Page 37 of Somewhere Only We Know
“Anywhere, huh? What if I’m in Alaska?”
Her hands stall their movement and I smile against her. “I’d rethink my stance on following you anywhere.”
“So you’d leave me to freeze?”
“It’s not cold all the time there.”
“Just six months out of the year,” I note.
“Exactly.”
Silence falls over us as it normally does. It’s not a we-ran-out-of-things-to-talk-about silence. In fact Jax and I can talk about anything under the sun. Well, she talks and I listen with a smile on my face. But we can also sit in the quiet and not feel the need to fill the quiet with noise. And that’s good when some people refuse to stop talking.
“What would you want in your dream house?”
She gasps and drums her fingers on my back in excitement. “Are you starting your senior project?”
“I am.” I say and pinch her side resulting in her to squirm. “Now tell me what you’d want.”
“Oh that’s easy.” She tells me and goes back to rubbing my back. “An all-weather sunroom that overlooks a lake, that way we can see the seasons change from that one spot. A kitchen and dining room that's big enough to host our families and friends.”
“We don’t have a lot of friends,” I say.
“We will when we’re older. Now hush. This is my dream home.” She says with a laugh and I can’t help but chuckle.
I listen in comfort as she lists every room that’s downstairs, because according to Jax we need a two-story house. But in listening to her list what she wants in her dream home, I’m also locking everything away for our future because I want this life with her.
“Oh, and a playroom.”
“A playroom, huh?” The thought of kids never scared me. I love being an older brother. While most of my friendstolerated their younger siblings, I took every chance to be around Kayla. Now imagining kids with Jax makes me want a time machine so we can get to that part of our life faster.
“Mm hmm,” is what she responds with. “But it won’t be a playroom at first.”
“Of course not,” I go along. “What would it be?”
“An empty room, silly goose.”
“Oh, pardon me. What about the second level?”
Jax describes in detail what she’d want the upstairs to have. The primary suite would be on one end of the house for privacy and because every house should have a spa-like bathroom and department store sized closet.
“Is it just our room on that level?” I tease.
“Nope. It would be a very big house. Speaking of, how many kids would you want? Hypothetically speaking.”
I sit up and her eyes meet mine. I move next to her and prop my head on my closed fist, toying with the string of her hoodie. “Hypothetically, two or three. But knowing my luck I’d end up with four kids.”
Jax’s eyes widen to a comical size. “Four?”
“Your choice if you’re able to carry them.”
“How considerate of you.” She says and turns into me.
I say nothing back as I survey her. The light smattering of freckles is spread on her button nose and tops of her cheeks with her wayward curls framing her perfect face.
God, I have it so bad.
“I like you a lot,” I tell her.
