Page 64 of Bristol

Sebastian’s smile makes my heart feel like it’s going to burst. We walk into the office and Mack is already waiting for us in the lobby. Her smiling face is always such a welcome sight.

“Hey!” She greets us with a hug and ushers us to her office.

“Okay, so I’ve got everything all set up here. The sellers are going to be here in a few more minutes and we can go ahead and get you two moving into your new home today.”

“Thank you so much, Mack. For everything,” Sebastian says.

Funny how his tune has changed since the last time we dealt with her. I wonder what’s changed. Maybe he’s feeling a little more grateful about life. Or maybe it wasn’t as big of a deal as he was thinking. Either way, it’s nice. Mack has been wonderful to us. Who gives a shit who her husband is? We’ll leave his invitation out, but she’s invited to all our functions at the house.

The sellers arrive shortly after we did and they’re the cutest little old couple. They look to be in their early seventies and if they haven’t been married all their life, I’d be shocked.

We sign papers and within the hour we are on the way to our new house. The movers packed up everything this morning at the apartment and our new furniture is already loaded onto a U-Haul that’s en route to the new house as we speak.

Sebastian pulls into the driveway, tapping our new gate code into the gate. The front gate opens and our antebellum style home sits perfectly in the center of the property. The light teal blue exterior is complimentary of the beach-style décor. There’s a wrap-around porch on both floors, with three big columns on the front of the house.

The porch needs a few updates, but I can’t wait to sit on the swing upstairs at night and listen to the waves crash. The freedom that this house gives me is indescribable. The gate that surrounds it also gives me a little more safety and security. I feel at peace.

The movers are moving our furniture and boxes inside as we park in the garage behind the house. The concrete driveway that leads to the garage has been recently redone in the last few years and it’s been pressure washed recently. Everything looks perfect.

“What?” Sebastian asks, looking over at me.

I shake my head. “Nothing. I was just thinking how perfect this is.”

His smile mirrors mine. “Got me a damn sugar mama.”

I roll my eyes and slap his chest. He shrinks away from me and swings his door open. He comes around and opens my door for me, giving me his hand to help me out.

“How kind of you, my little sugar baby.”

He stops abruptly. “No. Do not.”

I burst out laughing as Reaper and Kendra approach the garage.

“Oh come on! Why’s it only funny when you do it?”

“Because. That just sounds wrong!”

“What sounds wrong?” Kendra asks, propping her elbow on my shoulder.

“Sebastian doesn’t like it when I call him my little sugar baby.”

Reaper doubles over laughing and I swear Sebastian is going to swing on him. He doesn’t. But he might change his mind at any moment. Reaper and Sebastian head inside to help the movers and Kendra walks with me to the pool in the back. It’s a perfect light blue and I cannot wait to spend every summer basking in the sun like a lizard in a terrarium. My light skin burns easily, but I’m going to give it hell trying to tan these white legs.

I’ve spent every single summer inside of a metal building for the last six years. I’ll be damned if I don’t spend my summers outside all summer every year from here on out. Fuck, I might sleep outside for all I know.

“How’s he doing?” Kendra asks, sitting back in a lounge chair next to me.

“He’s good. They’re finally out of the scraping stage of his healing, so that’s good. I didn’t think he nor I were going to make it through that. We did. But it was so rough.”

Kendra cringes. “Yikes. I’m glad you both made it through. Reaper told me a little about it and I made him stop because I wanted to throw up at just hearing about what Sebastian had to go through.”

“How’s Reaper? I know he was really upset for a while about the explosion.”

“He’s so much better. I don’t know what shifted or what changed, but his anger has dissipated over the last few weeks. It’s strange, but I’m not complaining. It was almost like he was mad that it wasn’t him that got hurt and I struggled to understand that. It didn’t make much sense to me. But we’re past that now. He’s been spending a lot of time in his shop lately when he’s home. He’s actually been on a job in Boston the last few weeks.”

“Oh, really? Boston? That’s far!”

“Yeah, he’s got a few clients up there that he’s been dealing with. That’s actually where Ryker came from!”

---