Page 53 of False Start
“No, we can’t.”
He whispers in my ear, “I want to fuck you in this house knock you up with my baby inside this house.”
My nipples tighten and my uterus contracts at his words. “Yeah?”
“Let’s make and raise babies here, Coach.”
And it’s how he talks me into buying a house we’ll never be able to fill. “Do you realize how much furniture it will take to make it not look so empty?”
“I don’t care, baby. I can tell you love the house. It’s the first one you’ve seemed to like all day, and the agent is a dude, which is a total plus after the last nightmare.”
I sigh. He doesn’t ask to get his way often, but he’s going to win this one. “Okay. It’s your money.”
“Babe, no it’s not. We’re married. It’s our money. And even if we weren’t, you’re my partner. We share our lives, and it includes financials.”
“Are we going furniture shopping?”
He kisses the side of my neck. “Yes. We need a bed first and foremost. I want something big and comfy. Decorate the house as you like.”
“What if we decorate it together? It could be fun.”
If my husband thinks the idea is ludicrous, he doesn’t show it. “Okay, baby. Whatever you want.”
“I want it to look like we both live here.”
The agent sneaks up behind us and almost scares the bejesus out of me. “Did you have any questions about the property?”
“Yeah,” Bryant replies. “Where do we sign?”
BRYANT SPEEDS UP THE process of us moving in the house by playing the state’s new “it” man in sports. People love him and eat up his southern charm. His dimples don’t hurt either. Within two weeks, we’ve moved it with virtually nothing but a few personal effects from our college and childhood years. Bryant has more trophies than clothes to unpack, so we’ll need to find a cool space to display them.
We decide to take the house one room at a time and spend time together making it our home. We have all summer to fill it with the perfect pieces for furniture and wall art. We focus on our bedroom and the kitchen first since we need both to maintain a household. Each day, we go to the local farmer’s market together and pick out our food for dinner. We often enjoy a nearby taco truck for our lunch break and then come home to finish working before dinner. Music fills our kitchen as we laugh, talk, and cook together every evening. Dinner is usually followed by a warm swim in the pool, and then a shower before we fall into bed exhausted from the day, although, we’re never too tired to make love and enjoy a last little bit of conversation before we close our eyes for the night.
Tonight, the moonlight casts across our bed, illuminating his green eyes even in the dark. I wrap his long hair around my finger and play with it. It’s become a source of comfort for me in the last eighteen months we’ve been together. I enjoy the way his silky brown hair feels against my fingers.
“You’re going to put me to sleep,” he says.
I snort. “I thought that was the point of us lying here in the dark.”
He reaches across the bed and hooks his arm around me before he effortlessly moves me across the bed to him. “Come here smartass. God, I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“The house is quiet, but one day, we’ll remember this and wish we had a little piece of it again.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, babe. Before we know it, we’ll hear the pitter-patter of little feet all around us. And we’ll be pulling our hair out and wishing our names were something other than mommy and daddy, at least, for a little while.”
I press a kiss to his chest and then snuggle into his massive arms. “I just hope we aren’t the couple who hates each other after they have kids.”
He kisses the top of my head and gives a gentle squeeze. “We could never hate each other. We’re a team, and nobody can ever come between you and I. We’ve always been on the same page, and it’s important for us to stay that way when we have babies. If we do that, we’ll survive anything.”
I trace the tattoo of my name in script on his chest and smile as I briefly remember him coming home to surprise me with it. I thought he was out with the guys for a beer, but he’d booked an appointment for the tattoo instead. I was dumbfounded when he first took his shirt off. I don’t think they make greeting cards for the situation, and I didn’t know what to say at first either. And then I started crying because he loves me enough to ink my name on his skin forever.
“I always want to be this happy with you.”
He chuckles. “I’m going to do stupid shit like leave the seat up in the middle of the night. You won’t always be this happy with me.”
