The entire house shook, causing Jillian to fly down the stairs, worry etched on her face. Something had obviously fallen, she just didn’t know what. “What was that? What happened?”
Shay and Laura looked like they’d collapsed onto the couch, Shay sprawled like a rag doll, Laura with her legs hanging over the arm.
“Your couch weighs a fucking ton. That’s what happened.” Laura groaned. “I think I broke my spine.”
“Good thing your girlfriend’s a doctor, then,” Angie commented as she came around the corner from the kitchen to grab another box, looking only slightly frazzled.
“You are due for your rabies shot, aren’t you?” Jillian teased.
“Oh, har har,” Laura said. “By the way, why don’t you guys buy a house and move in the dead of fucking winter? That’s a good idea.” She rubbed her hands together.
“You know what?” Angie said. “I think we will. And you know what else? We’ll ask our closest, dearest friends to help us.”
“And they will. Because they’re giant suckers.” Shay winked at Jillian, then hauled herself off the couch and swatted at Laura. “Come on, baby. Just a little bit more left in the truck.”
“I think my ears might have frozen off. Let me know if you see them on the ground outside.”
“I told you to wear a hat,” Shay scolded her.
“I’ll order the pizza in twenty minutes,” Angie called to them as they headed out the front door. “Promise.”
Jillian noticed the big furniture truck pulling up out front. “Honey,” she called into the house. “I think the bed’s here.”
Angie gave a little girl squeal as she came up next to Jillian.
A big, burly man with shoulders as wide as both girls standing side by side knocked his snowy boots on the front steps, then came up to the door. “Ms. Clark?”
“That’s me,” Jillian said.
“I’ve got a queen-size bed and box springs?”
“Yup.”
“Can you show me where it’s going?” He bent to untie his boots.
“Oh, no,” Angie said. “Please. Don’t worry about that. We’ve been tracking in and out all day.”
They led him into the house to the stairs. Before he even took a step up, he made a sound in his throat and shook his head.
“What’s wrong?” Jillian asked.
He took his tape measure out and measured the stairway, the wall, the ceiling. He continued to shake his head and finally announced, “The box spring won’t fit.”
“What?” Angie looked crestfallen, though her voice hitched up a notch.
“See this angle here?” He pointed to the space between the ceiling and the half-wall that formed one side of the stairway. “The angle’s too extreme. Box springs don’t bend like a mattress.”
Jillian glanced at Angie, whose eyes were filling with tears. She always cried when she was frustrated or stressed, and moving had proven very stressful. Jillian squeezed her forearm and said to the man, “What are our options?”
“Well, I’d suggest you order a split foundation. That’s a box spring, just in two pieces instead of one.”
“Can we do that with you?”
“Sure. Could take up to four or five days to get it.”
Angie made a sound in her throat. Jillian squeezed her arm harder. “But you can bring the mattress in right now, yes?”
“Sure can.”
“Perfect. Let’s do that.”
He gave one curt nod and went outside to get the mattress.
Taking Angie’s chin in her hand, Jillian looked her in the eyes.
“Baby, it’s fine. No worries. We can sleep on the mattress until the box springs get here. Okay?”
Angie cleared her throat and nodded. “Okay. Sorry. I’m freaking a bit.”
“I know.” Crisis averted, Jillian kissed her quickly on the lips and went to see if Shay and Laura needed more help. Another car was pulling up out front. “Looks like your parents are here, sweetie.”
Angie went through the kitchen to open the side door for her mother and father, Jillian right behind her. “Hey, you guys.”
“Angelina,” Angie’s father said in his signature, singsong way. Nobody said Angie’s name quite like her dad. “We come bearing gifts.”
“Oh, my god, Pop,” Angie said over her mother’s shoulder as she hugged her and sniffed the air. “Is that your pizza?”
“You know your father,” Alice said. “He was afraid you’d order from those Parelli brothers around the corner. You know how he feels about them.” She turned, and held her arms open to Jillian.
“They wouldn’t know how to make a good pizza sauce if my own grandmother taught them,” Joe muttered, his disdain for the local pizza chain always clear.
“Your timing couldn’t be better,” Jillian commented, her voice muffled by Alice’s shoulder. “Our box springs won’t fit up the stairs, and our movers are starving. Food will definitely help everybody calm down a little bit. Just”—she slid boxes and papers and garbage around on the counter to make room—“here. Put it here.”
Alice came up behind the two of them and held out a bottle of champagne. “This is for you to celebrate. It’s not for everybody. Just the two of you. Later.”
Jillian’s heart warmed, and Angie kissed her mother on the cheek. “Thanks, Mama.”
“I’ll put it in the fridge.”
“Doctor Jackson,” Joe called as he headed into the living room. “I thought you were above all of this. How did they rope you in?”
Jillian smiled, watching as Angie’s mother dodged the bed guys and joined her husband in the living room, to talk to the women bringing in the final boxes from the truck. A surge of pride and thanks washed through her. The house was small but adorable, and just right for her and Angie. Their furniture was mismatched, their dishes were all hand-me-downs from family members, and their hodgepodge of blue and yellow towels didn’t come close to matching the green and beige bathroom. But the house was theirs. They were moving into their own place. Together. They’d been squished into Angie’s tiny one-bedroom for nearly a year, and there just hadn’t been enough room. Angie wanted a bigger kitchen. Jillian needed a place for her art supplies.
“I can’t believe how fast this has all happened,” Angie’s mother was saying as Jillian tuned back into the conversation. “It seems like you just decided to move yesterday.”
“Two months,” Angie clarified. “Started looking, found this house, put in an offer, closed. All in the space of two months. I can’t believe my head hasn’t exploded clean off my body by now.”
“Neither can I,” Jillian agreed with a wink.
“It was utter insanity.”
“But it’s the perfect house for us and worth all the stress. Admit it.”
“I admit it,” Angie said with feigned reluctance, her arm around Jillian’s shoulders.
The house was more than they had hoped for. Small, only two bedrooms, but gorgeous hardwood floors, gumwood trim, an enclosed front porch, and a master bedroom with a vaulted ceiling and skylights. With Jillian’s regular teacher income and Angie’s commission (getting better and better the more sales she made), things might be a little tight to start, but the two of them would be okay.
Forty-five minutes later, delivery guys gone and a lone mattress on the floor upstairs, the six of them sat in the living room, paper plates of Joe’s homemade pizza in their hands, bottles of Bud Light all around.
“Thank you all so much for your help,” Jillian said, holding up her beer. “We so appreciate it, and we couldn’t have done it without you. We owe you.”
They all held up their bottles.
“And we will collect,” Laura said. As the crew chuckled, she added, “And Mr. R.? This pizza? To die for.”
“You remember that the next time you want to order from Parelli’s,” Joe told her.
Angie shook her head with a grin, watching her parents, while Jillian watched her, searching for words but unable to describe the love and thanks in her heart at that moment. Emotion clogged her throat, and she swallowed it down.
“Jillian,” Alice asked, breaking the spell. “Have your parents seen the house yet?”
Jillian shook her head. “No. Not yet. Maybe next week.” Alice nodded, but made no comment.
They finished up their meal, the time peppered with much laughter. Afterwards, Joe offered to take the moving truck back so Angie and Jillian could rest and Shay and Laura could be on their way.
“You’re the best, Pop,” Angie said, hugging her father. “Thank you.”
“I can’t believe my little Angelina owns her own home now,” he said, and the seriousness in his voice was a testament to the emotion he was feeling. “You kids are all growing up so fast.” He reached out and pulled Jillian into the hug. “My girls.”
“Don’t go getting all sappy on them, Joe,” Alice said, grabbing his shoulder. “Leave the poor girls alone. They’re tired.” Over his shoulder, she winked at them. “I’ll be over tomorrow to help you with the kitchen.”
Angie nodded. “Thanks, Mama.”
“Thanks, Mama,” Jillian echoed. Alice’s grin widened, and she patted Jillian’s cheek.
Jillian and Angie stood on the porch and waved as everybody pulled away. Then Jillian closed the front door and turned to Angie.
“So. Here we are,” she said. “Alone.”
“Finally,” Angie said, opening her arms, then wrapping them around Jillian. “In our house.”
Jillian smiled, placed a kiss on the side of Angie’s neck. “Doesn’t it feel weird?”
“It kind of does. I mean, I feel like a grown-up now.”
“That’s exactly it,” Jillian said. “I feel like this is the final step from old teenager to real adult.” They stood quietly in each other’s arms. “We own a house.”
Jillian pulled her head back to look at Angie. “I think it’s time to pop that champagne.”
They grabbed the bottle, two plastic cups, and headed up to the bedroom. In the doorway, they stood looking down at the mattress. When their gazes met, they each burst into laughter.
“Just our luck, huh?” Jillian said, shaking her head.
“I’m getting some sheets.” They quickly threw some bedding on and pulled their down comforter out of the garbage bag it was packed in.
Looking down at the bed, Jillian said, “Well, it’s bigger than that double we had at your apartment.”
Angie flopped down on it. “And more comfortable.”
“That’s because it’s not fifty years old like the other one.” Jillian sat next to her and opened the champagne.
“Don’t throw that cork away,” Angie said, taking it from her.
“What are you going to do with it?” Jillian poured two cups.
“You’ll see.”
Jillian held up her cup. “To us and our new home.”
Angie looked into her eyes and said softly, “I love you.” They kissed sweetly, then sipped.
Jillian lay back on the mattress, letting her eyes wander across the vaulted ceiling and enjoy all the knotty pine, and big wood beams. Skylights let in a soft moonlight, and Jillian breathed a contented sigh, knowing this beautifully crafted house belonged to her now. “When we first looked at this house, and we came up here, do you know what my first thought was?”
Angie stretched out next to her. “What?”
“That I wanted nothing more than to make love to you under these skylights.”
“And now?”
“I want to make love to you under these skylights.”
Angie cuddled close and pulled the comforter over them.
They fell asleep.