Page 48 of Confusing Hearts

“Black, huh?”

She nodded without hesitation. “All the appliances are already black, but stainless picks up fingerprints so easily it always looks dirty to me.”

“Black it is,” I said, adding it to the cart before pulling a matching black microwave off the shelf.

“I'm pretty sure there's already a microwave there,” she informed me.

I crinkled my nose in disgust. “There's just something wrong about a used microwave.”

She laughed. “If it's dirty it can be easily cleaned, you know?”

“No, just no. Sorry. I'm not giving up mine in the dorm, and I refuse to use the one left there. You have a fallout shelter's worth of beauty supplies, so I can have a new microwave.”

She laughed and nudged me, shaking her head. “You're so weird sometimes,” she teased.

We got through the kitchen aisle before attacking the linens. I left most of that up to her, insisting I didn't care. She picked out blankets and a new comforter for our bed, an extra set of sheets, towels, and even throw pillows for the couch. She fell in love with a particular lamp and so I added two to the mix.

When she reached the candles aisle, I had to tell her no. Apparently the smell of candles was not as awful for panthers as it was for wolves. She looked a tiny bit disappointed, but said she understood before heading off for my second biggest nightmare, cleaning supplies. We made some compromises there, but in the end, it seemed to work out.

We wandered through the food aisles, discussing our favorite and least favorite foods. It turned out to be a wonderful way of getting to know Jenna.

With an overflowing cart and one last stop in women's clothing for her to pick out a few items to keep at the house, we headed for checkout, paid, and headed home.

On the drive back to the house, Jenna's phone rang. She sighed heavily and I could feel her nervousness when she looked at the screen.

“Hey, Tessa,” she said, answering the phone. “Yeah . . . uh-huh . . . I know, sorry to worry you . . . I'm not on campus right now . . . Yes, I'm fine . . . No, you have your game tonight and I’ve got plans out of town this weekend and won't be back till Sunday evening . . . I understand what's expected of me, Tess, but I'm telling you I'm not going to make it to the party, I have other plans . . . It doesn't matter. Look, I'll talk to you on Sunday, have a good weekend.”

She hung up the phone and stared at it for a moment. “I wanted to tell her, Chase, but I'm not ready to lose her just yet. We're going to have to keep things a secret a little while longer.”

I felt a stab of disappointment, bordering on rejection, but mentally I understood where she was coming from. As I pulled up in front of the house and killed the engine, I pulled her towards me and kissed her temple.

“I know it's not always going to be easy for us. You take however long you need to tell her. We'll be careful on campus, but here, you're all mine.” I waggled my eyebrows up and down causing her to snort as she laughed. “Come on, we've got, um, a few bags to take in and put away.”

We both turned to look at the overflowing pile of bags in the back of the Jeep and groaned.

The next four hours were spent moving in and getting the place settled. Jenna scrubbed the floors and bathrooms, I hung new pictures she'd picked out and took down old ones we didn't want to keep. We rearranged the furniture the way we wanted it and stocked the kitchen. The pile of donations kept growing as we found more and more things stashed around the house neither of us wanted to keep, especially in the loft. There were four more bedrooms up there and one of them was crammed full of miscellaneous stuff. What the hell were we going to do with four extra bedrooms? My mind began to wander to all sorts of delicious thoughts.

“Look at this,” Jenna said, interrupting a scene playing out in my head. I turned to see her holding up an old typewriter.

I laughed. “Guess if the power ever goes out, we can still get our papers written.”

When we'd done as much as we could, we both collapsed onto the couch, exhausted. I was starving and suggested ordering pizza, but she was determined we were not wasting all the food we had just bought, and she stubbornly managed to drag herself into the kitchen to cook.

Watching my mate barefoot in our kitchen preparing our first meal in our first home overwhelmed me. I thought my heart would explode with happiness. I knew deep down that life wouldn't always be this simple and perfect, but it didn't stop me from wishing it would be.

My cell phone rang, and I smiled as I saw Kyle's face pop up on the screen.

“Hey, big brother,” I answered.

“Hey, yourself. Haven't heard from you in a while, just wanted to check in to make sure you're attending classes and keeping your nose clean.”

“Ha ha ha, very funny. I'm the least troublesome of the entire family.”

He laughed, but conceded it was the truth. “Seriously, everything's good?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Just been worried about you. You ever sort out that issue with the feline?”

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