She reached out, squeezed his thigh, took her hand away and assured, “I know, Rix, honey. It’s okay.” When he said nothing, she said, “Look where I am. Do you not think I’m okay?”
He grunted.
But he felt better, and he knew she knew it when Alex didn’t reply.
Rix drove.
Alex rode.
He turned left on Mt. Vernon.
“Are we going back to my place? Did we forget something?” she asked.
“No,” he answered.
“Then…uh, do you know a different way to Cottonwood?”
“No.”
“Then where are we going?”
“Quiet, sweetheart, quick detour.”
She grew quiet.
Rix reached for his drink, took a sip, returned it, then went back to the controls so he could pilot them along Senator Highway.
Up they went, past her place, deeper into Groom Creek, then he swung a left onto a dirt road.
They climbed about a hundred feet, swung a right, climbed a hundred feet more, then pulled off into the wide dirt drive next to a semi-sprawling ranch-style log cabin with a blue roof and a full front porch that wrapped around one side and led to a big square deck built suspended over the descent off the back right.
It had a large, blue shed about twenty feet from the house off to the left. It also had a fenced-in area with a greenhouse down the side stairs from the back deck that led to some stone steps in the earth.
There were neighbors, not too close, not too far.
Rix had met them. One elderly year-round couple. Two cabins that were owned by folks in Phoenix and used sporadically, though never in the winter. And the cabin up top that was owned by a park ranger who worked Prescott National Forest, a friend of Rix’s. They weren’t close, but Rix had put the feelers out. So when that cabin came up for grabs, he arranged it so, in a crazy market where shit was selling within hours of it listing, Rix could have first dibs.
He took them.
The log cabin had also been a weekend getaway house.
Now, it wouldn’t be.
The rest of the area around the cabin was just…
Trees.
“Four bedrooms,” he stated. “A den. Great room. Master has its own bath and a walk-in. Rest of the rooms share another one, though there’s a powder room off the kitchen. Also a small room next to the utility room on the bottom level, could be a playroom or a guest room. There’s a three-quarter bath down there.” He paused and then said, “Shed is twelve by ten.”
She sat next to him, staring at the house, saying nothing.
“Isn’t secluded like yours,” Rix continued. “Density of trees isn’t as much. But whaddaya think? We could raise kids here, hey?”
It took a beat before, slowly, she turned to face him, and from the look on her face, she didn’t have to say anything.
But she did.
“Hey,” she breathed.
He smiled.
Then he announced, “Good you think so. Because I bought it.”
Those beautiful eyes got huge.
“You bought it?”
“I bought it.”
“Like, bought it, bought it. You own it?”
Christ, she was cute.
“No. We will own it once we do some title shit to get your name on it after we get hitched. But yes. Offer accepted. Down payment check has been cashed. And as soon as we close, my name will be on the title of this house.”
“You bought us a house,” she stated.
“Yup,” he affirmed.
“Without me looking at it even on a Zillow listing.”
There hadn’t been a Zillow listing.
He didn’t tell her that.
Still grinning, he repeated, “Yup. We’re gonna Airbnb your pad and mine. Be Prescott real estate moguls.”
“So you have it all figured out.”
“Totally.”
“You are a caveman.”
He didn’t quit smiling.
“I was gonna give you your birthday present,” she shared.
He felt his smile waver. “Say what?”
“I haven’t given you your birthday present yet. You took off that night before I could give it to you. I was waiting until all that wasn’t fresh anymore. Which means today. On the hike.”
His smile came back. “Cool, honey.”
“No, it’s not cool,” she retorted and threw her hand over the dash. “I can’t give you that present after you already one upped me before I even did it by giving me a house.”
Rix busted out laughing, doing it reaching for her and pulling her to him so he could stop doing it in order to kiss her.
Once he accomplished that, he didn’t let her go and he didn’t go far.
“I don’t need any presents from you,” he told her.
“That’s good, because I’d brought it with me to Joshua Tree, then you horked in on that action by making us official. So I picked today for my third try, and then you gave me a house. The way you’re going, I’ll never give it to you.”
“I’m sure what you bought me is fantastic, but I’m totally down with that.”
“You would be, you’re Rix. You can’t stop being grotesquely awesome. It’d be annoying if I didn’t love you so freaking much.”
He was no longer smiling.
He was staring at her, incapable even of giving her shit for calling him “grotesquely awesome.”
Then he was kissing her.
Eventually, he had to undo her seatbelt and his to kiss her like he wanted to kiss her.
When it was pull her into his lap and do her in the cab of his truck or get their shit together and go inspect the house they were gonna raise their family in, he stopped kissing her.
“I love you too, baby,” he whispered.
“No kidding?” she asked somewhat breathlessly. “You bought me a house.”
That made him smile again.
And let her go.
For then.
He opened his door and angled out of the truck.
Alex did the same on her side.
They met at the grill, and he took hold of her, tossing his arm around her neck, tucking her close to his side.
Alex slid her arm around his back, her fingers curling around.
And, holding her tight, Rix walked his woman across the dirt, through the trees, up the steps.
And into their house.
Early the next morning, Rix walked out of his bathroom after taking a pit stop from getting Alex and him a fresh cup of joe.
Like he did on the way to the bathroom, he did the same on the way out.
He looked to his nightstand.
Then he looked to his feet and smiled.
He hit the kitchen, made their coffee and carried it out to the front porch, where Alex was where he’d left her. Kicked back in one of the chairs, Uggs on her feet, thick joggers on her legs, one of his sweatshirts up top, knit cap pulled low over her forehead so her thick hair bunched out at the sides, and her eyes to the street.
Rix handed over her mug and got her soft, “Thanks, honey,” before he sat beside her and got comfortable.
He sipped his coffee.
They didn’t say anything, just sat beside each other in contented silence on a Sunday morning in his quiet ’hood.
They did this as her birthday present sat on his nightstand, and it had a lot to say.
It did, seeing as it was the picture of them out in Cali, the first one they’d taken together.