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It was the morning after our wedding. Cooper’s mother was in town, and my grandparents were here, and we had the logistics of family visiting to manage. We had decided to save our honeymoon for late winter when it was still cold and getting muddy, and everyone in Alaska couldn’t wait for warmer days and no snow. It would be a reward to travel to Hawaii then.
For today, Cooper said he had a surprise for me.
“First, we’re getting coffee,” he announced.
I was going to argue against that. Moments later, Janet smiled brightly at me from across the counter. “Here’s your coffee.” Janet was always friendly, and I considered her family, almost like a bonus mother. When I saw the look in her eyes when she smiled at Cooper, I knew something was up.
“What is it?” I prompted, just as Beck and Maisie walked in with Rowan and Mae.
“What are you talking about?” Beck prompted.
“Janet knows something,” I said with a suspicious glance in her direction.
When my eyes arced about the group, I knew thateveryoneknew something. I felt left out, and I didn’t like it.
“What do you know?” I nudged Beck with my elbow where he had stopped to stand beside me.
He jumped back, chuckling as he held his palms up. “Don’t ask me.” He glanced toward Cooper. “You’d better get going.”
Cooper winked and escorted me out to the parking lot. “How does everybody know whatever they know? Except me,” I grumbled when we were in his truck.
The glow of our wedding and a night wrapped up in Cooper’s arms was fading fast.
“Just wait,” he said firmly.
A few minutes later, he turned down the side road, just a little bit out of the main downtown area of Willow Brook. “Firefly Lane. This is where Graham and Madison live,” I pointed out.
“Mm-hmm,” he replied noncommittally.
He drove past the driveway that led to their place. After another good half mile, he turned down the next driveway. When he pulled up outside the house, I looked around. A field of fireweed at the height of its bloom grew pretty and bright pink on one side. The other side of the house was mostly spruce trees and forest with a view of the mountains rising above the trees.
“Are we having an in-town honeymoon?” I asked when we climbed out.
He reached for my hand when we met in the front of his truck, replying, “Something like that.”
The house was nestled into a small rise. Two stories tall, it had a green steel roof with a modern feel to it with clean lines, dark stained wood siding and lots of windows, including a circular one in the center where the roof came to a peak on the upper floor.
Cooper led me inside before he turned to face me and reached for both of my hands. “We’re home.” His grip was warm and sure.
I blinked, confused. “Huh? Home?”
He palmed my cheek with one hand, his touch warm and electric at once. His gaze held mine, and my heart fluttered in my chest. Whenever Cooper looked at me like that, I felt safe, secure, and cherished, the emotional equivalent of what I’d always wanted the idea of home to be.
“Home,” he repeated. “This is ours.”
“What?!” My eyes went wide. “How —”
He gave me a quick and fierce kiss. Lifting his hand, he tucked a loose lock of hair behind my ear. “You said you never really felt like you had a home. I want to make sure that you always feel like you do with me. I figured the best way to do that was to get us an actual home.”
I spun around, emotion rising swiftly inside as I took it in. I wanted to run around and see everything. But really, all I wanted was Cooper.
When I turned back to face him, I pressed my palm to his chest, the steady and strong beat of his heart grounding me.
“Before you worry about moving and everything right after we got married, we can take our time. But—”
I interrupted. “I want to move now! Today!”
He laughed, lifting me in his arms and spinning me around.
We moved the day after our wedding. He’d also lined up all our friends to help because he guessed I might want to move immediately. Conveniently, plenty of our friends were hotshot firefighters, all strong and sturdy. It went surprisingly fast, all things considered. I discovered that when you didn’t have time to think about moving and just threw everything into boxes as fast as you could, it made the whole process much less stressful.
It was past midnight, and I stood in our new-to-me kitchen with boxes surrounding me on the floor. I smiled up at him when he set the almost empty pizza box on the counter. “What?” he prompted.
My lips curled when I walked over and stood in front of him. I must’ve thought I loved him hundreds of times today. “I can’t believe you did this,” I said softly.
I felt the curve of his smile against my lips when he kissed me. When he straightened, I added, “This is incredible, but just so you know,youare what’s home for me.”
