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Whatever I was expecting him to show me tonight, it was not this.
“I can fix the stuff that’s wrong,” Michael rattled on as he looked with me. “I did a good job helping Mattias fix that plumbing problem at your house, remember? And now that he taught me how to put up drywall, I can redo the upstairs bedroom, like next week if we want. The kitchen’s a little rough, but I think you can use it until we save up for something nicer.” He stopped, watching me like I was a bomb about to go off. “Please, Tess. Say something. If you’re gonna yell at me, then do it. But I need to know what you think.”
Finally, I found my voice. “This is amazing.”
His dark eyes, framed with those impossibly thick lashes, sparked in the night. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “Just when I think you can’t surprise me, you go and do something like this.”
He bit back a smile but couldn’t hide his dimples. “I’m glad you like it, baby girl. I got it for you. For us.”
I looked back at it, appraising. “It’s definitely got potential. But I don’t think that we should start with the bedroom. The kitchen is the heart of the home, so really that’s what we should tackle firs—whaa!”
I shrieked as my husband literally swept me off my feet princess-style and proceeded to carry me up the short flight of steps.
“Gotta fix that loose step,” he noted as he skipped a particularly crooked one. “Do me a favor and get the keys out of my pocket?”
“You are ridiculous,” I said, twisting around to fish his keys from the left side of his coat.
I sat back up to find that sooty gaze fixed on me with so much love that I thought my heart might burst.
“Ridiculously in love with you,” he said, then pressed a kiss to my lips. “And if you thought I wasn’t going to carry my wife across the threshold of our new house, you’re kidding yourself. Open it up.”
He held me still while I unlocked the door. It swung open, revealing a homely living room with battered parquet floors. The only furniture in the room was a mattress I recognized from the room Michael had been renting for the past year, made up with soft white bedding and rose petals scattered over the top. Otherwise, the only other items in the room were too many candles to count, all flickering brightly through the darkness.
“Wow,” I breathed, still safe in his arms. “Michael Scarrone. I had no idea you were such a romantic.”
He nuzzled my ear, humming with contentment.
“A little romance to carry my bride across our new threshold seemed like the right thing to do,” he said before kissing me thoroughly enough that I lost my breath completely. “Now, let’s go inside. I want to welcome home my contessa.”
THE END…OR IS IT?
