AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Available for long-term lease. Tuttle and Sons Realty. Call today and ask for Jena.
I breathe a sigh of relief.
We discussed putting it on the market, but I just couldn’t do it. Weston is the one who suggested that I use it as rental income until Kaela is older.
Then, I can sign it over to her, and she can decide to live in it or sell it.
My next-door neighbor, Brandee, appears on her porch.
“I don’t like this in the least,” she shouts.
“Jena promised to find someone nice to lease it to,” Weston assures her.
“They’d better be nice and handsome and single,” she says.
He chuckles. “I’ll let her know.”
Her eyes come to me, and she sticks her bottom lip out.
“Come over. I’ll open a bottle of wine, and we can have a good cry,” I say.
“Be there in thirty,” she agrees.
Weston sprints back to us and opens the door. I step into the house, feeling the familiar creak of the wooden floor beneath my feet.
I set Kaela down, and her small feet pad softly toward a pile of toys tucked in the corner beside the sofa.
As I mentally began the process of packing, memories, both sweet and bitter, wash over me like a tidal wave. There, in the living room, is the spot where Mike told me our offer had been accepted. The keys tucked into his pocket, he fished them out and got down on one knee, asking me to be a homeowner with him.
Tears well up in my eyes as I recall the overwhelming joy I felt in that moment as he proudly presented them to me.
In the kitchen, I run my fingers over the countertop, where Mike prepared countless meals for us. He was the chef in the family, always testing new recipes for the boys at the firehouse out on me.
His spaghetti sauce was legendary among our friends and neighbors.
Kaela chatters happily to her favorite stuffed bear, the one Weston got her for her first Valentine’s Day.
I watch her squeal with delight as Weston takes the bear in his hands and starts talking back to her in a deep voice.
She’s so happy. She loves Weston, and she doesn’t understand the weight of the past or the significance of this move.
To her, it’s all an adventure with her favorite humans.
I make my way to the bedroom. I open the closet and gaze at the singed uniform that still hangs there, neatly pressed and untouched since the hospital returned it to me. His scarred helmet rests on a shelf beside the wooden box containing the flag that covered his casket.
I take a deep breath, vowing to always honor his memory and the legacy he left behind.
I can hear his voice in my head loud and clear.“It’s okay, Anna. I’ll always be with you, but it’s okay to move forward.”
The doorbell rings, pulling me from my thoughts, and I walk back to the front of the house to find Brandee holding a bottle of champagne.
Weston builds us a fire in the fireplace.
I spread a blanket on the floor and sit with Kaela, her eyes growing heavy with sleep, as Brandee and Weston wrestle to pop the bottle in the kitchen.
The flames of the fire flicker, casting dancing shadows on the walls behind the sofa, and the house seems to sigh, as if it were letting go of us too.
“Anna,” Brandee says softly as she joins me with two flutes, “I know today must be hard for you.”
