Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 91937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“Do we move back into the other house?” I stop with the ball in my hand midair.
“It’s time Brady has his house back, don’t you think?” Harmony replies, and she avoids looking at me. Wyatt doesn’t say anything either. He just passes me the ball until Harmony stands up. “I have to get ready for my shift.”
“I marked you off,” I tell her, and she looks at me, “and myself.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Well, for one, you were going to court, and for two”—I toss the ball to Wyatt—“I was thinking maybe your head wouldn’t be there.”
“Oh, can I go back to Charlie’s?” Wyatt asks.
“No,” Harmony snaps, “I don’t work, so you stay home, and then maybe tomorrow you can go over.”
Wyatt tosses me back the ball as he looks at me and then his mother. “Are you and Mom boyfriend and girlfriend?” I look over at Harmony who goes ashen white.
“Yup,” I say, tossing him the ball without missing a beat.
“Yeah, I thought so since I see you guys kissing all the time.” He catches the ball and throws it back to me.
“We don’t all the time,” Harmony pants out.
“You okay with this?” I ask him, holding the ball in my hand.
“You make Mom happy,” he says and I nod at him, “and she’s never scared with you.” I see Harmony put her hand to her stomach. “So I’m okay with it, plus you never yell at me or call me stupid and dumb.” He shrugs. “So yeah, I’m okay with it.”
“Thank you,” I tell him and he looks at me with confusion on his face, “for taking care of her for so long.” He nods his head. “Now I get to take care of both of you.”
“Cool,” he says, tossing me the ball like we didn’t have a deep and meaningful conversation right now.
“Cool,” I repeat what he says and look over at Harmony who exhales a deep breath.
We leave right before dinner, but everyone is still full when we get home. “Shower,” Harmony instructs Wyatt as soon as we walk in the door, “right now before you touch anything.”
Wyatt doesn’t even say anything to her. Instead, he just walks up the stairs. “When are we going to go back to the other house?”
“Probably tomorrow,” Harmony answers, and I slam the door closed behind me, making her jump. Wyatt walks up the steps with his head down. I try to calm myself by walking to the kitchen, and for the first time in a long time, I grab my whiskey.
“Is there a problem?” she asks softly as she stands there with her hands in front of her.
“Yeah, there is a problem.” I put the bottle down after taking a pull. “You aren’t leaving this house,” I declare as I take another shot.
“Brady.” She takes a step forward.
“You aren’t leaving this fucking house.” I walk around the island counter. “Because now that you are in it, it is exactly why I built this house.” I close the distance between us. “For you and for Wyatt. I didn’t even know it at the time, but now”—I put my hands on her hips and pull her to me—“having the two of you here, I see that it’s all been for you.” She puts her hands on my chest. “Stay with me?” I move one hand to hold her neck. “Move in with me.”
“But…”
“Build a life with me.” She blinks, and a tear falls down her cheek. “You, me, Wyatt, let’s build a life with each other.”
“I don’t want to go.” We both turn and see Wyatt there with his own tears in his eyes, and he quickly rubs them off. “I don’t want to go back to the old house. I don’t want to go to the house before that. I want to stay here.”
“Wyatt.” She turns to look at him.
“I want to stay here with Brady,” he states, trying to be brave.
“Come here, buddy,” I urge him, holding out my arm. He doesn’t want to come but comes anyway. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.” I take him in my arms, and he turns his head on my stomach and hugs me.
I look over at Harmony. “Okay,” she says softly, “we’ll stay.”
“It’s a good thing you agreed to stay.” I grab her, pulling her to me, then whispering in her ear, “Because I was going to handcuff you to my bed until you agreed to it.” She looks at me, and I see her cheeks getting pink. “Do you want that?”
“Does she want what?” Wyatt asks, and I look down at him.
“Cake,” Harmony covers, trying not to get him to ask more questions.
“Gosh, no more cake,” Wyatt says. “I’m caked out.”
“Okay, shower,” I remind him, “and then we redecorate that bedroom tomorrow.”
He nods and runs out of the room, a lot better than he was a bit ago when he walked up with his head hanging. “So”—I pull her to me—“handcuffs?” There in the middle of my kitchen, I kiss her without the notion of her leaving hanging over our heads. Without the notion of her ex showing up. I kiss her knowing she’s never going to leave this house. That, in this house, we’ll eventually become man and wife and our kids will grow up here. Where they will take their first steps and their first tumble, where we will live forever.