Three Months Later
~Noel~
“I don’t know what to do with this.” I sit on my haunches in the middle of my office in my condo and sigh. I’m sweaty. I’m tired.
My muscles hurt.
Who would have thought that moving was so freaking exhausting?
Reed offered to hire movers for me, but I really needed to go through everything myself. Purge what I don’t need, and safely pack what I’m taking with me to his house.
Our house.
The house with the killer view of Puget Sound.
He’s even letting me redecorate the whole place, which is awesome, considering I can’t stand that stark white anymore.
“Do you use it?” Reed asks, pointing to the box in my hands.
“No, but someone gave it to me. So I should keep it, right?”
“Who gave it to you?”
“I have no idea.”
He pauses in packing my paperbacks and laughs at me. “Honey, I think if you can’t remember who gave it to you, and you don’t use it anymore, you can get rid of it.”
“Okay.” I blow a piece of hair out of my face and reach for the next thing. “I’m donating almost everything in here. All I really use is my laptop and sketchpads.”
“That’s not surprising,” he says. “Sidebar. Is this book as dirty as it looks from the cover?”
I glance over to see what he’s holding, then smile. “Dirtier.”
“Maybe I should start reading you bedtime stories,” he says.
“That could be interesting.” I laugh and stand, stretching and pushing against my aching lower back. “I wasn’t made for manual labor. This is torture.”
“I offered—”
“Yeah, yeah.” I wave him off. “Moving is hard. Maybe I’ll just keep this place and move a little at a time each day until it’s empty.”
“No way,” he says as he follows me out of the office to my kitchen. I pull a bottle of water out of the fridge and pass it to him, then take another out for myself. “I’m excited to have you in my bed every single night. This whole back and forth game we’ve been playing for the past few months is getting old.”
“We are putting a lot of miles on our cars,” I concede. “And your condo already sold, so we might as well sell this one, too.”
“You haven’t actually slept here since just after Christmas,” he reminds me. “Sell it and invest the money you’ll make.”
“You’re always so practical.” I push up on my toes to kiss his chin. “It’s just one of the million reasons I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Come on, we better get this done.”
“I have something to do first,” he says, making me frown.
“We have to pick up Piper in an hour, and I still have to—”
“Stop talking,” he says with a laugh and leads me to the couch. We sit, and he suddenly looks nervous.
What’s wrong now?
“I’ve been thinking,” he says.
“If you’ve changed your mind about me moving in with you, I might have to smack you, because we’ve already moved half my stuff.”
“No.” He takes my left hand in his and kisses my knuckles. “No, you’re stuck with me until the end of time, Noel.”
“Okay.”
“I’ve been thinking that I want to make it more official, though. I love you. So much that sometimes it hurts. You’ve brought peace, comfort, and love to my house, and I’m forever grateful. Piper adores you.”
“Did I tell you she asked me when she could call me Mommy?”
“She wasn’t supposed to say anything,” he mutters. “Marry us.”
He pulls a ring out of his jeans’ pocket. The diamond sparkles in the light.
“Marry us and make us the happiest two people in the world.”
“Three,” I reply. “We’ll be the happiest three people in the world.”
“Until we have more babies,” he murmurs as he kisses me. “Is that a yes?”
“Yes! Oh my gosh, yes.”
He buries his face in my neck, placing a kiss in that spot that makes me weak in the knees, and takes a deep breath.
“Are you okay?” I ask him.
“I knew I was nervous, and excited, and ready to ask you to be mine forever,” he says as he pulls back to look me in the eyes. “But the wonder I feel every time I’m with you? It’s unlike anything else I’ve ever felt in my life.”
I smile and lean into him. I know we need to work a little more, and Piper will be expecting us soon. But for right now, I want to revel in this moment with him, and share in the wonder of our love for each other.
* * * *
Also from 1001 Dark Nights and Kristen Proby, discover Shine With Me, Soaring With Fallon, Tempting Brooke, No Reservations, Easy With You, and Easy For Keeps.