Page 96 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
“This house? Your grandmother’s house?”
She nods.
Does she want to buy it? Maybe her mom offered to sell it to her? “I...think it has the best lot on the street? The backyard is great, and I like the creek. And I think the kitchen remodel looks really great.”
She bobs her head in time with my words. “Right. Yes. All good things.”
“Kate? How doyoufeel about this house?”
She bites her lip. “Well, um, it’s mine now. So I think I... like it?”
I blink. “You bought it?”
She shakes her head no. “But I just talked to my mom.” Another deep breath. “Grandma Nora wanted me to have it.”
“Whoa.”
She laughs. “Yeah. Whoa.”
“How are you feeling about it?”
“Um, weird? A little conflicted? It’s why Mom worked so hard to make me want to stay. You remember? The way she left her car and bought the groceries and had the bed made up? It’s also the reason she kept it even after she moved to Florida.”
“She was saving it for you.”
“Exactly. But Grandma Nora only wanted me to have the house if I decided to live in Silver Creek. It was never in the will, but she told Mom what she wanted. So Mom just hung onto it, waiting to see what I decided to do. She finally told me today.”
“That feels weirdly...manipulative? You only got the house because you decided to live in town? That’s why you’re conflicted.”
“Yeah. Because I actually think that’s what Momthoughtshe would do at first. Lure me here, then, I don’t know, bribe me to stay? But things have gotten so much better lately. Our relationship has gotten so much better. She told me I can do whatever I want with it. We can keep it if we want. Or we can sell it.”
My heart squeezes at the sound of her sayingwe.But this is her decision to make. No matter how perfect I think the backyard would be for a garden, or how easily I can imagine sitting on this front porch with Kate until we’re eight hundred years old and wrinkled and gray, I’ll support her no matter what.
“What do you want to do?”
“Do you want the unfiltered, I’m-not-worried-about-what-anyone-is-going-to-think truth?”
“Well, I’m nervous now, but yes. Lay it on me.”
She reaches over and squeezes my hands. “I want to marry you. And then I want us to live here so we can make this house our home.”
My lips fall on hers even as I’m laughing, my hands moving from her face to her shoulders and back again. “Did you seriously just propose to me?” I say in between kisses.
She laughs. “I’ll take it back if you want to be the one who asks.”
I kiss her again, this one longer, a little deeper than the last. “I don’t care who asks.”
“So you’re saying yes?”
“Kate, I’ve had a ring since the week after you got back from London. Of course I’m saying yes. Today. Tomorrow. As soon as we can. Yes. Let’s do it.”
She pushes me away from her, hands pressed to my shoulders. “You’ve had a ring all this time and you haven’t asked me yet?”
I squirm, suddenly feeling a little sheepish. “I was trying to be reasonable. It’s only been six weeks.”
She shakes her head, her hand moving to my cheek. “Brody, it’s been nineteen years. You could have asked me that first night when we talked about everything, and I would have said yes.”
My eyes drop. “But it hasn’t been nineteen years for you. I was trying to give you some time to, I don’t know. Make sure you really want this.”
