His eyes flashed to me in a panic.
“Not like that, Cane. We can’t live at Kari’s forever. Where do we go? I just can’t go back to your house.” I looked at the floorboard, disappointed in myself that I couldn’t get over that. “I just feel so … homeless. And you won’t go home without me, and I can’t go there, and it’s just—”
“Home is wherever you are, baby. That place my shit was at was just a structure. That wasn’t a home.”
I tried to suppress the ridiculous grin on my face to no avail. “So what do we do?”
“That depends,” he said softly, sticking his sunglasses in the top of his shirt.
“On what?”
He nodded ahead.
I looked up through the windshield and realized we were making our way to the base of his mountain. At the top was a building, but I couldn’t make out much as we pulled to the back and made our way up the hill.
“When did you sell this?” I asked in disbelief. “That’s great and not so great at the same time.”
The tires crunched on the hard ground as we inched our way to the top. The building, a house, began to come into sight again. It was a ranch style, of sorts, and all I could see was a lot of glass and a tile roof.
We pulled to the top, Cane saying nothing as he put the car in park. He turned to look at me, but my eyes were fixed on the white picket fence lining the back of the house.
“Cane?” I asked nervously, anxiety building. I scanned the rest of the scene in front of me. Although the house wasn’t complete, I could tell from the materials lying around that it was coming along.
I opened my car door—not even looking at Cane although I felt his eyes on me—and got out, taking everything in.
It was absolutely perfect.
I walked up the small sidewalk toward the door and,wow, what an incredible view.
I hope whoever bought this place appreciates it.
I got a few feet from the door and stopped dead in my tracks, my hand flying to my mouth.
The plaque by the back door readAlexander House.
“Cane?” I said, whipping around, looking at him for an explanation.
He smiled sheepishly, his hands stuck in the front pockets of his jeans. “Yeah?” he asked, bowing his head like he was afraid of my reaction.
“What is this?” I whispered, looking around again, afraid to believe what I thought I was seeing.
“This is Project AH, otherwise known as your happily ever after. I hope.” He chewed on his bottom lip, watching me intently.
“My happily ever after? What do you mean?”
I sat on one of the lounge chairs on the concrete slab, not trusting my legs. My heart pounded as I looked out across the city, the most amazing view I had ever seen, until I pulled my eyes back to the man standing in front of me.
Thatwas the best view in the world.
“I built this for you.”
“Cane…” Words seemed so inadequate. “When did you do this?”
He smirked. “This has been in the works for a while now. I wanted to show you before, but everything was just a fucking wreck.” His face smoothed, his smirk turning into a small smile. “For the first time in my life, I know what it means to be happy. I know what it means to look forward to the future. I know what it feels like to love someone … tolove them so much you’d literally die for them. You’d let them go across the country so they wouldn’t get hurt even though it tore your heart apart to watch them leave.”
He sat on a chair next to me, fidgeting in a very un-Cane-like way.
“I just need to know one thing now,” he said, smiling nervously. “Will you move here with me?”
