Page 104 of Easy Reunion
Chapter 41
Kelsey
“Have you heard from Ry today?” Lisa asks me as we’re standing in the kitchen.
“Not today. Have you?”
She shakes her head. “With today being the day the movers were bringing in the big items, I expected him to call or text you.”
I did too, but Lisa also doesn’t know Ry’s been struggling more and more every day he’s facing not only Logan’s—John’s grandson—future but his own past. I can hear the weariness and the struggle growing every night while we talk. A large part of our conversations center around him unburdening himself by telling me in detail about how the progress Logan’s made, which is little.
Just before the car came to pick him up for the airport three weeks ago, he pulled the key off his ring and pressed it into my hand.
“I love you. And if the mistakes I’ve made over the last few weeks have taught me anything, it’s that I can’t live without you in my life.” Leaning down, he laid his lips on mine. “You may have to be patient with me, Kels, but I need to know you’re here, in my life, my home, my heart, when I get back.” Without giving me a chance to throw my arms around him to give him my unequivocal “Yes,” he brushed his lips over mine once more before racing out the door.
And our conversations since haven’t offered up the right moment to bring up the fact that with his sister’s help, and Angel’s amused supervision, my life has stopped spanning two homes and has fully settled into one. Lisa and I went over to my storage unit last weekend to take a look at my furniture to see what should be kept and what can be saved to be donated for the Le Cadeau annual fund-raiser. “Oh, God, look at this desk. We’ve got to find a way to get this back to the house,” Lisa whispered as she stripped the plastic off my custom-built mahogany desk. “It would look perfect in the loft upstairs.” Then she turned to me and begged, “Tell me this is where you wroteBetrayal.”
I smirked before shaking my head. “Do you think I had the money for this desk when I wroteBetrayal? I wrote it while sitting at my dining room table thinking about your brother. Disappointed?”
“Only if you tell me that table isn’t in here.”
“It’s in the back.”
“Thank God.” We both laugh before I tell her, “I did writeForgottenat it though.”
“Save me. I might bring Cade over to kiss me on it.”
“Ew.” I raised a brow at her as her fingers trailed over the scrolling inlay reverently. “But speaking of that, won’t having this monster around impede your living space?”
Lisa blushed hard. “Not when I tell you that Cade asked me to move in with him.”
“Holy crap, Lisa.” I reached for her and hugged her hard. “I take it you said yes.”
“It took him a while to convince me,” she said almost proudly.
I frowned. “When did he first ask you?”
“About a week after we started dating.” And simultaneously, we both burst into laughter. Wiping her eyes with the ends of her shirt, she looked up at me and asked, “Why do you think you and Ry had so much privacy at the house? Cade called it a test run.”
“So, you’re ready.”
“Beyond. There were things I knew he was keeping from me. Now? I know everything I need to.” A serene look crossed her face. “And judging by the fact we’re in here picking out furniture, I’m guessing you feel the same way.”
I opened my mouth and closed it. Ry secrets are his to tell or share. “I guess homes have a way of letting people know when they’re ready for them,” I said diplomatically.
“And so do men’s hearts,” she agreed.
Now, the movers have just left, and we’re both hanging around trying to find space for kitchen gadgets. “If Ry were to walk in the door right now, he’d have a coronary his kitchen isn’t in perfect order,” I mutter as I bend over trying to find a spot for my nifty Rachel Ray box mandoline.
When I stand, it’s to find the feminine version of the eyes I love smiling at me. “No, he wouldn’t. He’d be grateful.”
God, I hope so, I think to myself. “Is it too much to wish that kitchens have magical powers to absorb all your gadgets and spit them out when you need them?”
Lisa still laughing at me when I hear my phone ring amid the mess on the counter with Ry’s distinctive Dave Matthews ringtone. “Shit. I can’t find it! Can you get to it on your side?” I laugh.
Lisa scans the counter before snatching it up. Quickly answering before it goes to voicemail, she says, “Hey, big brother.” Then a pause. “Nope, we’re rearranging things in the kitchen.” There’s a smirk before she says, “Ask Kelsey. Here.” She holds out the phone to me. “Someone tall, dark, and dare I say handsome since we look alike wants to talk with you.”
Snatching my phone out of her hands, I breathlessly greet him. “Hey.”
