Sit (The Shores Book 1)
Page 19
“You’re up!” Lyric was one of those girls who looked like she was floating all the time, even when she ran up to hug me.
“Did I miss an invitation?” Jax and Harris came back in and the goofy smile on Harris’ face told me something was up. Like having fifty people in Harris’ house didn’t clue me in.
“We’re having a packing party.” Harris’ smile went from goofy to sneaky. “I closed on the house this morning.”
“The house?” I crossed my arms when he tried to hug me. “The one I still haven’t seen?” I was going to murder the man before he got to marry me and meet his child.
“That’s the one.” He said it like this was a good thing.
“Harris. You bought a house without me seeing it.”
“I did.” I glared harder and my face turned red when I realized witnesses were going to see me kill him. “It’s perfect. Four bedrooms, fenced yard, eat in kitchen, and a block from Grandma.”
“And from Aunt Rose!” His sister chimed in behind him.
“Just trust me and be excited, because we move in next week.” Harris hugged me and kissed my neck. I wanted to be mad, so badly, but I just couldn’t. We’d looked at a dozen houses, and none of them were what we wanted or needed. If Harris thought it was perfect, then it was.
“Okay.” I relented. “Let’s get the party started!”
We all stood around the kitchen, eating pancakes and I watched Jax move closer and closer to Blair as breakfast went on. Then the flirting started. Blair would need a roommate to take over my part of the rent, so she asked Ivy, who jumped at the chance to get out of her parent’s house. Jax said if it didn’t work out, he’d pay all the rent if it meant he could sleep in Blair’s bed. She promptly flipped him off, but I did catch the pink in her cheeks. Blair was not the ‘settling down’ type, not yet at least, and neither was Jax. They were both players in their own right, so I really hoped nothing ever came of their flirting. It would disrupt the friend balance and that would be terrible.
A few hours later, we took Jolene over to see the new house with Ziggy in the back and I made a point to complain the entire time. On one hand it was nice to not have the house stress on my plate anymore, and Harris was pickier than I was about the house, but he bought our future home without consulting me at all. Sure, I agreed to look at it, but he left me asleep to go buy a house on a hunch.
We pulled in the driveway and my complaints dried up. The house was beautiful. Light bricks, blue shutters with a matching door, and a privacy fence in the backyard.
“Harris,” The crying started before Jolene was even in park. “It’s amazing.”
He wiped a tear from my eye, “The realtor left it open. Go look.” He didn’t have to tell me twice. Ziggy and I ran to the front door to find a game of Hangman taped over the peep hole. Harris wrapped his arms around my middle and handed me a pen.
“E.” I choked the letter out between sobs and Harris pointed to the three spots for the letter. “M.” I was shaking so hard from crying that he took the pen and wrote in the letters for me. “A.” Harris drew a head. “I.” He drew a body. “O” He wrote in the two O’s. I wiped my face and grabbed the pen, completing our first game of Hangman in our new home.
“Welcome Home.” Harris squeezed me a little tighter and wiped a tear from my chin. “Now stop happy-crying and go check out our new house.” Harris pushed the door open and we took our first steps into our new life.
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THE END