Page 128 of That Reunited Feeling

“I’m starving,” Dylan adds.

I practically skip around to the other side of the car, take Hannah’s hand, and lead her up the brick path that’s lined on both sides by beautiful plants, including two lemon trees, and usher her toward the yellow, ivy-framed front door. “Come on, Dylan.”

“So, is it for sale?” Hannah asks again. “Don’t we need a Realtor with us?”

I point from the keys in her hand to the lock. “Go on.”

She shakes her head and shrugs. “I wish you’d tell me what we’re doing.” But she unlocks the door anyway, then pushes it open. “Now what?”

“Now this.” I scoop one arm behind her knees, the other behind her back, and lift her into my arms.

“Whoa.” Hooking a hand over my shoulder, she looks at me with a surprised smile. “What on earth are you doing?”

“Please don’t start making out.” Dylan sticks two fingers in his mouth.

I look into the eyes of the person I love and want to spend the rest of my life with, and step inside. “I need to carry the woman of my dreams over the threshold. Welcome home.”

Her eyes widen. “Youboughtit?” There’s a flash of disapproval across her face. “Already? Without talking about it? Without us choosing it together?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise. And it needed work. There’s been a construction crew here for three months.”

Hannah kicks her legs for me to set her free. “You’ve been doing this forthree months?” Her smile has gone. “Behind my back?”

This is not how I was hoping this would go.

“Wow.” Dylan steps in behind us, looking up at the ceiling of the double height entryway. “This is cool.”

“Not exactly behind your back,” I tell Hannah. “More as a special surprise.”

“But I wanted us to choose our first placetogether.” The disappointment on her face is the opposite of what I was going for.

I’m suddenly racked with the feeling I’ve done it all completely wrong and ruined the whole thing. “Maybe take a look around and see how you feel about it.”

But she’s already headed off toward the living room.

“I can always sell it,” I say to her back. “And we can pick somewhere else together if you?—”

Something between a long gasp and a sigh escapes from Hannah.

“What, Mom?” Dylan asks, trotting past me toward her.

“Oh, wow,” he says when he reaches her.

When I catch up, I step between them and drape an arm around each of their shoulders. All three of us gaze through the windows that line the wide living room, and look out over the patio and the infinity pool with its view toward the city and the glimpse of the ocean beyond.

It’s almost the same view as Rachel’s, the one I was searching for that night at Maggie and Jim’s kitchen counter when I thought I might never find Hannah again.

She wraps her arm around my waist and tips her head against my shoulder as she gazes from the white-beamed ceiling down to the giant fireplace at the end of the room, over the beach-toned furniture that looks perfect for Sunday afternoon napping, until her eyes rest on mine. “It’s beautiful. I would have picked it too.”

I pull them both tight to my sides. “And you’ve barely seen it yet.” I pat Dylan on the back. “Three of the bedrooms upstairsare empty. Go pick which one you want, and we’ll furnish it however you like.”

“Cool!” He trots back to the foyer and bounds up the stairs with their wrought iron railing.

“There’s something important I want to show you out here.” I lead her toward the glass doors and down the steps to the landscaped patio. A green hill rises away from us on one side, and the world falls away in front to the city below.

“This is ridiculous,” Hannah says with a flabbergasted smile, shaking her head as she looks around and takes it all in, like she can’t grasp that it’s real. Or hers. “Truly unbelievable.”

I walk her to the side of the shimmering pool and stop beside the glass railing that looks out on our new world.

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