Page 130 of Finding Our Reality

I shift in my seat, studying him. “Really?”

“Yeah. Everyone said they would help me—Marcum, Ray, Holt, Will Ridge, Cullen, and Jeff. I told them I just had to run it by you first.”

I blink several times, willing my tears not to fall. This man. I can’t believe this is my life right now. I never thought in my sadness that I could be this happy. The words of his letter haunt me.Hate me. How could I ever hate him? “I think that’s a beautiful idea. Thank you.”

Leaning back, I chew on my lip in thought.

He bumps me with his shoulder. “Go ahead and ask me. I know you want to.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t beat around the bush, Lulu. I like you when you get to the point.”

I grunt. “Fine.” I twist in the seat, allowing him to pull my legs into his lap. He lazily traces a finger up and down my shin. “Why ask me? It’s your house, Ry. Your property. You don’t need my permission to build or upgrade or change.”

He yanks the cap from his head and tosses it on another chair. He rakes his hand back and forth through his light brown hair. “For someone so smart, you can still be so stupid sometimes. I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again, this house is just as much yours as it is mine. I built it for you. It’s the only way I could live my life, knowing that I made your vision come true. But it’s not just this house, Lulu. It’s everything. Everything you see and hear and touch and think. There is no you. There is no me. Not anymore. There’s onlyus.”

“And there’s me.”

We turn and see Laura standing right next to us. She slaps the cell phone into Ry’s hand. “Can I go inside and get the book now?”

“Sure. But brush your teeth while you’re inside.”

“Okay. Come on, Miss Lulu, you need to brush your teeth too.”

I raise my eyebrows. “I do?”

“Yep. Because I know you and Uncle Ry will wanna kiss after I fall asleep.”

Ry bursts out laughing. “How’d you get to be so smart?”

She smiles and pushes her glasses up on her nose. “I’m six. I know these things.”

Taking her hand in mine, we walk up to the house.

***

She falls sound asleep after two chapters inLittle Women.

Ry carries her into the tent, laying her to sleep on the air mattress. Before sitting back down, he grabs a fresh beer for himself and a bottle of water for me from the small cooler he packed and brought down to the concrete patio. I swing my legs onto his lap, and his hand possessively holds my thigh.

“So, how bad was it today?”

“Bad.” I shrug. “My parents. What can I say? They had their secrets, even after all these years. Dad had secret bank accounts so he could buy things for his mistresses. Mom hid money to keep it away from Dad so he didn’t spend it on his mistresses.

“Apparently, Mom had several secret plastic surgeries over the past few years. The last disbursement checks I approved today included a balance of $42,000 to some plastic surgeon in Miami.”

I reach out and run my fingertips across the bones in his wrist. I trace the muscular cord of his arm up to his elbow and back again. His calloused thumb works the sensitive skin of my inner thigh.

“I don’t ever want that.” I watch as the flames of the firepit dance across his pale green eyes. “We’ve already been through that. We hid things from each other. We kept our distance; we kept our secrets. And it nearly ruined my life. I don’t ever wanna fall into that trap again. Promise me we won’t.”

He takes a deep breath, studying my face. “We won’t. Because I’m never letting you go again.”

I snuggle against his side, and we soak in the comforting noises of the night. Eventually, I nod at the tent. “It’s hard to believe school is already starting again. Is she excited about her new school?”

He chuckles. “She’s more excited about being in the same class as Anna.” He sighs, “Raylee didn’t have to do what she did. I’ll be forever indebted to her. I’d crawl across glass to make sure Laura has all the opportunities that Trash and I never had. I know it’s only elementary school, but she’s too smart to be in a struggling school that doesn’t challenge her.” He kisses the top of my head. “I’m also glad Holt accepted that coaching job. I know he’s on the other side of the campus in the high school building, but it’s still nice to know he’s close in case anything happens.”

“I’m sure she wishes Ridge were that close. Laura has a major crush on him. And did you see her with Nate the other day, when she met him? She couldn’t stop staring at him,” I say, talking about Marcum and Nancy’s thirteen-year-old grandson.

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