“What are you doing?” she asked.
Instead of answering, I pulled out the envelope and handed it to her. She looked from me to it, confused. Then she took it and opened it slowly.
As she read, her smile faded. Then she looked up at me with her eyes wide. “Reek!”
I just grinned, loving that I could make her this happy.
She looked back down at the papers. Then at the keys tucked inside. Then at me again.
“You bought this house?!”
“Yeah.”
Her mouth fell open a little. “When?”
“A few days ago.”
“A few days ago?!” She looked down at the papers again like she had read them wrong. “Why would you do that without telling me?”
“Because I knew this was what you wanted.”
That made her stare at me for a long second.
“I knew you loved this house, baby. Now, it’s ours.”
She looked around the room again. Her eyes were already getting watery.
“You wanted a home,” I said. “You wanted something that felt warm. Something that made sense for us and RoRo and whatever comes after. This place did that for you the first day. I saw it.”
Her voice became softer. “You really bought it.”
“Yeah.”
“For me?”
“For us.”
She closed the folder against her chest and stepped into me so fast I barely had time to catch her before she wrapped her arms around my neck. I held her tight and laughed into the side of her head because I had been waiting on that reaction since I signed the papers.
“You are crazy,” she swooned into my chest. “You bought a whole house without telling me.”
“I sure did.”
She leaned back enough to look at me. “What if I changed my mind?”
“You didn’t.”
That made her laugh through the tears starting in her eyes. “You are so arrogant.”
“No. I just pay attention.”
She looked down at the keys again and shook her head. “I can’t believe you did this.” And she shoved me lightly in the chest.
Then she looked around the room one more time, slower this time, like the fact that it was really hers had changed what she was seeing.
“This is really our house,’ she gushed.
“Yeah.”
