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My actual home is out on a huge piece of beautifully landscaped land, very similar to my parents with the tree-lined driveway leading up to the house which happens to be slightly bigger than what any human could possibly need but when I had it built, I had in mind that this would be my forever home, the home I raise a family in, I just hadn't expected to find the woman of my dreams quite so soon but now that I have, I can't wait to convince her of that.
“What the hell is this place?” Elle questions from beside me.
I grin over at her. “My place,” I say.
“Were you planning on housing all of Africa?” she asks. “How many people do you have living in there?”
I smirk at her surprise. “Just me,” I laugh.
“What could you possibly need a place so big for?”
“Well, firstly, I needed a space big enough that I could skate on and secondly, I wanted to build a place big enough for my whole family.”
“Hold on,” she says, holding up a hand to stop me. “What do you mean space to skate?”
“Oh,” I smile, glad that she picked up on that. “I kind of had my own ice rink built out the back over the summer.”
“What?” she sputters.
“Well, it’s more of a really big pond that freezes over the winter.”
“You’re shitting me?”
“Nope,” I say proudly as I pull up at the front door.
She opens the door and has to literally jump down to the ground. “I’ve got to see this,” she says as she meets me around the front of my truck.
“No problem,” I laugh as we climb the stairs to the front door.
I unlock the door and welcome her into my home. "Holy shit, Mr. Money Bags," she says. "Your foyer is bigger than my apartment."
“It is not,” I smirk but yeah… it kind of is.
“Bullshit,” she scoffs under her breath. I lead her through the house and watch as she takes it all in. “I’m in the wrong profession,” she murmurs as we hit the kitchen.
“Yeah, pays to be a professional athlete,” I tell her but truth be told, this place cost a fortune which I paid for using a portion of my inheritance from my parents, I use the money from hockey to pay bills and whatever is left goes straight to charity. I don’t need all that.
I show her around the rest of the house before coming out the back and leading her down to the ice. “This place is incredible,” she says as she takes it all in.
“Thanks, I had Carter design and build it,” I tell her.
“Huh?” she grunts.
“He’s an architect,” I explain. “Just like dad was. He built Waters constructions from the ground up and when he passed, Carter took over.”
“Wait… you’re that Waters? That’s like one of the biggest construction companies in all of Canada.”
“Correction. It is the biggest construction company in Canada,” I tell her proudly. “It was right up there when Dad was running it but with Carter’s new designs, it’s completely taken off. Everybody wants a home built by Waters Constructions.”
“That’s amazing,” she says. “I never would have guessed that, especially after meeting him.”
“What do you mean?” I question.
“It’s just, he’s so… carefree, I never would have expected him to be this crazy good Architect-business man.”
“Yeah, no one ever does,” I say. “The second he leaves the office, it’s all about fucking around.”
“What about Sean? What does he do?” she questions.
“He’s a lawyer,” I murmur.
“A good one?” she asks.
“Yeah,” I scoff,” you could murder a hundred people and be caught with the gun in your hand and Sean would still be able to get you off.”
“Really?”
“Well… that might be a slight exaggeration.”
She laughs but it doesn’t reach her eyes and I realise that all this talk of my family must have her thinking about her own.
“You’re thinking about your family?” I question as I slide my hand into hers.
She looks up at me as she laces her fingers through mine. “Always,” she says. “You’re so lucky to have such a big family. I’d do anything to get mine back.”
“I know,” I say as I give her hand a tug and pull her into me. I wrap my arms around her and take pleasure in the way her head rests against my chest. “Every single day something happens that I wish I could tell my parents.”
“I know the feeling,” she murmurs.
We both stand in silence, wrapped in each other’s arms as we look out at my man-made ice rink. “Come on,” I say. “It’s way too cold out here.”
We walk up to the house together but my phone buzzing in my pockets steals my attention. I pull it out to find a message from Sean.
Sean – Lunch at my place. Be there. 2 pm.
With a grin, I start typing out my reply.
