Jonah left the back just as I put my purse over my shoulder.
“Ready?”
“Yep.” I put my hand in his and let him lead me out to his car. I still hadn’t gotten a vehicle yet. It was on the list of things to do but I had Jonah bringing me to and from work which he told me flat out he needed to do in order to cope with his fear for my safety.
Basically, we were all a little messed up but working through it and getting healthier every day.
After twenty minutes I realized he was heading to Mama Kerri’s neighborhood. “I thought we were going to dinner?”
“I have a surprise, remember?’
“Oh yeah. Is your surprise at Mama Kerri’s?” I laughed.
He shook his head. “Nope, but close.” He reached over and put his hand on my thigh where he gave me a little squeeze.
I rolled my eyes and sighed overly dramatic. “FBI hot guy and man of mystery. You sure you don’t have a big red S and a blue spandex suit hiding under those government threads, mister?” I prodded at his ribs and he laughed.
Randomly he put on a blinker and turned down a street two blocks from Mama Kerri’s. Then he pulled to a stop alongside the front curb of a pretty two-story house. It had a single big oak tree to the right of it that would give the house awesome shade in the dead of a humid Illinois summer. It looked like a quaint doll house with wooden slats in a slate-grayish seafoam green color with pristine white trim around the windows, the door, and the fencing that surrounded the open porch that ran the length of the house. There were white stairs that led up to a dark forest green door with four cute little window cutouts at the top half.
The grass ran the entire front yard with a concrete path up to the stairs. The garage and driveway must have been in the back like many of the others in this neighborhood.
“Wow, this is beautiful. Who lives here?”
Jonah ignored the question or maybe didn’t hear it as he got out of car and opened my door. I shifted my booty to the side and took his outstretched hand as it wasn’t super easy to get in and out of a car in a tight-fitting pencil skirt, and I always dressed up for work. I had a serious job and I dressed as though I felt that way. Even though almost everyone there wore jeans and polo shirts with the company name embroidered on the chest.
I followed Jonah’s quick movements up the stairs as a woman I’d never met before exited the front door. “It’s all set,” she said and handed him a set of keys. She looked at me and smiled huge. “You must be Simone.”
I nodded. “And you are?”
“Deni. Nice to meet you, but I have to run!” The woman of about sixty or so moved quickly down the stairs and around the corner where I assumed she drove off in the sweet Cadillac I’d seen parked on the other side of the house.
Jonah opened the door and took my hand, tugging me inside.
“What in the world?” I breathed as I tripped on my tall heels.
“Surprise!” He said it with such joy, I smiled but had no clue why.
I glanced around at the empty open living room. Everything was painted bright white. You could still smell the hint of fresh paint in the air.
I shook my head as I walked around the empty living room. “I’m not sure I understand.”
He grinned and then turned me around in the entryway to face the opposite wall. There in plain view was a series of four pictures. Two side by side and one on each of the other walls in the U-shaped space. Front and center was Tabitha’s picture of the woman and her child. Next to it was the first image of Tabitha and me as kids. The one to the left was the picture of all of us sisters and Mama Kerri in front of Kerrighan House that he must have got from one of the girls. The other wall had a candid shot of Jonah and me his mother had taken a week or so ago at dinner. I was sitting in his lap and he was cuddling me and making me laugh.
I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand.
“Why are these pictures here?”
He wrapped his arms around me from behind and put his chin to my neck. Together we looked at the images. “Because I want this to be our home. I bought it for us to start our life in. It’s twenty minutes from work for you, not far for me, and super close to your mother and my parents.”
Tears filled my eyes. “You bought this for us?” I choked out and spun around, clamping my hands to his shoulders.
“Want to build a beautiful life with you here, Simone. Marry you and have babies and bring them home here.”
I covered my mouth and trembled. “It’s all too soon. Marriage? Babies? Oh my god!”
He chuckled. “We have time for all of that. For now though, I thought we could start out in our own place and take it one day at a time.” His words reminded me of the promise that Addy and I had made in the hospital a month ago.
“Really?” I let the tears fall. “But what if…” I swallowed against the emotion clogging my throat. “What if I can’t be away from Addy?”
He wrapped his hands around my waist and pressed his forehead to mine. “Sweetheart, you’re working on that. And Addison has no desire to leave Mama Kerri’s any time soon. Now if you feel the need to check on her, she’ll be only two blocks away.”
I smiled. Loving this man so much more for understanding my issue and not making me wrong for it. He wanted to help me through it but continue moving our lives forward.
“How did I get so lucky that you were the man that saved me that night? The man just for me?”
He kissed me softly. “The universe works in mysterious ways.”
“I love you,” I whispered against his lips.
“And I love you.” He kissed me for a long time as we stood in our new home together. He kissed me for so long we both became breathless.
“Come on, let me show you the house.” He interlaced our fingers. He led me through the incredible open kitchen, the three empty bedrooms and two baths, including the awesome master suite with a killer shower that had these amazing white subway tiles. Everything was bright, white, and ready to move in.
“This is the most amazing house.” I started to worry he’d spent way too much. Three bedrooms and two bathrooms in Oak Park wasn’t exactly cheap.
“Room to grow into.” He waggled his brows. Jonah had been talking a lot about our future and having children. We both wanted a good-sized family. Him because he was Italian, and his mother wanted lots of grandbabies, which she talked about nonstop at every family dinner. Me because I had a ton of sisters and wanted to always be surrounded by the people I loved.
He brought me down to a huge basement that was entirely empty. Meaning it literally had no walls.
“Unfinished basement.”
“Now I know why you could afford this place,” I teased.
“My father, brother, and woman work at the best construction company in the state. They could whip this into something amazing so we have a big lounge area, another bathroom, maybe even a small kitchenette and another bedroom for guests.” He curled his arm around my back as we faced the large space. “It’s as big as the top half. It would double our square footage and my brother and father would do it at cost for materials. It’ll take a while. Probably six months or more as they’ll have to do it when they have time. Of course I’d help, plus Ryan will pitch in. We don’t need it right away so it’ll be no bother to have it in a state of disarray until it’s done.”