“I like her dirty mouth,” Jesse said, looking at me.
Charlie laughed and stuck her finger down her throat. “Get a room.”
“Don’t need to,” I said, turning back to her with a huge grin on my face. “We got a whole house. Now let me into my kitchen.”
Charlie grinned wider. “Can’t do that.”
“What?” I replied. “Why?”
She stood her ground in the doorway of my kitchen and wouldn’t let me past when I tried to barge through. “It’s a surprise, don’t ruin it. Now go rearrange some potted plants or some other shit, Laney,” she giggled, her hands on her hips.
I rolled my eyes at her. “Fine! But you girls better not have broken anything, or defiled anything in there. It’s all new and shiny, and if anyone is going to defile it, it’s going to be us!”
Charlie winked and laughed before backing into the kitchen. I tried to see past her but the woman was too sneaky for her own good. No wonder Rider liked to keep her on a short leash. I turned back around to find myself alone. Jesse had gone back outside to retrieve some more of our things, and I was left in the front room with boxes of handed-down silverware and curtains and bedding all ready for us. All of our furniture had been either new or handed down from our friends and family, but the kitchen and bathroom, bed and sofa, and of course the carpets had all been brand new.
I kicked off my boots and dragged my socks off my feet before wiggling my toes against the soft, thick carpet—a gift from Gauge. He’d said I walked all over him anyway, so I may as well be comfy while I did it. The thought made me smile. He’d been a shitty dad, but he was at least trying to make up for it. And I couldn’t blame him for everything, I guess. I mean, if Mom hadn’t bothered to tell him about me, it wasn’t exactly his fault. He’d never wanted kids—he’d made that very clear to me when I first went to live with him—and he certainly didn’t expect to get a teenage girl handed to him.
I sighed and walked around the living room, enjoying the way the thick pile squished between my toes. I’d never had nice carpet like that before. It had always been bare floorboards with Mom. And not the fancy kind, either, but old, crappy floors that would give you splinters in your feet if you didn’t tread carefully enough.
Living with Gauge had been both good and bad. Bad because he was always bringing a new piece of ass home with him, and listening to him fuck was not a good sound—that and we really didn’t get along. But it had been good because he had nice floors—not carpet, but wooden floors that he’d sanded himself. The sort of floors my mom would have loved. His furniture was expensive and nice, though all very masculine, of course. He was a bachelor and he’d made no effort to change his place for me. Whenever I had tried to put my stamp on anything in the house with either a throw cushion or a vase of flowers, I had found them in the trash later that day.
But this place, this was Jesse’s and mine. It was our home, where we could be ourselves and find peace together. We were both broken, but together, there, we could fix each other. And maybe, one day, we would have our children there too.
I smiled as I looked out the window and watched Jesse pulling the door closed on the truck. He was talking to Casa and Butch, and they were laughing and carefree, and it made my heart swell with love and pride.
Jesse was an intense man, and there were only ever two people that could make him smile like he didn’t have a care in the world. Well, now there were three, because now there was me.
Jesse looked over at the house, and I think he saw me through the window. His smile grew wider, and his brother slapped him on the back, making him laugh some more. I laughed too, wanting to freeze the moment and take a mental picture so that I could hold onto it in my mind forever.
The soft carpet between my toes.
My heart full of love.
And my home full of family.
This was it for me now.
I had everything and everyone I could ever ask for, and it was everything I had hoped it would be.
