Welcome Words: a Something More short (the Words Duet Book 3) Read online

  Welcome Words

  a Something More short

  TT Kove

  Welcome Words © 2019 by TT Kove

  Published by Arctic Circle Press

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission, except for in the purpose of reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction and as such all characters and situations are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual people, place, or events is coincidental.

  Welcome Words is set in Norway, and as such uses British English throughout.

  Contents

  About

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Afterword

  Also by TT Kove

  About the Author

  About

  Finally!

  Our year apart is almost over. It’s time for me to move home, for the summer at least. And in another couple of weeks, Andreas will be home as well. It should go quickly now—we’ve already been apart for almost a year, after all—but it really doesn’t. For every day that passes, time seems to slow down. At least I have my friends around to help pass the time, but not even that helps much when all I want in the entire world is Andreas back at my side.

  Chapter 1

  ‘That’s it.’

  Leo rubbed his hands together as he stood back to look at our flat. Or not ours... not anymore. We were moving out. We were moving back home.

  Finally.

  ‘Yeah.’

  It’d been a nice flat, but I hadn’t had a very good year. I’d gotten to know my brother better, which was good. I’d made a good friend in Viktor. But now I was finally moving back to the place I considered to be home.

  It would be my home for the rest of the summer. Before Andreas and I moved to Oslo.

  I glanced at Leo, only to find him staring at me.

  ‘What?’ I asked, self-conscious.

  He only shook his head. But he was smiling.

  ‘Try to show a little sadness, would you?’ He laughed as he said it, so he couldn’t be all that serious.

  ‘I can’t. I’m too happy to leave.’ I turned into the hall, which was completely bare except for our last suitcases and boxes.

  Leo followed and we carried all our stuff to his car. It filled up quickly, but we left nothing behind. I wasn’t coming back here again, and I didn’t think he particularly wanted to either.

  ‘It’s been a good four years here.’ Leo gazed around us, particularly up towards the biggest mountaintop that surrounded us and at what we could see of the town further down.

  ‘But you’ve got better things to look forward to now,’ I reminded him as I got into the passenger seat and buckled up. I didn’t need to look around. I was tired of this place and all I wanted was to finally go home.

  He must’ve seen my hurry, or he was in one himself because he got into the driver’s seat.

  ‘When’re you taking your licence?’

  ‘When I can afford it.’ I shrugged. ‘So, not anytime soon.’

  The car purred to life.

  ‘I get that,’ Leo said as he pressed the gas down. ‘I worked my arse off to pay for my licence.’

  ‘I’ve got to work my arse off this summer to afford to live in Oslo.’ I wasn’t looking forward to stocking shelves in the damn supermarket again. ‘My driver’s licence has to take a back seat. It’s not like we need a car down there anyway.’ Public transportation was the way to go in the capital.

  ‘Is Andreas working this summer?’

  ‘I don’t think so.’ Also something I didn’t look forward to. When he finally came home, I still had to work. ‘He gets a small salary from the military, after all. I don’t think he’s going to bother to get a job for only a month.’

  Leo nodded to that.

  He was driving us through the town now and I stretched, a smile stretching across my lips.

  ‘Happy?’

  ‘Yeah.’ There was no use pretending otherwise. It would be a total lie. ‘There’s still three weeks until Andreas is home, but being back there, living there again... it feels so much closer, you know?’

  ‘I don’t.’ He grinned wryly. ‘But I see your point.’

  ‘You wouldn’t. You’ll get to see your boyfriend in a matter of hours.’ I wasn’t jealous of that at all.

  His grin widened into a full-blown smile.

  ‘That I will.’

  ‘Don’t be so smug about it,’ I tried for teasing. I wasn’t sure I quite managed it.

  ‘I’m not smug!’ He laughed, so maybe I had managed it. ‘Just happy.’

  ‘And you said you’d never move back there.’

  ‘Yeah, I have to retract that statement.’ He chuckled.

  I continued to watch him. He’d been so happy ever since Christmas. I’d never noticed before that, how he hadn’t seemed truly happy. Not until I saw him actually happy. He was good at pretending, especially when we didn’t know each other all that well.

  It was nice to see him happy. He deserved it. I was happy that he had someone who made him happy. Even if that someone was my boyfriend’s uncle. Not that I’d ever thought that weird, but other people might see it that way.

  Leo and Thomas fit well together.

  They weren’t at all like Andreas and me. We always seemed to have this sexual chemistry between us. Leo and Thomas... well, if I didn’t know they were together, I never would’ve guessed. I would’ve (as I had before Leo told me) only thought they were friends.

  ‘So what’s it going to be like to have the whole summer off?’ I asked as I turned my head the other way to watch the landscape fly by.

  ‘Not sure. I always used to work every summer, but now I’ve got over two months of no work ahead of me, I’m not quite sure what to do with myself. Also, I worry about money. I don’t have that much saved up.’

  ‘You won’t need to spend much though,’ I pointed out. ‘No rent, or electricity. Probably not food either.’ Thomas paid for all of that. I’d wanted to pay for me when he let me move in (as much as I could afford), but he wouldn’t have any of it.

  ‘Be a kept man?’ He joked. ‘Nah. I want us to be equal, you know? I can deal with it for the summer, but once I start work, I’m going to pay too.’

  He had a job waiting for him in the middle of August. He was going to work in the field he’d been studying for four years; social worker. He had a one-year contract for now as a stand-in for a woman who was going on maternity leave in September or something like that.

  ‘I can understand that.’ I chewed on my bottom lip. Andreas and I would have to live off student loans. And of course we were moving to Oslo, the most expensive city in the whole damn country. We’d be living frugally for a while, that was for sure. Hence why I had to work, to save up a little bugger in case things got too tight for us.

  And Andreas had his buffer from the military.

  We should be fine.

  But it was good to be prepared.

  ‘What’s Viktor doing this summer?’ Leo asked.

  ‘He talked about maybe going home to Sweden for a while.’ He hadn’t seemed particularly keen on it though. ‘I thought maybe I could ask Thomas if it would be okay if I asked him to stay with us for a bit. He’s all alone here now, and he has to be out of his dorm soon.’

  ‘I’m sure he won’t mind. There’s a room available, after all.’

  I cast him a wry glance. That was the room I’d thought he’d occupied ever since Christmas—only to find out he’d spent more time in Thomas’s room than the one who’d been designated to him.

 
‘I’m happy for you, you know.’

  He glanced quickly at me in surprise before focusing back on the road.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Just wanted to get it out there. In case I haven’t said it.’

  ‘I’m pretty sure you have.’

  ‘Then it bears repeating.’

  The speed limit changed and he sped up, changing gears as he did so.

  I could tell he was embarrassed by what I’d said though because his neck had turned a little redder and he cleared his throat instead of saying anything else.

  ‘I just wanted you to know,’ I said, hoping to give him an exit. Or tell him without telling him that he didn’t have to say anything.

  ‘I’m going to be happy for you when you figure out what to do with your life,’ he said instead, changing everything over to me.

  ‘Yeah,’ I sighed, resting my cheek in the palm of my hand as I gazed outside. ‘So will I.’ My mood made a nosedive. I didn’t have a clue what to do with my life. ‘So will I.’

  No one was home.

  ‘Thomas must’ve been held up at work.’ Leo checked his phone. ‘He should’ve been home an hour ago.’

  Considering Thomas was a doctor and worked at the local hospital, there were endless possibilities of what could’ve held him up.

  ‘Want to go buy some food?’ I asked, stomach rumbling. ‘I’m starving.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  We carried our stuff inside before we left, so Leo wouldn’t be in danger of being pulled over for a full car. He drove us down to one of the many kebab shops in town.

  My phone buzzed as we sat at a table, waiting for our food.

  Andreas: Hey, babe, Got home safely?

  Me: Yeah. Out for food now.

  ‘Andreas?’ Leo asked, with a grimace that told me loud and clear he was trying not to laugh at me.

  I didn’t even mind that he could tell that from the smile splitting my face because it was my boyfriend. Even busy in the military, he took time out of his day to text me.

  Andreas: Good! Miss u. Wish I was home already.

  Me: I wish you were here too. The rooms too big and lonely without you.

  Andreas: Soon!

  ‘I don’t even want to know.’ Leo shook his head.

  ‘What?’ What was he on about?

  ‘What you’re texting to each other.’ He motioned to my phone. ‘I don’t want to know.’

  If we had been texting anything dirty, I would feel embarrassed about that. As we hadn’t, I didn’t, and so I could tease.

  ‘Lucky for you, you don’t get to know.’

  He laughed.

  My phone buzzed again and I unlocked the screen immediately without actually reading the excerpt on the front screen. It wasn’t Andreas this time though, but that didn’t mean my smile faded any.

  Sarah: I might’ve done something stupid! I don’t know... Maybe???

  Me: What did you do?

  Sarah: I was just Skyping with Viktor. He mentioned how he’d probably have to go back to Sweden for most of the summer, you know? So I asked him to come here. To me! For the ENTIRE summer! OMG.

  I blinked, surprised. Then I grinned.

  ‘I don’t have to ask Thomas about Viktor.’

  ‘Hmm?’ Leo looked up from his own phone.

  ‘Sarah just asked Viktor to stay with her. For the entire summer.’

  Leo chuckled.

  ‘They’re getting serious then?’

  ‘They were heading this way at Easter, but they haven’t seen each other since.’ Easter holiday with Andreas, Sarah, Viktor and Peter had been interesting. Sarah and Peter hadn’t been in such close proximity since they broke up and now Sarah had a new love interest. It’d been awkward... but it’d been a nice trip nonetheless.

  ‘Good for them.’ Leo looked back down at his phone.

  Maybe he was texting Thomas. He always got a little preoccupied then.

  ‘Yeah. It is.’ I was glad Sarah was moving on. And that it was with Viktor, my friend, was even better. I didn’t have to get to know him since I already did. ‘I just hope this’ll be good for them.’

  Considering they’d had a sort of long-distance relationship... if it could even be called a relationship when they hadn’t defined it. To find themselves in close proximity all summer... it could definitely make or break a relationship. I hoped it wouldn’t end badly.

  I thought they fit well together.

  They fancied each other a lot too.

  Our food was called, and after paying, we got back into Leo’s car and headed home. I wasn’t leaving the house anymore today, that was for sure. I was going to stay in and bask in the feeling of finally being home, of not dreading having to go back to school again once the weekend was over.

  Thomas’s car was in the driveway and Leo parked behind it. He got out a little quicker than he had earlier.

  I chuckled to myself as I gingerly carried the bag of food with me inside.

  ‘Hey.’ Thomas stood in the kitchen doorway as we made our way inside. He seemed to be all smiles today. Either he’d had a good day at work or he was happy we were home. It could be both, but I thought it was the latter.

  Leo hugged him—and that was actually the first time I’d seen them touch. Come to think of it, they didn’t really touch each other at all, not while they were around me, at least.

  I looked away quickly as this felt like a private moment between the two of them. It made it feel even more private by the fact that they never touched around me, so this felt like... a milestone or something. A bit awkward too, perhaps.

  ‘We’ve got food,’ Leo said then.

  That we did. And the longer we stood around in the hall, the colder it would get.

  We settled at the kitchen table to eat, all three of us. Leo had made sure it was enough for Thomas to have his fill too.

  My phone vibrated again and I fished it out of my pocket.

  Sarah: Alex! Answer me dammit. I can see that you’ve seen my messages. Am I making a huge mistake here?

  Me: You’re not! Come on, it’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it.

  Sarah: Easy for you to say.

  Me: When’s he coming?

  Sarah: The day after tomorrow!

  She added a shocked-faced emoji after that.

  I chuckled to myself as I typed in an answer.

  Me: You two sure move quick.

  Sarah: It’s all me. OMG. I sound desperate, don’t I?

  A beat of silence where I thought about what to answer and then another message ticked in from her.

  Sarah: Can we meet? Are you home? Please say you’re home!

  Me: I am. Sure, we can meet. Just got to finish my dinner first.

  Sarah: Delish in 30? It’s a new cafe and coffee shop downtown! Supposed to be really good.

  I sent a thumbs up and that was that.

  Seemed I was leaving the house, after all.

  Oh well, it’ll be worth it to meet Sarah.

  I hadn’t seen her since Easter, after all.

  Leo and Thomas were already halfway through their food as they talked about summer plans.

  ‘The house needs new paint,’ Thomas was saying. ‘I bought twenty litres of paint the other day, so now all I got to do is find the time to paint the bloody thing. And wait for nice weather.’

  ‘Summer’s real shit so far,’ Leo said. ‘It seems to rain every other day.’

  ‘According to the forecasts, it’s not about to let up anytime soon.’ Thomas sighed, then grinned. ‘Then again, it changes every day so maybe we’ll have a week of sun come tomorrow instead of the week of rain they promised.’

  Leo chuckled.

  ‘I’m looking more and more forward to Spain.’

  I tuned them out, not all that interested in painting the house or their holiday trip to Spain. I wished them luck and happy holidays and all that, but my mind revolved around the fact that Andreas would be home soon. And before right, in half an hour, what Sarah had to say.

  Chap
ter 2

  ‘This feels so right.’ Sarah leant over the table and grabbed my hands. ‘Tell me I’m not being a stupid, lovesick, naive twat.’

  ‘You’re not being a stupid, lovesick, naive twat,’ I repeated dutifully.

  She dropped my hands with a snorted laugh and leant back again.

  ‘Tell me like you mean it.’

  ‘I do.’ I held my hands up, palms out. ‘I do mean it. I don’t think you’re being stupid or lovesick or naive. I think it’s great.’

  Her eyes narrowed as she tried to figure out if I was lying or not.

  I wasn’t.

  ‘I think you two are good together.’

  ‘But we’ve only actually met twice.’ She licked her lips nervously. They were sort of... sparkly, so she must have lipgloss on.

  ‘But you’ve been speaking together practically every day,’ I pointed out. ‘This is the next step, isn’t it?’

  She laughed and waggled her eyebrows.

  ‘We did have sex first, like you and Andreas. But we did not move in together right away.’

  ‘Oh, come on, we didn’t.’ I glanced around, self-conscious, hoping no one had heard what she’d said.

  ‘Yes, you did. But really.’ She folded her arms on the table and bent forward again. ‘I’ve been thinking. Did I tell you I didn’t apply for a school in Trondheim for the next year?’

  ‘No.’ I frowned.

  ‘Huh. I guess I only told Viktor then.’ Her voice fell. ‘But anyway. I applied for school in Oslo.’

  ‘Oslo?’ Where Andreas and I were headed. And also, not at all coincidental, I bet, where Viktor was headed. ‘Did you now?’

  ‘Yes. We agreed on that. You know, live together once we get in and all, which we both will.’ She sounded so sure. ‘And I was thinking since you and Andreas are moving down too and Oslo’s really expensive... maybe we could all find a flat together? It would certainly make the rent a lot cheaper, shared between the four of us. We don’t get that much to live off of in student loans, after all.’