Page 108 of Nave
A smile tugged at my lips at that, knowing I’d only had a limited amount of freedom while Ben was still alive. But now, the sky was the limit.
I could get a real driver’s license. I could get a job, rent an apartment, enroll my baby in school when they were old enough. I could get a cell phone and a computer.
“What’s that look for?” Nave asked when we made it back to the clubhouse, leaving Junior to handle getting rid of everything in the trunk.
“I can do anything I want now,” I told him. “Wecan do anything we want.”
“Speaking of that, you want to stretch those legs out after all that driving?”
“Sure. But why do I feel like you have some sort of ulterior motive?”
“I have something I want to show you.”
“Okay,” I agreed, tamping down the urge to ask him to tell me, to claim I didn’t like surprises.
That was only because, in my old life, any surprises that came my way were of the negative variety. I could trust Nave not to expose me to anything upsetting.
So I reached for Nave’s hand and slipped my fingers between his, then just went ahead and enjoyed a walk through my new town… without my disguises.
“I feel more at home here than I did my entire childhood with my parents or my first apartment,” I admitted, leaving out the glass house for obvious reasons.
“You have no idea how glad I am to hear that.”
There was something playful about his smile, about the light in his eyes. But he said nothing as we turned down a side street, then one more.
It was a street full of sweet ranch-style homes, some brick, others various shades of vinyl siding. A few had meticulously dark green front lawns; others gave in to the overly dry and relentless heat at the end of summer.
This was strange.
Did his parents live on this street?
Was he expecting me to meet them without any kind of advanced warning? At the very least, I wanted a chance to brush my hair that had been whipped around from the open car windows.
I was just about to say something before it was too late when Nave suddenly stopped walking in front of a white brick ranch with an overhanging front porch and a front flowerbed bursting with Black-Eyed Susans.
There was still a dumpster in the driveway, and I figured the interior had just been renovated.
“What’s this?” I asked, not letting myself believe the possibility that was whispering in the back of my mind.
“Home,” he told me, giving me a hopeful smile. “If you want it to be. No pressure.”
“Wait… you rented it?”
“I bought it. Well, almost. It’s a process. But I will be signing a mountain of paperwork in another two weeks.”
“You bought a house.”
“For us.”
“You bought a house for us.”
“We needed somewhere just for us. Private. With a shower I can actually fit inside.” A little laugh escaped me at that. “It’s got three bedrooms and two baths. With room out back if we want to expand. An unfinished basement that I could make Spike, Cain, Perish, and the twins turn into more living space if we need it. The kitchen, floors, and bathrooms have all been redone. It’s perfect as it is, but has room for growth. Oh, but we need a fence for Edith.”
“And maybe a doggy sibling for her.”
“She’s really turned into a social butterfly. Yeah, I think she needs a sibling. What kind were you thinking?”
It was really that easy for him. No list of rules, no trying to tell me I didn’t need another dog.
