“You ready?” I nod and walk downstairs with him.
“How far is this?” I ask, and he grabs his phone and puts in the address.
“It looks like a couple of hours,” he says, putting on his sunglasses, and the sun reflects off his wedding ring. “We can stop at the diner in town, or we can—”
“Out of town,” I say, and he just nods. “They are probably camping out to see if we walk in and if the news is real.”
“I already confirmed it while I was brushing my teeth,” he says. “Being mayor and all, I put out a statement.”
“A statement,” I repeat. He hands me his phone, and I see the statement right on the top.
From the desk of the Mayor
I am very happy to announce that yesterday I married my best friend, Savannah Harrison. We exchanged vows surrounded by our immediate family and friends. It was everything that we wanted.
We thank you for your privacy in this matter and will be sharing our official portrait as soon as we get back from our mini honeymoon.
Mayor Beau & Savannah Huntington
“Very official and very real,” I say, looking back at him. He just smiles at me. “There is so much we have to talk about.”
“We do,” he tells me. I hate that he has his glasses on, and I can’t see his face.
“What’s on your mind, baby?” he says the last word softly.
“Well, where are we going to live?” I ask, trying to ignore how his term of endearment makes me feel.
“We can live at my house when you don’t have Ethan,” he says, “then we can stay at your house when you have him. Besides Ethan loves my house.”
“You’ll be okay with that?” I ask. “You didn’t even bat an eye or think twice about it.”
“A house is just a house,” he says, looking over. “It’s who is inside that house that makes a home. You’re my home.” I reach in my bag to take out my sunglasses so he can’t see the tears in my eyes.
“For my whole life, all I wanted was a place to call home, and when I bought my house, the only thing I could think of was making a home for Ethan,” I tell him, sharing another piece of myself I haven’t told anyone else. But that is the way it is with Beau. He gets all my secrets and guards them. “I filled it with all the furniture I could. I hung pictures all over the place. I have his growth chart on the frame at the back door. I wanted him to feel like his home was his comfort place. I didn’t even think of it the way you just said it.” The tear now falls, and I look over at Beau, who grabs my hand and kisses it. “But you’re right. A home isn’t the house; it’s the people in it who fill it with love and memories.”
“That is what we are going to do. Fill whatever house we live in with love and memories,” Beau says, his voice soft. “We’ll make a home.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Beau
She is quiet the whole way up to the cabin and keeps her head turned, looking out of the window. After I told her that I would live anywhere with her, she went quiet. We pull up to the house, and I look around. “When we were driving up,” she says, “I wasn’t sure what to expect since it is so dense with trees.”
I shut off the truck and look at what Casey calls his cottage. “Only Casey could have a secret hideaway house that is brand new.”
She laughs, getting out of the truck. “It’s so pretty,” she says, waiting for me to come around the side of the truck.
“He said that there is a lake right behind the house, but I don’t know what he’s talking about.” I look at all the trees that surround this house. “Let’s see inside.”
She follows me up the steps, and I take out the key and open the door. We walk in, and it smells of pine wood right away. We take a couple of steps into the house, and I see the whole back wall is floor-to-ceiling windows. “I found the lake,” she says, pointing out the windows at a huge lake. We walk past the kitchen on the left side, and I do a once-over, seeing that all the appliances are brand new. The huge L-shaped couch on the right is so massive you could sit at least ten people on it. We step to the back windows and see that we are actually on stilts, something that you wouldn’t see from the front of it. The dense trees are all around the lake so unless you live here or know about it, you would never know this is here. “There are the steps.” She points at the steps that lead down to the lake. I turn to look up and see that there is a railing looking down into the room.
“Are you hungry?” she asks, walking to the fridge. All I want to do is grab her ass and pull her back to me, kissing her again and again. But this time, I don’t want to stop until she’s under me, saying my name over and over again. She opens the fridge, and we see it’s fully stocked. “Do you want me to prepare stuff and then we can go and sit by the lake?”
“Yeah,” I finally say. “I am going to bring our bags to the bedroom.” I walk out of the room fast before she sees my cock is dying to come out and say hello to her.
Taking our bags, I go up the stairs that I didn’t notice before, and I spot the master bedroom that has a view of the lake. I dump the bags right next to the king-size bed and go back downstairs. She is cutting up fruit, so I help her by finding a cooler to carry everything in. We head down to the lake, the sound of the water hitting the rocks, and spot two Adirondack chairs on a dock. I wait for her to pick a seat and then sit next to her. I open the cooler, taking out a beer for me and one for her. “I can get used to this,” she says, taking a pull of her beer. “Would you be able to do this all year long?”
“Live up here?” I ask, taking a pull of the cold beer. “I mean, I’d love to vacation here, but I think I would need to be a little bit more in town.”
She nods, and for the rest of the afternoon, we make idle chitchat. Both of us are nervous about what tonight will bring. We head back up to the house when the sun goes down. “What were you thinking about eating for dinner?”
“We can throw a couple of steaks and potatoes on the grill,” I say. She takes the stuff out of the bag while I get the steak out.
She walks over to the wine rack and takes down a bottle. “Do you think Casey would mind if we opened a few bottles?”
I look over at her. “I don’t even think he knows what’s in that rack.” I laugh while she comes over, opening some of the drawers to search for a corkscrew. She pours herself some wine once she gets it open and takes a sip.
“This is really good,” she says. Walking over to the liquor rack, she comes back with a bottle of whiskey. I watch her while she pours some in a small glass and hands it to me. “Cheers.”
I wipe my hands and grab the glass. “Cheers.” I gently clink my glass to her, and we both take a sip.
“Okay, what can I do to help?” she says, walking next to me. “Do you want me to start on the salad?”
“Yeah,” I say, and she touches my hip when she walks by me. I watch her grab the things in my arms, and she puts them down right beside me.
“This is fun,” she says, taking another sip of wine and then looking at me. “Us preparing dinner together.”