Page 13 of Binding Their Hearts

“Yes?”

“These are all multimillion-dollar homes, Henry.” She gestured up and down the street with its ancient cobbles and its one-side-only parking and its neat-as-a-pin homes with their centuries old architectural detailing. “The whole neighborhood. That’s in our price range?”

His price range, since no way would her bank account support anything like that. The mortgage would be bigger than her old rent and her student loan payments and Ollie’s put together.

As Henry hummed quietly, Jay slipped his hand in hers and squeezed. Guess they’d jumped ship from his childhood insecurities to hers. They’d had the financial talk before, multiple times. But sometimes the worries about not contributing her fair share jumped up and bit her in the ass.

Henry slipped his arm around her back, narrowing the gap between them as they walked. “When you begin a project design, do you focus on the upfront cost or on the quality of the materials and the value they will have over the life of the product?”

“Honestly, it depends on the client’s goals.” She caught his obvious point, though. House hunting wasn’t like buying a cheap pair of sneakers just to last the season because the good ones hadn’t been on the bargain rack. “But if I had my choice, yeah, the value over the long term, every time. Fewer headaches that way.” Dryer feet because the soles hadn’t worn through and soaked her socks in the rain, whatever that meant for houses. “Better peace of mind.”

“Just so. I am seeking a home for the long term, Alice.” He stopped at a cross street and nodded toward the house catty corner from them. A stained-glass pane over the door gleamed in the sun, and a child’s bike lay heaped on the front stoop. “One that meets all of our current needs—more bathrooms, larger bedrooms, a dedicated studio space and so forth. One with room to grow, should we choose to expand our family someday. And one that will provide a secure future and a source of wealth for you and Jay should something unexpected befall me. A house is an investment, just as the apartment was.”

Well they’d just skip right over the unexpected befallings, because she wasn’t ready to deal with that possibility, and Jay would stamp a huge veto on it too. If love could keep a person alive, Henry would outlast their solar system. “It’s a huge leap from an apartment to a $4 million house.”

“Less than you might think.” He ushered them across the street, past the cute lived-in house. “Your experience with apartments is in the monthly cost of rent. Would it help you to know that I intend to list the condo itself for more than a million?”

“More than—” She shut her mouth lest she start catching flies. “It might.”

“Good.” Smiling, he stopped in front of yet another brick row house, this one with an Open House sign on the door. “Shall we see what our third prospect has to offer? The sale of the condo will provide plenty of funds for a down payment on the house. Our neighborhood has appreciated in value significantly since I purchased it.”

She climbed the single step and pushed open the door. “They say the third time’s the charm.”

But the third wasn’t. Nor the fourth, fifth, or sixth. A vision of weekends gobbled up by house hunting stretched out before her. Maybe until spring. Seven months. At least her flogging training would be done before then. And if Jay wanted to keep up his basketball games, he’d have to move them indoors somewhere. They wouldn’t be giving up every opportunity for lazing in bed on a weekend morning. Probably.

They stopped for ice cream on the way back to the car and grabbed seats on a bench outside. Despite Alice’s careful attention to sculping the cone, black raspberry slipped over the side and plopped on her jeans. “Shit.”

Jay hopped up and handed his cone off to Henry. “Napkins. I’m on it.”

She called her thanks after him. The door jingled as he disappeared inside. “I talked to him. About the house hunting.”

Henry raised an inquiring eyebrow.

“He’s not putting up a false front. I think he wants this even more than he did before we visited his family. Something permanent, he said.” She swept a circle around the cone with her tongue before more drips tried to join the berry bits. “He wants a sign that he belongs. Even if he’ll miss the apartment—of course he will, we all will—you’re doing the right thing looking for a home.”

“Thank you, Alice.” Henry, smart man that he was, had gotten his ice cream in a bowl. No stray dribbles over the side, no matter how long he let it sit and melt. “Given the places we’ve seen, I expect I’ll need to increase our budget or select a different neighborhood. But we’ll find something appropriate that we can make our own.”

Jay bounced back out the door with a fistful of napkins. Crouching on the sidewalk in front of her, he dabbed away the mess. “Good as new.”

“Because of your excellent attentiveness.” She brushed his cheek with a kiss before Henry handed over his cone. “I’ll have to reward you when we get home.”

Was Sunday too early in the week for a room check? After all the walking and the stairs, a foot rub would be heavenly. Jay could work his way up from there.

Chapter six

Jay

As the paper edges lined up, Jay pinched the diamond point with his thumb and pressed into the fold, smoothing it flat with his nail. He eyed the next step, reading through the instructions twice and studying the picture.

The origami book Alice had gotten him for his birthday was spiralbound, so it stayed open on the dining room table without his help, which was handy—ha—since he needed both hands for the project.

“How’s it coming?” Henry stood whisking something behind the breakfast bar. Marinade, maybe; the air had the sharp, tangy whiff of citrus and herbs and steak-sauciness.

Jay bobbed side to side, both a so-so and a way to bleed off the bubbly energy of being under Henry’s tender gaze. “Good, I think. I’m starting with an easy one. The book has a bunch, and they get harder.”

Four folds so far, but those were all to make creases for later things. The paper had a purple-ish front and a plain white back; the finished flower would show both if he did it right. Alice would be home within the hour, and he wanted to have the flower sitting beside her plate for dinner.

“I’m certain Alice will be delighted by your efforts.” Tiny cymbals crashed, the metal tink of the whisk against the bowl. “What spurred you to embark upon this project?”

---