Page 67 of The Chad Next Door
November 2
Saturday morning looks about thesame as Friday morning looked. Sun City lives up to its name, though it’s hard to believe that we’re only a couple of hours away from the mountainy Laketown where we got snowed in a couple of weeks ago. It’s not just the weather that is perfect here, though. Chad’s house is phenomenal, with its well-maintained yard and pool and multiple bedrooms that could be turned into playrooms and offices and nurseries.
I know I’m getting ahead of myself, and Chad hasn’t even said he loves me. He’s shown me in so many ways, but it’s the words that seem the most difficult for him. It almost makes sense, with the life he’s lived and the relationships he’s had with his family and his ex. But even if he hasn’t said those words, I know I can’t be the only one imagining what our life could look like if we lived it together.
We spent the afternoon yesterday touring Sun City, Chad showing me his favorite places and taking me to his little PI office. He was quiet most of the time, clearly deep in thought, but I’m not going to push things. I’ll just make sure he knows I don’t plan on running away again. And when we spent the evening snuggled up on the couch together until Chad forced me to go to bed, things felt like they’re supposed to. We just need the kids to make it all perfect again.
I beat Chad to the kitchen this morning, so I’ve already made myself some coffee when he joins me. He glances inside my mug as he slides his hands over my hips, chuckling when he sees that I’ve left it black in case he wants to steal it instead of adding heaps of cream and sugar for myself. “Trying to prove you’re a better person than me?” he guesses.
I scoff. “Of course not. Maybe a little. Mostly because I’m dying to hear about what happened with Houston yesterday.”
He smiles, a sleepy look in his eyes. “I’m surprised you lasted this long. He decided he doesn’t want to know. But he’ll figure out the truth before long, and I’ll be here to help him through it when he does.”
I both love and hate that he won’t tell me what he figured out about Darcy. It means he’s good with boundaries, but I also want to know everything about what goes on inside his brain.
Wait. He said he’ll be here for Houston. Does that mean he won’t be in Laketown? I swallow, gripping the coffee mug a little tighter. “I should go back for the kids soon.”
He doesn’t move outside of touching his forehead to mine. “I know.”
“Will you come with me?”
He swallows, and my heart sinks a few inches in my chest. “Actually… I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.”
Oh no. Thinking is bad. Thinking leads to ideas and decisions and someone being left behind because logic never listens to the heart.
Chad snorts a little laugh. “You just got so tense. Are you really that pessimistic?”
“You can’t just drop a line like that with no follow up!” I complain.
“I was thinking you could move the kids to Sun City. Your house is terrible anyway. So, you could move here.”
Oh. That’s not so bad. And he’s right. But… “The housing market is so much higher here,” I say, my mind spinning too fast to stop me from using such a lame excuse when I just got informed I have a pretty decent fortune in a bank somewhere.
It’s Chad’s turn to tense, his hands pressing tighter to my sides. “No, I meanhere.In this house. My house. With me.”
The coffee mug slips from my fingers, shattering between our toes. Chad leaps back, pulling me with him, but I yelp when I step on a shard of ceramic and leap into him, knocking him off balance. We go down hard, and though Chad braces most of my fall, this collision actually hurts.
“Sorry,” I groan, curling in on myself on top of him. “You sure you want this chaos around you all the time?”
Chad bursts into laughter, his whole body shaking beneath me as if the sound of his laugh isn’t enough to get his amusement out of him. “You are such a disaster,” he says through his laughter. After he can breathe again, he adds, “I have never been more sure of anything in my life. I’m in love with you, Hope.”
My head snaps up so I can see his face, which has the most beautiful smile on it as his blue eyes take me in. But he isn’t done. “I’m so madly in love with you, and Zelda, and Link, and I can’t imagine a life without the three of you in it. I know we just met, but it feels like fate brought us together, and there’s nothing I want more than to wake up next to you every day for the rest of my life.” He swallows, his expression growing serious. “Hope, will you—”
I clap a hand over his mouth, which he clearly takes as a rejection because his expression drops, and now I’m the one laughing because I couldn’t have chosen a worse thing to do if he was about to say what I think he was about to say. “I’m sorry,” I say and kiss his nose, though I’m laughing even harder now, and now he just looks confused. “That was rude of me. I’m going to let you finish that question, but not here. Not now. My socks are soaked with coffee and it’s driving me crazy, and I will not have that be my memory of this moment. Okay?”
He grins at me beneath my palm, a full wide smile unlike anything I’ve ever seen before because it seems to reach his eyes differently. I move my hand so he can speak. “Are you telling me that I’m bad at proposing?” he asks.
That last word alone sends a shiver through me. Looking around at the mess I made and the way we’re lying on the kitchen tile, I shrug. “I mean, yeah, this isn’t exactly romantic.”
“You wantmeto be romantic?”
“I’m sure you have it in you somewhere. Just be glad I’m letting you ask instead of doing it myself. That’s the way all the cool kids are doing it nowadays.”
“You are the most frustrating woman I’ve ever met.”
I grin. “I know. And I promise I’ll say yes to your question, but only if you ask it properly.”
“Can I kiss you, or do I need to ask properly for that too?” He’s definitely getting grumpy.
