Two weeks later...
Ihopped in place as I zipped up the last of my bags, then sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the spare bedroom I’d called home for the last eight years. I’d been here one week every summer, then Thanksgiving and Christmas, but otherwise, I was on the road with Melody. I didn’t even feel sad that I was leaving and that made me melancholic. At this stage in my life, I should have more roots.
At least I got some home time now. Graham was still out there somewhere, and since his home was in Salem and his life was there as well, Jaxon wanted me as far away as possible to let his team do a deep dive with me out of the way. I had a feeling when we got home, I’d be back to being watched twenty-four-seven.
Home.
Wow, when did that happen?
Oh, I know. The second Jaxon told me he loved me, I knew I’d found home.
I smiled. He’d made everything right.
After a conversation with Melody, she’d informed me that she had plans to talk to me about firing Butchy...until he seduced her into keeping him. She’d admitted she didn’t like the attention he was paying me and had said as much to him. Once again, I was clueless to his obsession. But this fact brought a lot of things into focus and also made me sad for my sister. She was always being seduced into doing something for someone. And when I say that, I don’t just mean a sexual seduction. Despite her status as one of the most beautiful women in the world, she was also one of the most insecure and bad people preyed on that.
I hoped one day she’d find herself so that she could find her ‘happy.’
“Last one?” Jaxon asked from the doorway. I nodded, and he stepped into the room. “Hey, you okay?”
“Yes. I just feel a little...I don’t know, disconnected.” I slid my arms around his waist as he lifted me further onto the bed. I was supposed to keep my leg elevated, but I was never good at doing nothing. “I have never had anything of my own, if that makes sense. I lived with my parents, then my sister, and now...I don’t know.”
“With me.”
I shook my head and met his eyes. “I don’t want to do that.”
He frowned. “Okay.”
“It’s too soon,” I explained. “I need to have some of my own space for a while. I need to know you longer before we move in together.”
“Okay, baby, I can get behind that.”
“But I’d love to stay with you while I look for a place.”
He grinned. “You trust me not to sabotage your attempts?”
I patted his chest. “I’ll have to, I guess.”
He leaned down and kissed me gently. “You promised me a tour of Savannah.”
“I did.” I reached up and stroked his cheek. “I wish we could walk.”
“There is a wheelchair downstairs,” he reminded me.
“No way in hell.”
I just couldn’t fathom him wheeling me around like an invalid. I suppose, technically, I was, but I wasn’t ready to admit defeat yet.
Jaxon cupped my face. “In that case, Rufus, you promised me a fountain.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, big man, let’s go see the fountain.”
Lyric’s home was less than a block from Forsyth Park, in the historic district, and I was honestly a little jealous I didn’t own it myself. It had been built in 1860 and had been a wreck, but Lyric spent two years restoring it to its current beauty and it was now worth more than three times what she paid for it eight years ago.
After parking close by, Jaxon grabbed my crutches, and we hobbled around the fountain for a few minutes, and then Jaxon saw a horse and buggy go by and he decided we were going to have an adventure.
“You want to do a tour?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
