AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After breakfast, I lend Hannah some athletic wear and carefully change into some myself, then we head down to the basement gym to do a yoga routine.
Hannah’s a really gentle, peaceful yoga teacher, and that’s just what I need today, so I let her take the lead and guide me to letting go of my troubles so I can be present with her for a while. I can feel weight coming off my shoulders as she talks me through the first several poses.
I’m feeling significantly better when we’re done. I didn’t think it was possible, but I’m practically radiating peace and tranquility as I lay on the mat, my body no longer aching and hunched.
“I love you,” I tell her serenely.
Hannah laughs softly. “I love you, too.”
“You need to move in here. I would have literally no problem living here if you lived here with me. I could relocate to any of the nine circles of hell, and if you were my roommate, I could be okay with it.”
“Those must have been some stretches,” she jokes.
“It’s not the stretches. It’s you. You’re amazing.” Reluctantly, I open my eyes and turn my head to look over at her lying on the mat beside me.
Smiling mischievously, she says, “Wait until after your massage. You’ll really love me then.”
“Move in,” I drawl, my tone pleading. “All I have to do is tell Hayden it’s what I need in order to live with his awful son and he will literally hire moving people to move you in tomorrow. You’d love it here. You wouldn’t have to be anyone’s maid—we havea housekeeper who comes as often as we need her to. And you’d be safer. I know you worry about Voldemort coming back for you, but we have security cameras on every entrance, and if Dare shows his stupid face here, I’ll stake him in the heart like the soulless bloodsucker he is.”
“Wow. Strong opinions about someone you’ve never met.”
“I have all the information I require to know he’s a jerkface and he would deserve it.”
She nods, looking up at the ceiling. “I can’t argue that.”
“So, it’s decided. You’re moving in.”
She cracks a smile. “I appreciate the offer—”
“Plea,” I correct. “I’ll bribe you if need be.”
Her smile widens slightly. “But I can’t. That was my mom’s dream home. My dad had it built for her. I know it’s just a house, but that house is all I have left of them. Every memory lives there. The flowers my mom planted with her own hands still grow in that garden. I can’t just… give it up to those awful people,” she says, shaking her head. “I know that legally, it will never be mine again, but I have to be its caretaker for as long as I’m able. It would kill me to leave and watch them destroy it with their careless ways and unquenchable greed. They would… they would kill the last living parts of my parents, and I just can’t let that happen.”
I sigh. It’s not like it’s news to me that Hannah still associates her house with her dead parents and clings to the remnants of the life they had together, but someday when I ask, I still hope she says yes. “You deserve more than memories, Hannah.”
“I know,” she says softly. “And someday I’ll have more than that. But in the meantime, I’m perfectly content with my choices.”
“Well, wherever I live, you can always come there if you ever change your mind.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it.”
“I guess we should get up now,” I say sadly.
“I guess so.”
“How do you feel about saunas? I haven’t seen it yet,” I say as I reluctantly rise and climb to my feet. “But allegedly there’s a spa room down the hall with a sauna.”
“A spa room?” she asks with interest. “What does that even entail?”
“I don’t know.” I walk over to the mini fridge in here and grab us two waters, passing one to Hannah. “Why don’t we go find out?”
Turns out, I didn’t need to grab us waters in the gym; there’s a mini fridge in here, too. There’s also a juice bar, a massage table, and an in-ground hot tub.
Hannah insists on giving me a massage even though my back is feeling better just in case it’s not “all the way better,” and this will be my second massage this long weekend—which is two more than I’ve had in my whole life prior.
I joke about my new rich girl life and Hannah points me toward a bathroom and tells me to strip down to my comfort level and then we can get started.
Undressing in the spa bathroom provides a different experience than quickly pulling clothes on in my walk-in closet upstairs so we could come down to do yoga.
