When I finally peeled my eyes open, I sucked in a surprised gasp at what I saw. I’d been expecting boxes stacked all around the floor and my double bed sitting on the cheap adjustable metal frame pushed against one of the walls.
Instead, the room was full of furniture I’d never seen before. There was a huge dresser along the right wall closest to the door, and a matching chest with even more drawers between the two large windows directly across from me. A king-size bed with a massive, buttoned, white leather headboard sat in the middle of the wall directly across from the dresser with a nightstand on each side of it. Just inside the door to my left was a writing desk with a plush velvet chair in a deep shade of navy blue.
The walls were painted a pale dove gray, creating a nice, homey contrast with the distressed white of all the furniture. The bed was covered in a fluffy white comforter with navy and gray paisley patterns all over it, and a ton of throw pillows in the same accent colors. It was the most beautiful room I’d ever seen, and if I’d had unlimited funds I would have decorated it theexactsame way.
Several of the boxes had been opened and my framed photos of Liddy sat interspersed on the surfaces of the furniture. I slowly moved across the hardwood floor, covered in attractive area rugs with gray, navy, and white designs, to the open closetin the far right corner of the room. My clothes were hanging in perfect order, my shoes paired up and stacked along the shelves above. It wasn’t lost on me that my clothes and shoes didn’t even take up a quarter of the massive walk-in space.
I backed out of the closet, closing the door behind me, and moved on autopilot across the room to the en suite, leaning through the doorway to inspect. Sure enough, my cosmetics and other toiletries were scattered around the large vanity counter. My shampoo and conditioner rested on a tiled ledge in a glass-fronted shower that was big enough to hold my old bed.
I was so absorbed by what I was looking at that I hadn’t heard the bedroom door open until Garrett’s voice came from behind me.
“Do you like it?”
I straightened and looked over my shoulder at where he stood against the doorframe. “It’s beautiful,” I said. “But… where’s all my stuff?”
“Like I said, it was kinda trashed, so I got you all new stuff.”
My mouth hung agape as he entered the room, walking toward the bed and taking a seat on the edge. I moved around it so I could see his face as I asked incredulously, “What do you mean, you got me knew stuff?”
Garrett rubbed his palms along his denim-clad thighs as if he was nervous to answer. “All you had was a shitty Ikea dresser that was barely holding together, and no one over the age of twenty should sleep in a double bed, so I bought you all new stuff. I did my best unpacking some of your stuff so it’d feel more like home, but I wasn’t sure where to put everything. If there’s anything you don’t like, let me know and I’ll get you something else. I tried to get stuff that seemed like you, but if I was off the mark, I can fix it. Just say the word.”
Oh God. Oh no. Nonononono!“You… you bought this for me?” I questioned with a watery whisper, nearly choking on my emotions as my eyes began to burn.
He must have seen the tears welling in my eyes, because his face fell as he asked, “Is it that bad? Shit. I really tried—”
“You bought this for me,” I repeated, that time as a statement, not a question. “You tried to make it feel more like a home for me.” Yep, I was still whispering.
He stood, appearing antsy. “Well I did the best I could. Thisisyour home, after all.” I hung my head when a tear broke free and trickled down my cheek, not wanting him to see me cry. “Fuck, baby,” he rasped. His boots clomped against the floorboards as he made his way to me, his fingers once again under my chin, forcing my face to his. “What’d I do wrong? Tell me and I’ll fix it, I swear.” His thumb swept the wet from my skin. “Why’re you crying?”
“Because you’re being really nice to me!” I cried dramatically, throwing my arms out wide. “I told you I don’t know how to handle it!”
He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug as his body vibrated with laughter. That was just another thing I was struggling with. The way he touched me or held me like it was his right whenever we were within feet of each other threw me completely out of balance. We might have shared a daughter, but we hardly knew each other at all. The familiarity he used with me was unnerving, to say the least. All of that, coupled with him suddenly calling mebaby, freaked me the hell out.
“Well, we’ll just have to get you used to it, huh?”
I wasn’t so sure that was possible.
ELEVEN
“Mommy!Mommy!I gots a princess room!”
The sound of Liddy’s voice coming from down the hall was quickly followed by the fast-paced sound of her tiny feet as she ran toward my bedroom.
I cleared my throat and took a step backward. Garrett’s arms around me spasmed. For a second I thought he wasn’t going to let me go, and a spike of panic pierced my chest at the thought of Liddy seeing the two of us in a weird clinch. Fortunately he released me at the last second, and I was able to move away just as Liddy ran through my doorway.
“I gots a princess room! I gots a princess room!”
I smiled and scooped her up, propping her weight on my hip. “That’s awesome, monkey. How about you show it to me?”
I headed down the hall with Liddy in my arms. Garrett and I needed a firm and clear line in the sand. We needed to establish some serious boundaries, but until then, I was going to keep Liddy between us so I didn’t do anything reckless or stupid… like throw myself at him and beg him to let me trace every one of his tattoos with my tongue.
We met Ian at Liddy’s door, and he gave me his standard liptwitch, then full-on grinned down at my baby girl before he headed off down the hall. She wriggled in my arms, demanding down, and raced ahead of Garrett and me into a room with pale pink walls.
“See! It’s a princess room!”
“Wow,” I breathed. She really wasn’t kidding. Like mine, her furniture was all white, but instead of a leather headboard she had a white iron one with pretty scrolls and a sheer silky drape hanging from the ceiling above, coming down like a triangle that opened for her to climb in. It was every little girl’s dream room, complete with a tiny lamp on her bedside table that threw shadows of castles and tiaras on the walls and a ton of other princess décor.
I turned to Garrett, completely in awe of my surroundings as Liddy ran around inspecting her new bedroom. “Did you pick all this stuff too?”
