Page 132 of Feels Like Home

He grabs me roughly, bringing us chest to chest, whipped cream smearing betweenus.

“Now we match,” he says in a lowvoice.

“Hmmm. Whatever are we gonna do aboutit?”

The wicked gleam in his eyes proves to me that he knows exactly what he intends to do about it, and his plans match nicely withmine.

We don’t make it back to his house for a few hours. My stuff is far from packed, but I know there’s time for that. When I walk up to Andy’s house, a big handmade Welcome Home sign hangs on the entrance door greetingme.

Beneath the sign, stand the boys and acrib.

I look at Andy and scrunch myeyebrows.

He scrubs a hand along the back of his neck andshrugs.

“So, uh, a few nights ago I went for a drive. Needed to clear my head. I ended up at yourplace.”

“What? But you didn’t comein?”

“No. I realized that you deserved more than me showing up in the middle of the night. So, I called Barrett, told him I was heading into the shop to go through lumber. He asked why, and I told him he’d find out soon enough.” He smirks because he knows that Barrett was probably dying to find out the reason. “I brought it home and…” he gestures to thecrib.

“Wait, youmadethis?”

“Idid.”

“In… a day?” I exclaim because it’s… well, it’s beautiful. Andperfect.

It’s stained a dark walnut finish and has detail carved into the head and foot of the crib. I walk closer and notice the detail isn’t just some random scrolling. It’s an S. ForSimpson.

“But, how did you…” My voice trails off, and my tears don’t even have time to threaten spilling over. They just make a fast trail down mycheeks.

“I had a little help,” he says with ashrug.

I look at the boys who are both beaming withpride.

“You did this?” I ask, my voice barely above awhisper.

“We all did. They stained and varnished it. It was a teameffort.”

I don’t even know what tosay.

A few days ago, I felt alone. And now? Now I have more family than I could have ever dreamedof.

“Thank you,” I tell the three men in my life, and it doesn’t feel like enough, but by the looks on their faces, itis.

Andy pulls me back outside and kisses me softly on the lips, his fingers skimming through myhair.

“I love you,” he says against my lips, and I whisper the words back to him that I know we’ll tell each other for the rest of ourlives.

And when Andy picks me up to walk me over the threshold, I know that with him it would always feel likehome.

36

Andy

“Iseriously havenoidea what you’re talking about,” I lie. I glance at Barrett and notice he’s sporting a shit-eating grin, so I quickly lookaway.

“Oh really? You have no idea,huh?”

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