Page 56 of Hush Money
“Well, I guess now is as good of a time as any,” he says, “now that I know it’s official.”
I swallow.
“A good time for what?”
“For me to ask my girlfriend to move in with me—officially,” he says. I stare back up at him. I don’t say anything. I just blink like an idiot. He chuckles and takes my hand.
The crazy thing is, I hadn’t even thought about my living arrangements after Tanner. I’ve been so lost in all the changes, so lost in Keaton, that I hadn’t even considered what my next move would be. Maybe because I’m not really interested in any moves after Keaton. He’s the only move I want to make.
“Keat, are you…are you sure?” I mumble. “It’s only been… I can find somewhere else, and we can… I’m sorry. I should have brought this up before. I don’t want you to think that I just expected?—”
He cuts me off with a long, beautiful kiss. When we come apart, he holds my face in his hands.
“I have waited long enough for you, Evie Dawson,” he says. “Don’t make me wait any longer. I meant what I said. Whatever is mine is yours. You are the only part about this city that makes it feel like home to me. And if here isn’t home for you anymore, just tell me where it is, and I will follow you there.”
I blink back tears.
The old Evie would fight him on it, would want to make sure he knew I wasn’t expecting anything, that if he wanted to take things slow and casual, that that would be okay. But the new Evie, therealEvie, knows that she’s waited long enough for someone to see her the way that she should have seen herself.
The real Evie knows that the man in front of her has loved her for years, better than anyone ever has, and better than anyone else ever could.
I wrap my hands around his wrists and smile through my tears.
“Then let’s not waste any more time,” I choke out. He smiles and kisses me again.
A few more days have passed, andI am quietly humming to myself in the study of his—our—apartment. He hired movers to bring back a few boxes of things from the house I shared with Tanner. Tanner was there, but he didn’t put up a fight.
Finding places for my things here with Keaton has been so freeing, so healing, like a lesson in bringing some parts of the past to the future with me without letting them taint it. Keaton keeps telling me to “put whatever you want wherever you want it.” He says that this apartment never felt like his until I stepped foot inside it.
He also told me that if I ever bring up paying for anything here again, he will take me over his knee like he did in the pool house that night.
I’ve been tempted several times.
When we were kids, I never let myself become comfortable with his money. I’d run ahead of him at the fair so I could pay my own way before he could. I’d buy my own food from the food trucks by our school. I’d do anything I could to prove to him that I didn’t care about it.
Because I didn’t.
I didn’t picture life with him in a castle somewhere far, far away.
I just pictured him.
But it’s different now. Because I actuallydolive in a sort of castle with him.
And he is adamant that it’sours.
I’m unpackingsome of my books onto his massive built-in bookshelves when I feel someone pinch my sides. I shriek and stumble off the ladder, right into his arms. He kisses me hard, and I let my hands roam his hair while he spins us around slowly.
“Hi,” I say when we finally come apart.
“Hi, you,” he says, holding his forehead to mine. We stand like this for a few moments, and I feel his grip on me tighten.
“What is it?” I whisper.
I love how in sync we are.
“Another one of the victims…survivors?” he catches himself. “I don’t know what to call them. But another one of the women wants to come in and talk to us.”
I sigh as he sets me down on the ground.
