Page 63 of The Inevitable Us

Chapter thirty-one

Sawyer

“Finallygotthebullseye!”I yell proudly at my Baby Girl. We’re at the shooting range again, for the dozenth time, trying to get Rosalie shooting straight. It’s been four and a half months since Rosalie started shooting, and she’s come a long way.

She smiles at me proudly. “Does this mean I get a bigger gun now?”

I clear my throat. “Alright, Annie Oakley. Slow your roll.”

Rosalie may be slowly learning how to use a handgun and improving. Still, she’s a little too enthusiastic about her newfound hobby.

I lean down and kiss her cheek. “I think we’re done for today. Let’s go get some lunch?”

She sticks out her lips in a full pout and looks at her now empty gun. “Fine,” she answers sullenly, her shoulders falling. “Wanna try a new brunch place? Kylie said there’s a place downtown she loved.”

“Whatever you want, Baby Girl.”

After properly storing our guns and bringing them back to the office gun safe, we drive to the small restaurant downtown that’s in a renovated corner market. After brunch, we drive past a sign that advertises “Yoga in the Park” and the traffic is lining the street. Apparently, there is also an entire neighborhood garage sale going on this weekend. Rosalie turns to me with eager eyes. “Let’s park and go exploring!”

I give her a puzzled look as I put the SUV in park. “For what? If you want stuff for the cottage, we can buy new.”

“For stuff you can’t buy new,” she explains excitedly as she unfastens her seat belt and gets out. “All of these houses are old Victorians. There’s no telling what treasures you’ll find at the garage sales!”

We stop at one garage sale, and I stand around for ten minutes while she pokes around before buying an old Queen vinyl for $5. Taking her hand, we walk to the next one. “What exactly are we looking for?” I ask.

“Anything that catches my eye,” she answers back with a smile.

Forty minutes and what feels like a hundred garage sales later, we’re half a mile away from the car.

She’s bought vintage stained glass suncatchers, the old record, a pair of bookends, and an old delicate porcelain tea set for Josie for Christmas. I’m toting it all as we slowly make our way back to the car. She’d found a reusable mesh bag to buy somewhere that I’m using to carry most of it, and the tea set is boxed up and wrapped in bubble wrap.

“I was thinking we could buy a house,” I offer.

She stops in the middle of the road. “Oh, like, live together?”

“We’re already living together, Rosalie,” I remind her. “I mean buying a house for us.”

I stop walking and face her. She is nervous, biting her lip again. Understandable.

Leaning in, I rest my forehead against hers. “So what do you say? Wanna get our own place? Someplace more private.”Someplace I don’t have to worry about the guards on duty hearing your screams.I kiss her lips softly and feel her smile.

“I think I’d like that,” she says back. “But I want to keep working at the ranch. I like it. And Taylee said she was happy with how I care for the animals.”

“Whatever makes you happy, Baby Girl.”

“Where do you want to move to?” she asks as we get into the car. “There are so many different neighborhoods. Maybe somewhere near your office?”

“Someplace with good schools,” I say as I take her hand in my own and kiss it. “I don’t want us moving again if we can help it.”

Taylee’sahotmessagain, mascara down her cheeks.

“You’re moving out? Of the cottage?” she asks, her voice suddenly shrill. “What if there’s an emergency and Steve-O needs her? I want her to stay. You aren’t moving out, are you? She won’t be close by if there’s an emergency….”

So far, in the months we’ve lived at the ranch, there have been countlessemergencies, but none that whoever is on duty can’t handle.

“I believe Rosalie is staying on staff, but we’re moving into our own home together,” I say firmly.

Her eyes perk up, “And Rosalie’s staying to work here?”

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