"God, I never thought I’d be thankful to Mary Cherry for anything, never mind so much," Lily said. She stopped to think about that for a minute.

"You know, I’m not sure I like the idea of being indebted to Mary Cherry," she added warily. Nicole laughed.

"Yeah, me either. It’s a scary thought."

"So where are you staying?" Lily asked as she rested her head on Nicole’s chest and Nicole ran her hands through the Latina’s hair. "There’s no room at my uncle’s or I’d suggest there."

"It’s OK. That’s the cool part I haven’t told you about. My eighteenth birthday is in two weeks. On that day I stand to inherit a rather substantial trust fund that my Nana left me. She figured I’d need it before my twenties given the way my mother is. So, I just have to stay under my mother’s radar until then. Once I have the money, I’ll start looking at buying a place for us. Because when I say substantial, Lil, I mean SUBSTANTIAL."

"A place for us?" Lily echoed in a small voice. Nicole stroked the side of Lily’s face.

"If you want that," she said, hooding her eyes and waiting for rejection. She was suddenly very insecure and Lily found it endearing.

"Of course I want that, Niki. I was just surprised," Lily clarified. Nicole’s face lit up.

"Then we’ll get a place, just us," the blonde declared happily.

"What about until then?" Lily asked. Nicole sighed.

"I guess I could stay at Mary Cherry’s," she said, her voice betraying how she really felt about that. As thankful as she was to the Texan for all her help, she still didn’t want to live with the slightly off balance girl. Lily’s eyes lit up as another idea occurred to her.

"I think the McPherson’s have a couch with your name on it."

**

"So you and Brooke have secretly been seeing each other? You sneaky little bitches," Nicole teased Sam at the McPherson’s kitchen table later that day. Jane had been more than willing to lend Nicole one of the spare rooms for the time being. Sam was rather indifferent to the idea but she was glad that Lily was so happy.