was holding in. “Yeah,” she answered, flicking her eyes to me as we rolled to a stop at the end of the street.
    I raised an eyebrow skeptically. “What’s wrong?”
    She pressed on the gas a little too hard and the car jumped forward. As I held onto the door handle, I wished that I had offered to drive.
    “I’m just nervous, that’s all,” she answered after a moment. She let out a shaky laugh. “Crazy, huh?”
    I shook my head no, although I didn’t really understand why. “Why are you nervous?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe because this is a huge step that John and I are taking. It’s different when I was just spending the night there occasionally. Now I’m going to be living there. Both of us are. It’s huge.”
    She was right. It was a pretty big step for them in their relationship. “It’ll be fine.”
    “I know, but what if we get tired of each other since we’ll see each other every day?” She looked worried, and her forehead was scrunched up just above her eyebrows.
    I laughed lightly, shaking my head. “You guys won’t get tired of each other. John loves you, and