Page 5 of Building Haven

“I’m just trying to be practical...”I glance at my hands, feeling awkward.Not because of her teasing but because thinking of having her at my side in five or six decades makes me imagine what she would look like then, and that makes my heart beat faster.Fuck, I’ve fallen hard for this woman...And she’s making me fall for her more and more with her kindness.

Riley slides an arm around my waist, pulling me closer against her.“I don’t want you to be practical.I want to spoil you as much as possible and I want you to make me spoil you.”She kisses the side of my head, her breath warm in my hair.“So, what are we going to do?Purple or grey?Remember, I’m doing this to spoil you.”

I look at her soft smile and my heart seems to skip a beat.How am I supposed to make the ‘safe’ choice, when she so clearly wants me to make the ‘selfish’ one.Because a light purple sweater in a fabric that wears like a cloud is more than I could ever dream of before.“Purple.Light purple.”

“Good choice.”She winks.“And if you really want it, I can make you a grey one after.Though...”She looks around, already lost in thought.“I’ve got a better yarn in mind if you want grey.One that you’ll never want to take off again.”She starts to wander off but I take her arm.

“Just the one sweater is good enough for now.We can come back for more later.I’m sure we’ve already picked up more than enough to last us a while.”I love watching her get excited.She can be very serious in other situations, but if something has her attention, she can get really excited about them.It’s cute.

When she was picking out a set of needles for me to learn to knit on, she handed me five different ones, before finally working it down to the one set.She loves sharing the things she likes and loves sharing what she knows.I think I could listen to her talk about knitting all day, and probably much longer than that too.

“There you are.”Jorge comes around the corner of the shelves, holding a few kits of something.“I was curious how long it would take for you to come out of here.”He grins as he looks in our baskets.“How much have you found?Did you buy out half the store yet?”

I pretend-pout at him.“Just because this isn’t your thing doesn’t mean that you get to tease us about what we picked up.I’m pretty sure there’s a whole box of fabric in the car that’s just what you chose.”

“I know.I know.”He holds up his hands, grinning, showing the top kit.It’s a cross-stitch kit with dinosaurs.

“Are you getting into a new hobby?”I raise an eyebrow at him and he laughs.I had no idea he had any interest in cross-stitch.Though, maybe I could have expected it, since he’s quite detail-oriented and seems to like numbers and things with lots of small pieces.

“No, this one is for Lily.It’s her birthday soon.I thought she would like it.It’s got dinosaurs and it’s not too big of a project.I think it suits her.”He leans closer conspiratorially.“I even made sure to choose the kit that was the most scientifically correct.I don’t need another lecture about bad representation of dinosaurs in media.”

“You’ve been through one of those before?”Riley laughs as she picks skeins of purple yarn from the shelf.

“Yes, a year or two ago.I bought her some fun dinosaur toys for in the bath and promptly got a lecture from a five-year-old about how half of them weren’t dinosaurs but other types of prehistoric animals and the other half had just about everything wrong with them.I learned very quickly to only buy her dinosaur things that were as close to scientifically correct as possible.”He laughs sheepishly.“Do not underestimate a five-year-old with a special interest topic.Theywillknow everything there is to know about it and youwillbe getting suspicious looks for years to come every time you give them something.”

I grin.Yes, that’s how kids can be.Though, I’m sure Lily is playing the ‘suspicion’ part up around Jorge because it seems to make him nervous, which is kind of fun to watch.“You do realise that she might not actually enjoy cross-stitching, right?And that you might be the one making it for her?”

“I know.And I’m happy to teach her and also willing to finish it for her if she doesn’t enjoy it.I just thought she would like the design and it gives her something fun to do while she’s listening to the thousandth video about them.”He shows me the other three kits.

One is of a butterfly and a bird on a background of lilacs, the second one is of a field with a cottage to one side and a ship on the water in the back and the third one is one of kittens frolicking on and around a sewing machine with all sorts of sewing and cross-stitch related items around them.

“I also picked these up.Thought we could hang them in the nest or the baby room.Or your sewing room.I’m pretty sure that there’s going to be a lot of down time and stress in the coming months, or probably even years.This seems like a useful but easy to pick up and put down way to spend that time.”

“They’re cute.”Very cute, actually.Almost makes me want to get back into the hobby.But I’m sure I’ve picked up enough craft supplies for one day.“Do you need a ring or something else to stitch in?Or do you want to stitch in hand?”

“What?”He blinks and I can’t help my laugh.

“Okay.Let’s pick up a few more things for you.You can decide if you need them later.”I take his arm and walk back in the direction he came from.“Otherwise, I’d be happy to use them myself.So it’s fine.”

If we’re picking up some rings, we should probably also pick up a few sets of good needles, since the kits don’t always come with good ones, and some fabric clips would probably also be a good idea.And if we’re looking at those anyway, I think we might have forgotten to grab pins at the fabric store, I hope they sell them here…

“If you’re going back there, I’ll be at the front of the store, checking if they have more of this yarn in storage.”Riley calls after us as she turns around, walking away, grinning broadly.

Well, today has definitely been fun and exciting.Though, we might have gone slightly overboard...Maybe...Slightly...

But it’s not like we don’t have the space for it and we’ll get around to them eventually...Probably...

4

Jorge

It turnsout that we can still surprise Derrick.I thought he’d lost that ability years ago, but we managed it.

To be honest, even I didn’t expect that a trip to some craft stores would end up with us hauling a massive wooden table, two smaller tables, and multiple boxes with crafting supplies back home.Oh, and some chairs, though Caleb apparently couldn’t get enough for a full set to go with the table so the rest of them will be delivered at some other date.

Finding space to store everything in the house without making our few living spaces unlivable until the other rooms have been finished kept us busy all of yesterday afternoon and until well into the evening.Which was good, because as the day went on, it was clear that the shopping spree wasn’t just from excitement, but also a way to try to keep our mind off what’s going to happen today.

Intheory, I know that everything is probably going well with Vera and Mathew’s pregnancies.But a first scan feels like thisbigmilestone.And it seems like none of us know how to deal with the uncertainty.

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