Page 39 of Keeping You

“Your old room is all ready for you two,” Mom says as I wheel the suitcases through the kitchen.

At the base of the stares, I pick up the bags and lug them up. I don’t have much time before Hannah realizes we’re sharing a room for the next week. Which also means there is likely only one bed.

Opening the door to my old bedroom and turning the light on, I try to look at the room from Hannah’s perspective. I have old hockey posters up and a Vancouver Cyclone’s flag hanging over my bed. The sheets are black and match the comforter. My old desk still sits against one wall beside the closet. The room is fairly empty of things. I didn’t leave much behind when I moved out between donating things and what I took with me.

When I turn around, Hannah is standing in the doorway looking around the room, and when her eyes land on me, she bites her lip. Fuck. I wish I was the one biting her lip. I want to hear her moan for me as I pull it between my teeth.

Her eyes bounce between me and the bed, and I can see the thoughts racing behind her eyes.

“I can sleep on the floor,” I say.

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “I can be an adult if you can. We can share the bed, put up a wall between the two sides.”

I look over to the bed. Sharing a bed with Hannah and not being able to pull her into me and hold her is going to be pure torture, but it will be better than sleeping on the floor. After weeks of sleeping on the couch, it will be nice to sleep in an actual bed again.

I nod and roll the bags up against a wall. “I’m just going to use the washroom and then we can go for that tour if you’re up for it.”

“Sounds good,” she says, and I make my way into the hallway.

When I return to the bedroom, I find Hannah sitting on the edge of the bed, evaluating the room.

“You ready?” I ask.

She nods and stands before following me downstairs.

I call out, “Taking Hannah on a tour,” as we slip back into our shoes and leave the house.

“You always been into hockey?” Hannah asks as we walk towards the garden.

Micky follows us, sniffing around and doing his own thing.

“Yeah. My dad got me into it at a young age. It hooked me, and I never let it go. I played through high school, and when I got to university, I played on an intramural team.”

She nods. When we near the large planters full of strawberries, Hannah sucks in a shocked breath behind me. I turn and see her staring at the garden, jaw dropped and eyes wide. I chuckle. Growing up with all of this was normal for me. I forget Hannah grew up in the city, meaning she didn’t get to see large amounts of fruits and vegetables growing so close to home.

I walk over to the closest bush and pull the biggest ripe strawberry I can find and walk over to her. She watches me hesitantly as I lift it to her mouth. She licks her lips before she opens and takes a bite of the strawberry. The moan she releases as she pulls away goes straight to my cock. Her tongue trails across her lips, picking up the stray strawberry juice. I hold back a groan of my own.

I bite into the remaining strawberry, allowing my teeth to slowly sink into it before pulling away the stem and throwing it into the dirt below the bush. Hannah’s eyes are locked on my lips, and I follow her lead, licking them slowly just as she did. She holds her breath as she watches. I lick the remaining strawberry juice of my fingers, and she shakes her head and turns to face the garden again.

I follow behind her as she examines the plants. She picks at the blueberries and raspberries as we pass them and stops to look at the lettuce, cucumber, and peas. When we’ve made our way through the garden, I take her towards the pond. It’s just past the strip of trees that separates the garden from the pasture the cows used to graze. It’s a perfect place in the summer. During the peak of the day, part of the pond is covered in shade when you want to escape the heat while the other is in direct line of the sun. You can spend the whole day out here if you wanted to.

The minute she spots the water, Hannah is running to the edge and toeing off her shoes before stepping into the water. I sit in the grass, Micky lying beside me as I watch Hannah stand in the water, head tipped back enjoying the fresh air. Out here, it’s just the sound of your thoughts, the flow of the stream not far from here, and the birds in the trees.

When Hannah turns and looks at me, it’s with a smile spread wide across her face and no stress or worry in her expression. It’s in that moment I vow to do everything in my power to make sure she spends as much of her life feeling like she does right now.

CHAPTER 15

Hannah

The tour around the property with Grayson was actually relaxing. I never realized how much being in the city stressed me out. The constant noise of cars and people and the claustrophobic feeling of being on sidewalks and buildings packed with people. You can’t do anything in the city without being surrounded by noise.

On the walk back to the house, Grayson asks, “So, what do you think?”

“It’s gorgeous. It must have been so nice to grow up out here. All the fresh air and space to just be free.” I sigh.

This is somewhere I’d love to bring my future kids. Somewhere they can run around and I wouldn’t need to be constantly worried about them running into the middle of the road and getting hit by a car. Thinking about kids is a stab in the gut. I’m so far off from it that I have no idea why I’m thinking about it.

“Yeah, it was nice, for the most part. Having everyone know everything about your life, not so much, but we knew that wewere safe, and we had more freedom than I’d expect city kids had growing up.”

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