Page 106 of I Choose You
“Uh-uh.” I backed out of his embrace. “We don’t have time to get something started. We are going to your dad’s house for dinner.”
Reid growled playfully. Then, he swatted my ass on his way past me to take a shower.
We walked into Charlie and Sheila’s house one hour and two orgasms later. The entire Wilder family was there, except in Juliet’s place, Seb was there.
Everyone was congregating in the kitchen, although it didn’t look like dinner had been served yet. It took a second before anyone noticed that we had walked in, but as soon asMaeve yelped in surprise, everyone turned toward us.
Maeve ran up to me and wrapped me in a tight hug, like she hadn’t seen me in years. The guys all cheered, mostly giving Reid a hard time about his sour attitude.
“The house is still available. I can bring the key by Reid’s place later,” Wyatt offered, his arm slung around my shoulder. I didn’t have any siblings, but I’d bet this was what it felt like to have a brother.
“Thanks, but you can keep it.” A blush crept up my cheek. I didn’t know why I felt embarrassed talking about it, but sharing my living arrangements with Reid’s family, his father and Sheila listening in, made me nervous.
Wyatt smirked and jostled my shoulder.
Sheila started setting the table, and everyone pitched in to help. By the time the food was served, attention had shifted away from me and Reid. They all treated me like I was part of the family now, ingrained into their tight-knit group. I looked over at Reid and found his eyes on me. I couldn’t help but smile at him. He squeezed my leg before he was pulled into a conversation with Luke and Seb.
“Claire, do you have any idea what you want to do now? I can ask the school if they will need a new history teacher if you want me to,” Maeve offered.
“Actually, I ran into David Pratchett this morning at breakfast. The library historian position should be opening up in June, and he’s going to put in a good word for me.”
“Seriously?” Reid asked. His eyes held a proud sparkle in them as he looked at me. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“It just happened this morning. And then we were… distracted when you got home.” I shrugged.
“That’s great news,” Sheila said.
Maeve and Sheila were talking to me about the possible new job. Reid was pulled into a conversation with Charlie, Wyatt, and Luke about Luke’s police case. Seb was playing with Jane, lifting her up in the air and pretending to drop her, ignoring the rest of the chaos.
It was a perfect evening.
I would be thanking the universe for bringing me to this little coastal town in Massachusetts, for forcing Reid to work with me even when he didn’t want to, for the rest of my days.
Epilogue
Three Months Later
Sweat dripped down my back as the mid-August heat shined overhead. This new construction home build was going to be the death of me, but it would be well worth it.
Claire and I had worked on the design together for months, and as soon as a plot of land became available that fit our criteria, I jumped on it. Claire wanted it to have a nice yard where she could plant some wildflowers and we could have an outdoor living space. She also wanted to be close to the center of town, where she could walk to the market or the coffee shop, but not too close, where the tourists would infiltrate our peace and quiet during the busy summer months.
I wanted to see her face light up when she looked at a piece of property, and I wasn’t going to settle for anything less.
We finally found the perfect site two weeks ago, and with a cash offer, we were able to close yesterday. Which was why today, in the ridiculously sweltering heat, I was staking out the property lines and tagging the trees that would need to come down.
Richie, Dale, and Shawn were buttoning up our most recent project, converting an old mill building into new residential suites. It wasn’t to the caliber or scale of the Delano Library,but I was proud to be part of creating comfortable and well-crafted homes for new families.
I shot a text off to Richie, confirming that everything was coming together. Richie had responded that things were fine at the apartment complex, which meant I didn’t need to rush over there and could surprise Claire with a coffee at work instead.
It took me longer than I would have liked to find a parking spot at Flour Power. I ended up having to park down the street a ways. Summers were always busier, the warm weather bringing more people to the coast to cool off by the ocean, but this year, it seemed like we were inundated with tourists.
A blast of cool air hit me as soon as I opened the door to the café. A small line of people were waiting to place their orders, so I got to the back of the line to wait my turn. A commotion at the front caught my attention.
“Are you fucking dumb? Listen to me. I did not wait in this fucking line for you to not know how to take my order,” a man’s voice yelled at the barista. I shifted to the left so I could see around the people ahead of me to the front. A large man stood at the counter, the muscles in his shoulders so thick it made it neck disappear. His muscle tank straining across his back tried to break free of him. In front of him stood a wide-eyed Kayleigh.
I hadn’t known Kayleigh to be meek, but this man was huge, and he was screaming at her. Split flew from his mouth as he sneered his order at her again.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t carry coconut milk. We have cream, milk, oat milk, and almond milk.”
