Page 21 of Better Than Expected

“Design it.” Caroline flashed her a self-deprecating grin. “You know I can’t do that, myself. I have certain things I’d really like,” she gestured to the paper she’d paperclipped to the top of the glossy plot of land photo, with a bullet-pointed list in Caroline’s handwriting. “But I don’t really know how to configure it all? Art is just not what I’m good at.” She bit her lip and gave Hannah the sweetest look of confidence. “But you’re amazing, and I trust you to design something beautiful. Everything I’ve ever seen you draw is magnificent.”

Hannah’s cheeks flushed warmly at that – especially because she certainly did not forget that the majority of what Caroline had seen of her drawings was Caroline herself.

“You… you really trust me to design your home?” She whispered and the words slot into place inside of her.

Caroline trusted her. She respected her knowledge and she trusted Hannah to be capable in ways that Hannah sometimes didn’t even trust herself. No one else – especially not her last “partner” – ever made her feel that way.

“Of course I do,” Caroline said, voice soft and soothing as a breeze.

Hannah blinked down at the land. It was nice – green grass, wooded area off to the side, a place for a long driveway…

She tilted her head, and she could see the home slowly building in front of her eyes. A nice wrap-around porch – Caroline would like that – big enough for a gazebo corner and a porch swing. A large office for all of the many times Caroline chose to work at home rather than in-office, just on the first floor, through a den.

The home came to life in her mind easily, and her fingers already itched, but she merely rested them on the photo of the land as she smiled at Caroline. The warmth she felt inside of her radiated through her smile, she was positive.

“You want me to get you a pencil now?” Caroline asked, and her tone was only half-joking.

Hannah did, on one hand.

But, as she shook her hair back and stared at Caroline’s perfect profile, she carefully reached out and put the open case on the table. “No,” she murmured, “We’ll get back to this later.”

Within seconds, she had her hands in Caroline’s hair and was straddling her waist as she kissed her deeply, sliding her tongue deep into her mouth.

She knew Caroline had plans – I’m going to make you come in my mouth – but… well, it was Hannah’s birthday. She should get what she wanted, first.

February 13 – This Year

Hannahhadn’t been excited about Valentine’s Day for… quite some time, if she was being honest.

The last Valentine’s Day she’d looked forward to had been before Abbie was born, with Michael. He’d taken her to New York City for a weekend of Broadway and five-star restaurants and a view from the penthouse of the most luxurious hotel she’d ever seen.

To her, at twenty, that had been the height of romance. It had been the romance novel, the beginning of a forever, of being swept off her feet, happily ever after.

At thirty-three, her views on romance were very, very different.

The thought drifted through her head as she leaned back against the counter in her small kitchen and watched Caroline and Abbie sit at the table together. Their heads were leaned in close, as Abbie demonstrated exactly how she wanted Caroline’s help making a complex glittery Valentine’s Day card.

God, Caroline was so not crafty. The thought made her snort quietly to herself, as well as the fierce frowny concentration lines that settled between Caroline’s eyebrows.

At the sound, Caroline whipped her head around. “And why aren’t you aren’t helping with these, huh?!”

Hannah held her hands up in defense. “I was informed that this was an activity between the two of you. Far be it for me to interrupt.”

Abbie shook her head. “Mom’s making a ton of cookies for the bake sale, she’s too busy to make the valentines for my classmates.”

“And why are we making them the day before? Shouldn’t we have started this, like, a few days ago?” Caroline poked Abbie jokingly in the side.

Abbie gave her a bright, overly-innocent smile that made Caroline break into her own.

After another few moments of watching Caroline try to glue a cut-up piece of doily, Hannah pushed herself off of the counter and walked up behind her chair.

Leaning down, she inhaled the scent of Caroline’s shampoo, and her eyes fell shut for a moment.

It wasn’t getting old at all. She’d thought maybe after a few months, it would. But it didn’t.

Snapping herself out of the moment, she wrapped her arms around Caroline’s and gently took the glue from her hands and slid the valentine away from her, as she murmured into her ear, “You can win any legal case, you can conquer the heart of every blonde female in this home, and you can fly around in that superhero cape you have, but I think we’ve found your weakness.”

She easily glued down the doily piece in the design Abbie picked out for her Valentines as Caroline turned her head so that she was only centimeters from Hannah’s face and she whispered, “Show-off.”

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