Page 145 of Your Last First Kiss
Finally, when he just stares at me expectantly, I sigh into him. “Of course I like their house. It’s beautiful. Why?”
“Because it’s ours.”
I have a hard time making sense of his words.
“What do you mean ours?”
“Well, technically mine, but what’s mine is yours so…”
He flashes me a lazy smile, but there’s nothing lazy about my thought process right now. No, my thoughts are flying around my head like people in a dark maze—I can’t find my way out.
Finally, finally, Dillon takes pity on me. “Somehow, Ashton snuck that into the TAC deal. I don’t know how I missed it because I combed those contracts myself. But he sent me a copy of the deed transfer when I asked if we could stay there.”
“But he loves that house,” I say when something like hurt settles in my chest.
“That’s what I said. But their life is changing as quickly as Nova’s couture line, and he said as much as he loved it, it wasn’t their forever home, but it was important to him that it stayed in the family because a lot of healing happened there.”
My hurt feelings intensify and suddenly I know why. “Why wouldn’t Nova have told me this? She’s one of my best friends. We don’t talk nearly as often as we did when she lived here, but we still text.”
“I think that’s Ashton’s doing too. It’s like he had this planned out the entire time, and we fell right into it like puppets. I’m sure Nova didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
“I’m going to miss knowing they could just pop up anytime. I don’t have a lot of friends.” Admitting that out loud makes shame flare to life in my mind.
“Yet, Penny. You don’t have a lot of friends yet. When things settle down, you’ll be having wine nights with every female resident over twenty-one. I heard that Sexy Scenes and Sips will be up and running by the end of the month.” He waggles his eyebrows at me as he says it.
My shoulders shake with laughter. He’s ridiculous.
“So, what do you think?” he asks.
I think he’s unbelievable. I think he’s amazing. And I think I made the best decision of my life when I finally let down my walls.
“I think we could be happy there,” I whisper.
Really happy. The kind of happiness that lasts forever.
“I’m thinking we can get movers here early next week to pack up and move everything.”
My eyes nearly bug out of my head. “Sometimes I forget that you don’t have to worry about things like money.” Embarrassment heats my cheeks. Talking about money always makes me uneasy. It’s a side effect of always being poor, I think.
He grips my chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Neither do you, Penny. What’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is mine. That’s how this works.”
I snort. “You’re getting the short end of that deal.”
The seriousness of his expression sobers me quickly.
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m getting you and these guys,” he says, nodding toward Mari. “That’s priceless, so I am definitely the winner here.” He leans over to kiss me, and Mari lets out an unhappy cry.
“She doesn’t like sharing you.” I laugh while he adjusts her. She snuggles into the crook of his arm, and her eyes flutter in that way that babies do. Like they’re too tired to stay awake, but too stubborn not to fight it.
“She’ll get used to it,” he promises. “There’s enough of me to go around.”
Scooting closer, I rest my head on his shoulder again. I lay there, listening to the sounds of a happy home. There are too many kids for it to ever be truly quiet, and I’m already dreading the day that it is.
Contentment washes over me. The kind of contentment that makes you sink your feet in and grow roots.
This is what happy feels like. My eyes flutter like Mari’s and I allow myself to drift to a peaceful sleep while Dillon stands guard.
* * *
