Page 21 of Little Bedtime Snack

Everyone he met at the function liked Eli. It was impossible not to.

And by all accounts, the event was a success. There were even some soft closes on a few contracts I’d been working on. And then, as people moved on to go to dinner, we bid our goodbyes.

I brought him back to our room, where I had a wonderful steak dinner set up for us so we could have our date night, just the two of us, to make up for all the lost time from the week.

15

ELI

“What do you think?” Mason’s breath tickled my ear as he spoke low, not wanting the realtor to hear him. I understood why he was being secretive—the more the listing agent knew you wanted a place, the less negotiation room you tended to have.

But I didn’t care the reason, I loved feeling his words brush against my skin, having his lips so close to me. Yeah, I was here for it.

“I think we should talk about it later.” This wasn’t a house that we had on our list, but when we passed by and saw it on our way to a different showing, it caught my eye. In turn, Mason asked the realtor if we could take a look, and here we were.

I knew it was going to be higher priced than most of the places we’d been looking at. How could it not be? It was gorgeous—an old Victorian, completely refurbished, filled with built-ins, carved woodwork, tin ceilings, and that wonderful reading nook. I was floored at what it had to offer when I read the listing and disclosures.

And then I saw the price. This wasn’t a little outside of our price range. It was a whole lot outside our price range. What made that worse was that I’d already fallen in love with the place. It was everything I wanted in a house and more.

The kitchen was open and well organized without being too commercial. It even had a walk-in pantry. A three-season back porch that looked out into beautiful gardens and the library. Add to that all of the updating had been done, meaning it wasn’t going to be a money pit the way some of the older homes tended to be.

Even with all of that, I’d have been able to turn it down. It was the main bedroom when I completely fell in love, and there was no turning back. I might not have been able to afford this place, but it was going to live in my heart for years.

Off the bedroom was a huge space they called a dressing room—basically a closet without closet features. And when I said huge, I meant huge. The second I walked in, I knew what it needed to be—a nursery. Right now, when we wanted Little time, we took everything out and put it back when we were done. But this space? We could just shut the door and be done.

At least we’d be able to if they cut the price by a quarter.

“I think we need to move faster than that.” Mason kissed my cheek.

I couldn’t deny that he was right.

In theory, if we wanted the house, we were going to have to move much more quickly than let’s discuss it in details and sleep on it. But we couldn’t jump at it.

When we decided to finally move in together, we’d considered moving into his place, but it was far from my job, and it would always be his place to some extent. So instead, I moved in when my lease was up, and we began searching for homes. Every weekend, we checked out a few new listings, and every weekend, they were fine—but nothing great. Nothing that said we needed to live there.

“Hey,” he whispered. “She’s talking to that other person over there. Come with me.”

He took my hand and led me upstairs to the main bedroom and into the room I already thought of as my nursery, shutting us in. He cupped my cheeks, pressing his forehead against mine.

“Tell me, Eli. Talk to me. Is there something about this place that feels off? Because that’s legit.”

There had been a place we looked at where I didn’t feel comfortable. There was nothing particular about it that should have set me off—I just felt uneasy. But this wasn’t that. This was 100% about my crappy job.

“I’m a toll booth agent. I work at a toll plaza, not even in the offices. That’s not a career, and that is not enough money for a place like this.”

“Oh. I got so excited about everything, I hadn’t considered that you might?—”

Which was fair, and I didn’t blame him for it. He had money and had a knack for making more and more of it. Me? I needed overtime to do car repairs.

“I’ve been meaning to have a talk with you about money anyway.”

My stomach dropped. I leaned into his chest, not wanting to look at him but needing to feel his warmth. I wasn’t going to make more than I did, at least not for a long time, and I hated that my job might be getting in the way of his new home.

“I checked with a realtor. My place is gonna go for a lot more than I paid for. If we throw all of that into here as a down payment, the mortgage will be about what you were paying in rent.”

I knew his house was nice, but I didn’t realize it was that nice. Although, given the location, it did sort of make sense.

“Yeah, but that’s not fair.”

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