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I nodded regretfully. “Lots of economics. Boring as hell. By the time I decided to change, my parents weren’t supportive of it. They couldn’t see me majoring in the visual arts; everything was digital and confusing to them. I ended up getting a job to pay my own way, but I couldn’t afford all the credits.”
I thought back to that time in my life, trying hard to be independent. Paying for my own place, my own education, my own everything.
“Anyway I started taking more and more shifts at the local diner and less and less classes.” I shrugged. “You know how that slide goes.”
“Yeah,” nodded Tate. “Been there done that. One day you wake up and you’re not in college anymore. You’re just working.”
I smiled at him as he ate another ‘chicken ring.’ It was always good when someone else understood.
“In the end a friend of mine planned on traveling the country, and I thought that sounded like fun so I started saving. We took the summer off together, she and I. Halfway through the trip we stopped here and I met Eric. Six months later, we were married.”
“Six months?” said Cole. “Damn.”
“Hey, what can I say? I fall hard,” I smiled demurely. “I mean… look at what happened with you boys.”
“Yeah… well that was us,” Jacob smiled proudly, flexing one arm.
“Oh,” I laughed. “Okay.”
“SERENA!”
I popped up, wincing as my knees popped and my arches felt that familiar ache.
“So which one of you is rubbing my feet tonight?” I asked nonchalantly.
Before they could figure it out I spun away and headed for my nearest assigned table. But not before winking over my shoulder.
“And not him,” I pointed to Tate. “He’s getting a special sendoff.”
Thirty-Five
SERENA
“You ready? No peeking.”
Cole’s big hands covered my eyes from behind, blocking my vision with the totality of a pitch black room. His fingers were warm, but then again his fingers were always warm. His whole body too, come to think of it.
“I’m more than ready!” I told him excitedly. The smell of fresh paint filled my nostrils. “No more suspense. No more keeping secr—”
He removed his hands, and my pupils dilated with the sudden influx of light. It streamed in through the high-set windows, and beamed down from fresh new high hats.
“Oh my God, Cole!”
He hadn’t let me in the basement for a few days now, while he put the finishing touches on everything he was doing. The others had kept things secret too. But now…
“It’s gorgeous!”
I glided slowly through the basement like a kid in a toy store, spinning to look at everything at the same time. The once-dingy walls were now bright and beautiful. The scratched, filthy floors had been refinished, stained, and sealed to perfection.
But it was the detail work that really stood out. Cole had installed wainscoting around the entire living area, and chair rails in the kitchen. The moldings were flawless. The fixtures he’d picked were clean, contemporary and beautiful.
“Come on,” he said, taking my hand. “Wait ti
ll’ you see the bathroom.”
I followed along in shock, still gaping at everything from the wrought-iron wine rack to the floating wood shelves where the old kitchen cabinets used to be. Everything looked sleeker and cleaner than it did before.
“Cole, this is unbelievable,” I swore. “Totally beyond expectations. It makes me want to live here!”
