Page 149 of Even Ground

“I’d love to. Now?”

Reece hooks his arm around my shoulders. “No time like the present.”

“Lead on.”

I follow him down the stairs and out the front door to his car. He opens the door for me and waves me in.

“Didn’t you say I could drive your car?”

He hesitates before waving into the passenger side again. “Yes, but not this time. It’s a surprise where we’re going.”

“But I don’t know anything about LA. Just give me directions and—”

“Next time.”

Settling into the comfort of his leather car seat, I let out a little moan. I’m going to miss this thing so much when I go home and go back to driving my shitty old Honda.

He starts the car, and the gates open for us to exit.

We drive about two metres down the road, turn right, and pull up a paved driveway that leads up to a beautiful house. The veranda around the outside of the cream stucco two-storey house has large arches that would look beautiful with climbing plants around them.

“We’re here,” he says.

“What?” I look at him and back at the house.

“This is it.”

I laugh. “We could have walked across the road, you egg.”

Reece grins. “But where’s the fun in that?”

Next to the driveway, there’s a large gravel parking circle, and a BMW with a real estate logo on the side sits nearby. A beautiful blonde lady gets out of the car and walks toward us.

Reece climbs out of the driver’s seat, and I undo my belt and open the door.

“Mr Evans.” She smiles a dazzling smile that I catch a glimpse of when I step outside.

Here we go.

“Please, call me Reece. This is my girlfriend, Pania.” Reece holds his hand out to me as I walk around to join him.

“So happy to meet you both.” She holds out her arm. “Shall we?”

Inside are polished wooden floors, until you hit the stairs which are laid with thick dark carpet that reaches up the hallway and into the bedrooms.

I’m in love with everything I see.

The spacious rooms fill me with ideas of how to furnish them.

Returning downstairs, I gasp as we walk into the kitchen. Grey marble benches with shiny chrome appliances—more than enough to excite Delaney, and even I’m impressed.

We walk back outside hand in hand, but my head is spinning at the thought of what I could do with this house. We’ll make it a home.

“What do you think?” Reece asks.

I take a moment to answer, because I’m overwhelmed that he’s looking at buying something like this. I grew up in a small, three-bedroom house in Whakatane, sharing a room with Delaney when she moved in with us.

Never for a moment did I consider I’d end up living in something like this. And while it won’t be for a while yet, one day, this will be my home.

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