Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Our home.
Chapter 19
Cooper
Reese’s two-week notice ended up being eight days. She was already scheduled to be off Thursday and Friday of this week for Nixon and Tessa’s wedding. They honored that time off, thankfully. She was stressing out about missing the wedding. I tried to assure her it would all work out. I didn’t tell her she could just quit. I know Reese, and that’s not who she is.
“How was your last day?” I ask her as soon as she comes through the door. She maneuvers herself around the boxes that we’ve been packing the last two weeks.
“Good. Sad. I promised the kids we’d come back to visit,” she says sheepishly.
“Of course we will. Come here.” I pull her into a hug. “April just called.”
“And?”
“The closing is still on for tomorrow. I moved our flights to early Friday morning.”
“Did you tell Nix?”
“Not yet.”
She reaches for her phone, hits a few buttons, and it begins to ring. She has it on video, so she holds it out for me to see. “Hey.” Tessa smiles on the screen. “Oh, hi, Cooper,” she greets me as well.
“Hey, Tess. Where’s Nix?”
“Is that Cooper?” I hear Nix ask before his face appears on the screen. “Hey, you two. What’s up?”
“Oh, you know, just living the dream. And we bought a house,” I say nonchalantly.
“What? You bought a house?” Tessa grins.
“We did,” Reese confirms.
“You bought a house together?” Nixon asks.
My hand slides behind Reese’s neck as I pull her into a kiss. Just a soft peck on the lips, but Tessa’s gasp and Nixon’s “about fucking time” tells me it gets the reaction I was hoping for.
“You’ve been holding out on me.” Tessa smiles.
“Kind of. We just wanted to take it slow for a while.”
She wanted to take it slow, but I don’t correct her. “So we bought a house, and the closing is tomorrow.” I drop the bomb.
“No way, man. You are not missing my wedding.” Nixon crosses his arms over his chest.
“We’re not. We were supposed to fly out tomorrow afternoon, but we changed our flights to Friday morning.”
“The rehearsal is at six,” Tessa reminds us.
“Our flight lands at one,” I explain. “We will be there in plenty of time.”
“Good. Now, let’s get back to the house. You’re living there together? As in roommates or sharing a bed?” Nixon asks.
Tessa nods as if he read her mind. I look over at Reese. “I thought you would have told her?”
“No, I haven’t had time to talk to her. She’s working, or I’m working.” She shrugs.
“She’s the love of my life,” I tell them.
“Aw.” Tessa smiles.
“So the two of you are together, as in an item?” Nixon clarifies. I see the glint in his eyes that tells me he’s giving me shit. It’s his way of gloating without saying I told you so. I’ll take it. I should have listened to him years ago. I should have opened my eyes and tried to see it from his point of view.
“Yes.”
“It’s about fucking time, my man.”
I throw my head back and laugh. We spend the next fifteen minutes chatting and catching up. I assure them we will be there in plenty of time for the rehearsal, and end the call. “You want to head to Indy tonight? The closing is at ten in the morning.”
“Yes. That sounds better than getting up at the ass crack of dawn to drive there.”
“Maybe we can take some of your things and leave them at the condo,” I suggest.
“We’d have to move them twice.”
I shrug. “Doesn’t matter. We don’t have to unpack them, just have them there. Besides, we get the keys tomorrow.”
“I can’t believe it. Less than two weeks is record time for a house closing.”
“It is, but money talks. The title search and appraisal were done quickly, and I paid cash.”
“Oh.” Her mouth forms the perfect little circle. “Yeah, I guess that will do it.”
“We can stay there tomorrow night if we want. It’s all ours once we sign those papers.”
“Wait,” she says with a hint of panic in her voice.
“What?” No way is she backing out on me now.
“Have you told your parents?”
Shit. “No. Have you told yours?”
“No.” She chuckles. “Let me grab some clothes and what I’ll need for the wedding. If we leave here in thirty minutes, that will get us to their place a little after seven. We can stop in and say hi, give them the news and then head to Indy.”
“That’s going to put us at the condo pretty late.”
“Yeah, but we should tell them in person.”
“Agreed. Go get what you need. I packed my bag earlier. I laid out some of your stuff I thought you might want on the bed, and your suitcase and carry-on are ready for you too.”
“You spoil me,” she says, pressing a kiss to my lips.
“Damn right, I do. Get moving, woman.” I try to smack her on the ass, but she’s too quick as she laughs her way down the hall.