Page 58 of Wrapped Around My Heart
And now, even if we haven’t figured out what it’s gonna look like, I’m building a home with Ari. For us, for Cora, and for our baby. We haven’t talked about it, but it’s only a matter of time before we talk about me moving into her house, or if we want to buy a new one together.
I’ll go where Ari tells me to. I’ll bounce between my condo and her house until she’s ready to live together. So long as she lets me be there for her, how we get to the end doesn’t matter to me.
CHAPTER 21
Arianna
“I just don’t understandwhy I couldn’t get them now,” Dean whines as he opens the trunk.
Biting my tongue, I try to keep a straight face. “Maybe because by the time you saw them, you already had an entire cart full of toys she won’t be able to play with for another year.”
If I had ever thought that I was a shopaholic, Dean is whatever a level up from that is. We only went to one store, and by the time we were ready to check out, we had accumulated two carts full of necessities, toys, and clothes, plus a stacked flat of furniture. When he saw a pink and purple dinosaur set on the way out, I suggested he add it to the registry instead.
Which is what he’sstillupset about.
“Hate to break it to you, babe, but I don’t think they would have fit in here.” Shaking my head, I place my hands on my hips and face the trunk.
It felt like I was directing a game of Tetris when it came to loading things up. Between Dean and the employee who offered to help lift the baby furniture, it took almost ten minutes to get it all in perfectly. Looking at it all now that it’s ready to be brought in, I can’t help but wonder what Dean would have done if I wasn’t there to rein him in.
“It could have fit,” Dean grumbles, but the look on his face tells me he knows I’m right.
“Absolutely not. I’m pretty sure we couldn’t have fit a stuffed animal if we tried.”
Stepping forward, I start loading my arms up with some of the lighter bags, already knowing that he’d prefer it if I didn’t lift things that are heavier. Normally, I’d go out of my way to prove a point that I am perfectly capable of carrying things that weigh more than twenty pounds. However, if I’m being completely honest with myself, I don’t feel the need to prove anything to Dean. Heknowsthat I’m more than able to do whatever I tell him I can.
And right now, after shopping for hours and being on my feet all morning, if he wants to pick up more of the work, I am not going to say no. And with him, I don’t even feel guilty for it.
While Dean starts loading up both his arms, I head to unlock the front door and laugh when a cute black nose poking through the cracked open door greets me.
“Back up, baby girl,” I tell Cora, who immediately listens. The training course that Dean enrolled her in was intense and honestly the best thing ever. She was already a well-behaved puppy, but now she’s sharper than a tack. She follows close by, nose investigating what I’m bringing in when I set my bags beside the couch in my living room. There is definitely going to need to be an inventory done of all this stuff, and everything that can be needs to be washed, so there’s no point bringing it upstairs.
“Come on, girl, I’ll let you outside before helping Dean with the rest.” Her ears perk forward at the word outside and she leaves her investigation of the new things to bound through my house toward the back door.
Since we found out the gender last week, Dean and Cora have been here every single day and night. It’s been nice having themhere. Without even noticing, they’ve started filling in spaces of my home that I didn’t even know were lacking. With dog toys or Dean’s toothbrush beside mine. Dean’s hockey gear has made itself at home in my barely touched garage. And now stuff for the baby.
The thought of all of us molding together so effortlessly makes me smile.
Once Cora is happily roaming the fenced in yard, I head back out front to see what else I can get. I expect to run into Dean by the front door so I can tell him where to put things, only to find him still at the trunk. He’s facing away now, looking down the street with a frown.
“Everything okay?” I ask, following his gaze but not finding anything important.
“I could have sworn I saw…” He shakes his head, straightening his shoulders and flashing a goofy grin. “Nothing.”
“Okay…” I twist to watch him as he walks around me toward the house before I remember what I was supposed to tell him. “You can put those next to the couch.”
When I finally turn to the car again, it looks much emptier than I expected. Dean really took the silent challenge of getting everything inside in as few trips as possible seriously. I’m grabbing a box of diapers and some of the bags of onesies by the time he returns.
“I probably should have asked my dad to come by so you had help with the furniture.”
Except, I hadn’t planned on buying a crib, a dresser, a bookcase,anda gliding chair today.
“Already taken care of. One of the guys will be over later tonight to help.” He winks, stacking two boxes of wipes with some other things. “Guys are easily bribed with pizza.”
My mouth salivates at the thought of pizza, and I nod. “So am I.”
It takes us two more trips to bring in everything but the furniture. We both drop heavily onto the couch, heaving sighs of relief. I glance at the mountain of baby stuff and shrug.
“Yeah, sorting through that is definitely a project for tomorrow. Or this weekend.”
