Page 238 of New York Love Stories: Vol. 2

I chuckle and slip down the mattress, rolling to my side to face her. “Sorry.” Laughter aside, I gulp, and just tell her, ripping it off like a Band-Aid. “I bought a house.”

“What?” Her body bolts upright, and she looks down on me. “What do you mean, you bought a house, Jackson?”

I’m debating if I should stay lying down tucked under the covers or sit up and face the wrath of Marlow. I stay under the covers. “It’s a good investment and a good transition?—”

“Transition to what?”

“Transition into the next stage in life.”

“Jackson,” she huffs and falls back on the mattress. “You make it sound like we’re heading into retirement when I just turned thirty, like three weeks ago.”

“Right, but we’ve talked about kids, for instance. Where would they go? Sure, they can have the office, but then where will we go? I know you don’t want me at the office all the time, so I need a place to work at home. You need a place where you can get stuff done without always being at the gallery.”

I know I’m about to get a barrage of reasons for why this is a terrible idea and how I should’ve never done this without asking. And she’d be right on all of those rationales. But she’s for the here and now, our present life. I am planning for our future.

Before she has a chance to say anything, I continue, “I know you like this apartment, and we haven’t even lived here that long together, but?—”

“I just moved from the other one, and now you want me to move to a new place. When do we get to settle?”

“That’s what I’m trying to do. That’s what this place will be for us. It’s a place with six bedrooms, an open kitchen, nice livingroom space, and a game room or it could be a screening room for your dad’s films. And wait till you see the primary bathroom.”

“What if I hate the bathroom?”

“Then we remodel. I don’t care if we tear it all out. I know you’re going to love this place if you just keep an open mind.” I hear her taking a deep breath, a sign I’ve learned that this means she’s not giving in. But she is giving me a chance. And that’s all I need.

“Okay, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll keep an open mind if you let me change anything I want.”

“Done deal. I already knew you’d change everything.”

“Huh.” She snuggles closer. I wrap my arm around her, holding her to me. A few breaths pass before she asks, “Where is it?”

Finally, she’s on the hook. This is the best part and what I’ve been dying to share with her. “You know how you always say it’s amazing that Natalie and Tatum live next door to each other, and how awesome it would be to live next to your best friend?”

Shoving off my chest, she hovers over me. “You did not?”

For a second, I can’t tell if that’s a good reaction or bad, so I say it slowly while nodding to help break the news, “Idid.”

The lights drifting in through the windows is enough to see her eyes go wide. She tackles me into a hug. “I can’t believe you bought the house next to Cammie and Cade.”

Oh, shit. . . wrong best friends as new neighbors. “Wait.”

She pushes up again, but in her happiness, she dips to kiss me, and then asks, “What?”

“I, uh . . .” Shit, I don’t know how to fix this. Maybe I should go to Brooklyn and see if the neighbors will sell their house to me.

She swats me and then falls in a giggling mess to the bed next to me. “I’m kidding, St. James.” But then she pops up so fast thather hair falls from that twisted little fabric. “But you better mean Tealey and Rad.”

“Oh, God, I can breathe.” I puff out a harsh breath. She’s still laughing when I say, “I was really thinking I screwed up. So much so that I was already planning a trip to Brooklyn to buy the neighbor’s house.”

“How?” She’s suddenly not joking at all.

“I’d probably call a car. The subway would take too long?—”

“No, Jackson. I mean, how would you afford both?”

Caressing my cheek, I say, “We.It’s our money.”

“Half my trust went toward Art for the Community, and the other eight million went into a nest egg for our family. You own this apartment. You now own a house in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city.”

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