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My mouth falls open. Alden cracks up, understanding immediately even before Dad speaks up.
“I took it down since it was broken. Probably because someone got too heavy and still tried to climb his grown ass up it.” He beams as only a Dad getting one over on his kids can.
Alden stands there holding a section of the trellis that used to lead to my bedroom window while Dad continues, “But I thought you two might like to take it to your new place.”
As everyone catches on, laughter fills the room.
“You knew?” I exclaim. Mom and Dad are nearly in tears laughing at our shock. We never got caught, not once in all those years. We thought we got away with it.
“Of course we knew,” Mom says.
Dad squeezes my shoulder and smiles ear to ear. “You thought you could put one over on your old man? I’m too perceptive. It comes with being a psychiatrist.”
“Why did you never say anything?” I ask Mom.
She shrugs and sips her drink. “You were seventeen and on birth control. There’s no stopping teens from having sex.”
Alden props the trellis against the end of the couch. “We were not having sex when she was seventeen. We never did anything under your roof,” he swears.
Our eyes meet, and we share identical grins before I add, “But your excellent perception skills kicked in about four years late.”
It’s Mom and Dad’s turn to be shocked while the rest of us laugh.
“When you were thirteen!” Mom cries.
“It was innocent!”
Dad looks over at Alden and shakes his head. “Now I do have to kill you.”
Alden nods, chuckling. “Completely understandable.”
Dad regards me, biting back a smile. “I told your mom when you were ten those Stokes boys were going to be trouble.”
The rest of the evening is a lot of fun. We eat and drink, reminisce about some of the things that happened when Garrett and I were kids. I love how Alden fits right into my family. When everyone is occupied, Alden grabs my hand and pulls me upstairs to my old room.
“I’m not blowing you here,” I laugh, as he closes the door behind us.
“What a great idea, but that’s not what I wanted. I want to ask you something.”
“Okay.”
“What if we bought this house from your parents?”
His suggestion catches me off guard. “You want to live here?”
He shrugs and sits beside me on the edge of the bed. “It’s close to our jobs. We both grew up here. How cool would it be if our kids grew up here too?”
I consider it for a moment, and he says, “If you’d rather not, it’s okay.”
“It’s not that. I’m surprised is all. You and Oliver sold your mom’s place. I didn’t think you’d want to live across the street. I thought maybe the memories were too much.”
His smile is soft. “I don’t have many good memories in that house, but the best ones I have are in this one. In this room.”
It would be amazing to raise our family here, where we have history. The neighborhood is still a good one, with a low crime rate and good school district. I can see Alden fixing up the treehouse for our kids, letting them have the run of the street the way we used to.
“You don’t need to decide right now. It was just an idea. We can talk about it later,” he says.
“I think it’s a fantastic idea. Let’s go talk to them. See what the appraiser said and what they set the asking price at.” We’ve already been approved for a mortgage together. That’s one hurdle out of the way.
