Page 39 of While You're There
Tori sat up straighter, bringing her hands to her hips. “Ours? What the hell does that mean?”
“It means you’re home, V.” He smiled again, one of the biggest, most genuine smiles she’d ever seen grace his gorgeous face. It was almost enough to distract her from what he was saying. Almost, but not quite.
“Seriously. What’s that supposed to mean? My home is in Hampton,” she countered. She wasn’t mad, but she was confused.
“My parents are gifting us the cabin as a wedding present. We have so many happy memories here. They want us to have it. This place—this room—it’s all yours now.”
Tori mouth fell open, but no words came out. Anne and Peter were just giving them a house?
“They were going to surprise us during the reception,” he continued, his teeth working the inside of his cheek as he tried to explain. “But I knew you would hate that. I didn’t want to shock you or have you worry about what your dad would think about the gift.” He knew her so well. “I insisted I had to tell you in advance or we couldn’t accept. I’m sorry if that takes away from the whole surprise. My mom was disappointed, but…”
“This cabin? All this?” She waved one hand around them. “This is alloursnow?”
“Welcome home, beautiful.”
She let herself fall, felt her body fold over his as she smothered him with kisses.
Welcome home.
She’d been coming up to the cabin with the Wheelers since she was in middle school. Every inch of the gorgeous lake house was filled with memories. Each panel of wood already felt like home.
She gave him one last kiss and sighed against his lips. “Rhett… It’s too much.” That was the truth. The Wheelers had already done so much for them, especially over the last few weeks. They had paid for the entire wedding already—they didn’t need to give them an additional gift.
“I thought you might say something like that,” he murmured, blowing out a long breath as he gently shifted her off his lap and onto the bed. He turned to his side and propped himself up with one elbow. “Here’s the deal, beautiful. My parents were planning to sell the cabin in the next few years anyways. With Maddie leaving for school on the West Coast, she’ll probably only be home a few times a year, and after your surgeries are over, my mom wants to start traveling with my dad on his business trips like she did before we were born. They knew you and I were the only ones who would get any use out of this place in the future. And they know how much you love it. I knew you would have refused had we talked about it in advance, so I already accepted it for us. Please don’t be mad,” he begged, reaching out to stroke his thumb along the curve of her jaw. “I hated not running it past you, but I also didn’t want you to stress about another big decision right now.”
Everything he said made sense. Once she was done feeling unworthy of such an extravagant gift, she knew she was going to be unbelievably happy about owning this little slice of heaven.
“Who else knows about this?” she asked.
He winced.“Jake.”
“So everyone?”
“No, no way. He swore he wouldn’t bring it up to anyone or even to you if you didn’t mention it first. He knows you, V. He knew how you’d react to all this. And the only reason I even told him was because I needed a gut check to make sure I was doing the right thing by not telling you in advance.”
She had the momentary urge to make him sweat, just a little. But regardless of how shethoughtshe should feel about being gifted an entire house, she couldn’t help the genuine giddiness that dominated her thoughts.
“You did good, almost-husband,” she confirmed, leaning forward to kiss him again.
“Yeah?”
“Yep. But wait. You don’t expect me to live here, do you?”
“No, of course not. I know you want to be in Hampton. And this place is farther from Virginia. You can live at your dad’s house or even at my parents’ house, and I’ll come home as many weekends as I can, just like we planned. Whenever we want or need to get away, the cabin is here for us. I don’t expect us to ever live here full time. But I have the sneaking suspicion that these walls are going to feel more like home than anywhere else.”
She sighed wistfully, looking around at the room she loved. “Honestly? They already do.”
“This place is where we’re happiest, V. It’s where I feel closest to you, where I feel most like myself. Here, in this cabin, we’re timeless. This place will always be a sanctuary for us.”
A sanctuary.
A place where they were timeless.
A place to call home.
Tori closed her eyes and took a steadying breath as Rhett interlaced their fingers together. Today was already exceeding her every expectation, and she hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet.
Her eyes shot open when a loud bang ricocheted throughout the room. The mattress was sinking in the middle before she could even sit up and get her bearings.
