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“Are you buying a house?” Ellie asks the second I open the door.
I guess I’m not alone in my concern about our future living arrangements. I take my time closing the door and walking to the sofa while I gather my thoughts together.
“Well, are you?”
“I don’t know.”
She frowns. “You don’t know? How can you not know if you’re buying a house or not?”
I run my hands through my hair in frustration. “Because I don’t know what you want.”
She rears back and her eyes fill with fear. “What do I have to do with it?”
I point at her. “This is exactly what I mean. How can you not know you have everything to do with me buying a house?”
Her nose wrinkles. “You’re not making any sense.”
I inhale a deep breath and remind myself Ellie hasn’t been in a relationship since college. A relationship that caused her to shut herself off from men for a decade. I need to navigate this discussion with care.
I sit on the coffee table in front of her and grasp her hands. “Ellie girl, you are my future. You and our baby daughter. I want to live with you, but each time I try to bring up the subject, you shut me down.”
She blinks as she stares at me. “You want to live with me?”
I squeeze her hands. “Of course, I do. I love you.”
To be honest, I already loved her when I told her I was falling in love with her months ago. I knew she’d run far, far away if I told her then, though.
She gasps. “You love me?”
“It kills me that you’re surprised I love you. I’ve tried to show you how much I care for you.” I nod toward the construction of the nursery behind the living room. “But you don’t see it, which makes me want to travel to Seattle and beat the shit out of Bob for how he treated you.”
“I’m afraid,” she whispers.
“I know you are, Ellie girl. It’s why I haven’t pushed us to live together.”
“Do you…” she swallows, “want to live here?”
I don’t think she’s asking me to move in. I think she’s asking what I want.
“As much as I love this carriage house. It’s where our daughter was conceived after all.” I waggle my eyebrows and she smiles. “I don’t think it’s big enough for the three of us.”
“But the nursery...”
“Would make a great office for whoever lives here.”
She glances around the space. “This place was a complete mess when I bought it. It was basically an empty shell. There was a raccoon family living here. Boy, were they mad when I tried to evict them.” She chuckles. “I had to ask Forest to help me. He ended up sleeping in here with them until they trusted him enough to let him move them.”
“Let me guess, Forest adopted the entire family, and they live with him now.”
“I think he built them a house in his backyard.”
I chuckle. I can’t believe I initially didn’t think much of Winter Falls. This town is quirky as all get out, but it’s also fun and keeps me on my toes. My neighbors growing up in Chicago would keep an eye out for me, but they didn’t get all up in my business and make sure I finished my homework and ate while my mom was at her second job.
“What do you say? Should we start house hunting?”
Her nose wrinkles. “But what about in two years when the community center is built?”
“We’ll figure something out. I’m not going to leave you, the woman I love, or our baby daughter. I am not my father.”
