Page 64 of Grayson

“I’m not,” I assure him. “I’m happy.”

“Then why are you standing outside on the front porch by yourself?” I notice him step outside the front door, staring across the street at me.

“I’m giving my sister time to play.” I smile at the memory.

“Play, huh?”

“She learning to make homemade pies,” I tell him as he walks toward the end of the drive leading up to the station. I step off the porch and start moving in his direction. “She’s happy,” I say with my ear still pressed to the phone. The closer he gets the faster my heart races and I wonder if I’ll always feel like this when I see him. The rush of excitement as it settled low in my stomach and my heart races.

“Are you happy?” he asks when we are less than ten feet apart. Lowering my phone I start to cross the road when he jogs over the pavement, meeting me at the end of the driveway.

“I am,” I confess the second he pulls me into his arms. “You make me happy.” Him and everything he has brought into my life.

“I’m giving up my apartment,” he whispers before he kisses me. “And I think we should find a bigger place, maybe one with a yard. Get Tori that dog she’s wanting.”

“Are you asking me to move in with you?”

“No.” I wrinkle my forehead at him and he laughs. “I’m not asking baby, I just letting you know that’s what’s happening.”

He kisses me, making me smile.

As if I would have actually said no.

43

Grayson Hawk

“Baby, are you joking right now?” I ask Skye as I spin in a complete circle taking in the place. “This can’t be real.”

I don’t want to mock her, but shit this place is a shit hole.

I grab the curtain and pull it back only to find it’s hiding a hole in the wall. “A curtain in the middle of a fucking wall with no window,” I say this more to myself because I’m at a loss. I’m thinking aloud, utterly confused at what these people are thinking. “So hanging a curtain the middle of a wall in the center of the house, with no access to the outside made more sense than patching the hole?”

“I think it adds character.” I turn around to find Tori and Skye both looking at me like I’m being ridiculous.

“Cute?” I ask. I want to tell them both they are insane, certifiably, but I know that’s probably the worse thing I can do. So instead I stare at them. The longer we do this, the harder it is to keep my shit together.

“What about the fact that the toilet is randomly sitting in the center of the bathroom?”

“It’s like sitting on a throne.” Tori shrugs and Skye nods. “We could add a little wall behind it if it bothers you that much.”

“Or the fact that all the doors swing outward into the halls instead of the correct way into the rooms?”

“Who says that is the correct way?”

They have got to be screwing with me.

“Every person that has ever built a house.” I throw my hands up in the air.

“They’ve run screws through the cabinets to hold them on, which means you’ll never be able to use those cabinets. And since they’ve done this on more than half the doors, that cuts the storage completely in half.” They both still remain where they are, staring at me.

“Then there’s the bathroom window that has been concreted over, literal concrete blocks, covering the entire thing from the outside. Yet they’ve left the blind in the window, a curtain up, and the fucking trim surrounding it like you have a freakin’ view.”

I’m aware my voice has risen a bit, but how can they not think this is all a huge problem.

“I’m not living here.” I shake my head. “I’d give the two of you anything, truly I would walk over hot coals, but this,” holding my hand out I spin in a circle, “this is where I draw the line. I will not let the two of you live here, I’m not doing it!”

The sounds of their laughter grab my full attention and I find both of them doubled over holding onto their sides.

---