It’d felt homey before, but the gaping open spaces had made it feel unfinished. Like they’d just moved in a week ago and hadn’t gotten around to the nonessentials yet. The walls had been mostly bare, the rooms had felt empty, and most of the doors in the hallway had been closed because she’d used them and the garage as storage space.
Laurie and Katie had caught a cab to my place the night before, and Laurie’s car had been parked outside when we arrived. Now that the garage was mostly clear, both of our cars were parked inside with only a few boxes lining the walls.
“You really weren’t kidding when you said you still had a lot of stuff to get through,” I said, shifting on my stool to face her where she was sauteing onions on the stove. “We managed to get it all though, right?”
“Right.” She tossed me a smile over her shoulder.
After our admittedly long and sexy shower, she’d changed into a pair of sweats and a fitted, bright pink tank. Her feet were clad in socks, and an apron with the words “Kiss the Cook” emblazoned on it hung from her neck.
Since I hadn’t had a change of clothes with me and we hadn’t wanted the girls to arrive to find me in the same clothing I’d worn when we’d left, I’d done something I promised myself I would never do. I ordered a few spare sets of comfortable clothing online and had them delivered.
Once I’d changed into a pair of jeans, socks of my own, and a T-shirt, I’d put the rest of the clothes back in the brown paper shopping bag. I was planning on conveniently forgetting it so I’d have clean clothes next time I came over, and there would definitely be a next time if I had anything to say about it.
The whole scene in the kitchen was comfortably domestic, and although I’d known I wanted a relationship exactly like this, I hadn’t realized how much until right that minute.
“When did you say Jamie was dropping the girls off again?” Laurie asked after swallowing the last of her water.
“Probably about half an hour from now,” I said, getting up to refill our glasses and replenish the ice while she kept cooking. “They’re just picking up the little boy she has to watch tonight from a different school and then getting some ice cream before she brings them over.”
“That girl really is a saint.” Her full lips pulled to one side before she gave her head a shake. “Then again, so are you. I can’t wait to see Katie’s reaction when she walks in. It looks almost normal now. All that’s missing is dirty shoes next to the door and coats on the rack.”
“Once the dirty shoes are there, you’ll wish you never said that.” I planted a kiss on her cheek when I took her glass to her. “Are you sure it’s okay if Allie and I stay for dinner?”
“It’s not just okay. I’m going to have to insist that you stay to thank you for all your help today. I have no idea how you did it, but you somehow made it possible to get it done. Not just possible either, fun even.”
“I had fun too. Maybe we should quit our jobs and start an interior design firm. If we do a good job, we could even get our own reality show. Stranger things have happened.”
She rolled her eyes before lifting up a plastic chopping board to add the mushrooms she’d sliced earlier to the pan. “I had no idea you had aspirations to become a reality star. If you need a recommendation for a job well done, I’ll be happy to give you one, but I’m pretty happy with the career I already have.” Her nose scrunched up. “Or had anyway. The point is that I don’t think I’d do well with interior design. I mean, I needed you just to get through my own stuff. You even had to help me hang all my old artwork.”
“Yeah, but not because you didn’t know where you wanted anything. Just because it was more emotional than regular stuff, since a lot of it belonged to Katherine. You’d do great at interior design. I don’t want to be a reality star either, but I’ve been told I have a face for television.”
“Isn’t the saying that a person has a face for radio?” She laughed. “I think you got it wrong.”
“I got it perfectly right.” Going up behind her, I wrapped my arms around her waist and peppered her neck with tender kisses. “You’ve seen my face. I belong on TV. Make me a star, baby.”
She turned in the circle of my arms, her face flushed and happy as she punched my shoulder playfully. “You’re already a star. You don’t need me. Plus, I know how much your job means to you. You’ll never give it up for interior design.”
“I could be convinced,” I said absently while playing with the strings of her apron. “Especially if we could make it like that show where we get sponsors to help people who really need their homes redone for whatever reason.”
“You’re a big softie, you know that?” She caught my face between her hands and pushed up on her toes to kiss me.
I hummed my agreement. “Sure. Whatever you say. Just don’t ever let any of my opponents hear it, okay? I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” she said before turning back to the stove to adjust the heat. “On a more serious note, I really can’t thank you enough for all your help today. I’d never have been able to do it without you.”
I kept my arms around her, breathing in the delicious scent of her nutty shampoo combined with the aromas in the kitchen. “You’d have found your way through it. I mean that. Just because you accepted help doesn’t mean you couldn’t or wouldn’t have gotten it done on your own.”
“Maybe eventually, but I’m still really glad you were here.”
I held her tighter. “Me too. I know you could’ve done it on your own, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not happy that you knew you didn’t have to.”
She turned her head to give me a sweet kiss. “Why does everything feel so much easier and better when you’re doing it with me?”
Because we were meant to be.
The thought struck out of nowhere, but as soon as it did, I knew it was true.
There were people who needed years to know what was right for them. They needed experimentation and to live a little bit of a lot of lives before they settled on one. I had massive respect for those people who were willing to try so many things in order to know what they really wanted and needed out of life.
I just wasn’t one of them. For as long as I could remember, I’d known what I wanted when I saw it and I went after it with that same dogged determination and perseverance Laurie had pointed out earlier.
When I’d heard my grandmother’s story for the first time, I decided then and there that I wanted to be a lawyer who helped people. I’d taken a few other classes in college because my mother insisted I should at least try broadening my horizons, but my passion was law.
While I was in elementary school, I’d seen a red-faced father wrestling a bunch of kids into putting on their shoes in the park. My friends had laughed and moved on, but for some reason, I stayed just a little bit longer.
At the end, when their shoes were on and their blanket folded with all their toys inside it, each of the kids had gone and given him a big hug. It was at that moment that I’d known I wanted to be a father someday.
In the years that had followed, there had been lots of moments like that. Moments when I saw something I wanted and I worked tirelessly to get it. Each of the biggest things in my life that made me the happiest boiled down to just one moment, and I’d had enough of them to know this was one.