Page 9 of Serenity

“It can’t be dumb if it’s something you want to share with me.” He reached out and pressed his hand against my fists. “Don’t you get it? You can tell me anything,Faith.”

There had to be a limit to what I could tell him. Right? Even though he sounded convinced that there wasn’t, I still wasn’t sure. At least the tree house thing wasn’t horrible, just a little embarrassing. Butstill...

“It was just the first thing that popped intomyhead.”

He raised one dark eyebrow and gave me a look that clearly said he wasn’tbuyingit.

“Fine. There’s a story behind it,” I sighed. “From a story I used to read when I was a kid. You could pretty much always find me with a book in my hand back then. It was my escape from how crappy things were withmymom.”

His hand reflexively clenched, and I winced a little at how tightly he held my hands. “Sorry,” he apologized as he loosened his grip. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. It’s just that it kills me to think about how bad yourchildhoodwas.”

“This is one of my good memories,” I reassured him. “When I was in first grade, there was this book fair at school. My mom didn’t send any money in with me, but my teacher had this thing where we could earn bonus bucks for good behavior. Normally, you could only turn them in for stuff like a piece of candy or an extra pencil. But about a month before the book fair she told us that the person with the most bonus bucks earned for the school year could pick out one book to take homewiththem.”

I closed my eyes and pictured Miss Mitchell in my mind. She had curly red hair, bright green eyes, pale skin, and she always wore long, flowy dresses to school. I couldn’t remember how many times I wished I could be her when I grew up. I had a serious case of hero worship over her, and that announcement only made me like her even more because it gave me the chance to own a book of myveryown.

“I knew I had a good chance of winning that prize since I never got into trouble at school. And I wanted it sofuckingmuch.”

“Did yougetit?”

I opened my eyes, turned my head, and smiled at Dillon. “You bet your sweet ass I did. I sucked up to Miss Mitchell like you wouldn’t believe, but it was more than worth it when I got to pick out my book atthefair.”

“What’d youchoose?”

“Dinosaurs Before Dark.” My smile grew bigger. “I read it at least a milliontimes.”

“I love that you have memories like that.” Dillon’s grin matched mine. “But why did your favorite childhood book make you guess a tree house for yoursurprise?”

“It’s the first book in the Magic Tree Houseseries.”

“Ahhh, now Igetit.”

“Yeah, I read every book in the series at least once. They weremagical.”

“And they made you want a treehouse?”

“Yup.” I nodded and whispered to myself because I didn’t want to make Dillon think of what he lost, “And abrother.”

“I’ll have to remember that for another time since we’realreadyhere.”

My head jerked up, and I glanced out the window. I’d been so absorbed in my story that I’d missed where we were heading. “We’re at the Volkswagondealership?”

“It isn’t the tree house you’ve always dreamed of, but you did say you’d let me buy you a car for graduation.” He pulled into a parking spot and turned towards me. “I figure you aren’t exactly thrilled by the idea of car shopping; what with the way you talked me out of going. But you need a car, so I called ahead and got them to set you up with three choices. A Jetta, a Passat, and anAtlas.”

“What? No Beetle?” I laughed, unsure how else to respond. I knew it was important to Dillon that I stopped using a rideshare every time I wanted to go somewhere. Since his house was further away from campus than my dorm had been, moving in with him made it harder for me to get around on my own. He was right about me putting this trip off over the weekend. Accepting a car from him when I was keeping such a big secret from him didn’t feel right. But I didn’t see a way out of at least looking at cars since we were already at thedealership.

Dillon jerked a thumb over his shoulder, pointing towards a row of shiny, new cars. “You can look at as many Beetles asyou’dlike.”

He’d just offered me the opening I needed to drag my feet on the car picking process, and I grabbed it with both hands. I had the salesman show me about half a dozen Beetles, plus the three that Dillon had asked them about when he called. The dealership was getting ready to close by the time we finished road testing four of them. I used the late time to put off the final decision and promised Dillon and the salesman that I’d make a choice soon. Dillon wasn’t thrilled with the delay, but after a whispered conversation with the salesman he seemedhappier.

His good mood continued through a quick trip to grab Chinese take-out and setting up our dinner on the back porch. Before we sat down, Dillon pointed towards where a line of trees separated our lot from the neighbors behind us. “I think that’s the perfectlocation.”

“Locationforwhat?”

“The tree house you’ve alwayswanted.”

I twirled in his arms and stared up at him in awe. “You’d really build me a treehouse?”

He grinned down at me, his dark eyes twinkling with happiness. “Yeah, but you’d have toshareit.”

“Of course I’d share itwithyou!”

“I’m sure we won’t be the only ones who’ll love it inthere.”

I shook my head, unsure who else we’d share a tree house with. “What doyoumean?”

“If we’re lucky, we’ll have some mini me’s and you’s running around the place someday.” I reared backwards, but he didn’t notice. “You’ll read your favorite book to them, and then they’ll get to play in the tree house and imagine themselves in thestory.”

“Dillon, stop.” I slapped my hand over his mouth. It felt like my heart was literally breaking. Dillon loved me so much that he wanted us to build a family. For me to be the mother of his children. It was what I’d always wanted—a family of my own. And Dillon was more than I could have ever hoped for. But he deserved to know the truth, which meant I had totellhim.

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