“Hi, Rachel. Glad to meet you.”
“Likewise.” Rachel releases my hand and offers her hand to Tyler. “And you must be Tyler. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Ty smiles and nods, giving me a sideways glance.
Releasing Tyler’s hand, Rachel pauses and looks between us with an almost assessing gaze. Her smile widens. “Congratulations. Newly mated?”
“Um.” Tyler furrows his brow, glancing momentarily at me. “Engaged.”
“Oh, my apologies if I’ve overstepped. I didn’t mean to pry. Most folks don’t seem to mind.”
“No, it’s fine,” I say, waving it off. “We’re not… we can’t…” I shake my head, trying to find the right words. I sigh. “We’re human.”
Some of the excitement fizzles out of me the moment I say it. It’s almost disappointing to admit it, not that being human is bad, it’s just that being a shifter would open the possibility of us mating and having children together.
“Oh, I’m sorry. How terribly inappropriate of me. I could have sworn I scented pregnancy hormones, and you both carry each other’s scents. I just thought. Well, never mind me. We’re here to look at houses, right?”
Rachel heads up the path and unlocks the door.
Tyler stands frozen, his eyes wider than I’ve ever seen them.
I squeeze his hand. “Ty, come on.”
We walk hand-in-hand and enter the house, stopping in the small entryway.
“I’ll wait right outside. If you have any questions, let me know, but I’ll let you look first. If it’s the house for you, you’ll know it.”
“Thanks, Rachel.” I nod and smile. Ty does his best to do the same, but seems a bit resigned as if now he doesn’t want to be here at all. I suppose I can’t blame him.
We go through each room of the house, but it just doesn’t feel right. Crossing it off the list, we follow Rachel to another. We go through the motions of viewing three more houses, none of which scream ‘buy me’ to either of us. The last one is the one I have the highest hopes for, but as disappointing as the first four house were and the way Ty seems to have been distant since Rachel’s mistaken comments about being mated and pregnant, I’m feeling less confident about the last one.
As we pull up to the French Tudor-style home, I’m about to tell Tyler we can call off the house-hunting for today, but the moment he sees the house, I swear his face lights up. That’s what I’ve been waiting to see.
“Last one,” I say. “At least for today.”
Tyler climbs out of the car, his eyes glued to the two-story home with historical architectural features. I know I liked the pictures online and I thought Ty would like this one too, but by the look on his face, I could swear he’s fallen in love already.
“Why didn’t we look at this one first?” he asks.
“Saving the best for last?”
“Dumbass. You dragged me to all those others why?”
“I didn’t want to pick for you. This is my favorite, but I wanted you to have choices.”
“There’s a reason why my degree focus is Medieval and Renaissance History.” Ty grabs my hand, practically dragging me inside. Rachel closes the door behind us just as Tyler whispers loud enough for all of us to hear. “Oh my God, Alex. This is it.”
Tyler pulls me from room to room, suddenly going on and on about what we could do with each space, talking about babies and things to do when the kids get older. I barely pay attention to the house. I’m just lost in how happy Tyler is. He’s glowing with the prospect of living here and raising a family in this very house, and I get to be a part of it.
We finish the tour back in the huge eat-in kitchen where Rachel is waiting for us, a stack of papers in front of her. The smile hasn’t left Ty’s face since the moment we pulled up to the curb. He’s right. I should have known to bring him here first.
“I take it you like it?” I smirk.
“I love it.” Ty’s smile fades a little. “Are you sure we can afford this?”
“It is the highest price of everything we’ve seen, and our budget will be a little tighter, but I’m sure. If this is the house you want, it’s yours.”
“Alex, are you sure about this? Barely two weeks ago, you were afraid to tell Mom and Ben about us. Now we’re engaged and buying a house?”
“And soon we’ll be married and starting a family.” I clasp both his hands. “Look, Ty. I don’t want to wait anymore. I want to finally start the next part of our lives together. I promise, I want this, but only with you.”
Tyler’s gorgeous green eyes twinkle behind his glasses. “Let’s do it.”
