Page 33 of The Reunion
Pushing himself up from the stair railing he was leaning over, Dom rushed to shut the door between me and Carolyn. “You two go on and start. We’ll be right there.” Tapping at his lips with his finger and raising his eyebrows, Dom held out his hand for me as I stepped onto the first stair. “Got to pay the toll if you want in.”
Hanging onto his dark gray v-neck shirt so I didn’t fall backward, I wrenched my neck to pull my face away from him. “You’re going to smear my lip gloss.”
“Oh, yeah.” His thumb swept across my lips, and he licked the edge to taste it. “Every chance I get. I promise.” I reached on my toes and pushed my lips against him until the door cracked open again, and he stepped back a little. “After you, darlin’.”
Laying my bag on the barstool, I bobbed and weaved to check out all the fancy appliances I wouldn’t know what to do with. “Wow. This place is amazing. Did he build it himself?”
Curling his lips in, he nodded as his eyes went over the vaulted ceiling. “Mmm-hmm. He’s really good. Huh?”
I sighed as I caught the massive fireplace in the living room when we turned for the basement stairs. “Oh, no. He’s going to cost me a fortune. Isn’t he?”
“Nah.” Standing aside for me to go first, he pushed out his lips and shook his head. “I think you’re going to find yourself a hell of a deal today.”
28
Your Dream House
Dominic
Jason pulled out onto the road and turned up the stereo a bit to mask my slacks flicking against the door with every foot bounce.
Not a hundred yards from his driveway, though, he turned down the lane on the other side of the stream that parted the plot of land he lived on.
The printed-out email from a mortgage broker patient of mine who told me to call if I ever needed a favor burned a hole in my back pocket. So, I readjusted the vents to dry the sweat from my neck.
I was taking a gamble that Jason didn’t quite approve of, and he let me know it the second I signed the contract that morning without even asking Faith what she thought about it. But I was never so sure about anything in my life, despite the warnings my body was throwing out at me.
Set against the apple orchard and rolling blue mountains in the distance, the modern farmhouse Faith dreamed of made her whimper. As soon as we stopped at the edge of the garage, her door flung open as she giggled at herself. “Oh, that’s it. I’m in love.”
Puffing my cheeks at Jason as he pulled his keys from the ignition, I shrugged when Faith hopped out from the backseat before us. “Told you so. Didn’t I?”
Faith grabbed Carolyn’s arm when I passed them and pulled her across the yard. “Let me see what it looks like from back here.”
When he crouched to pick up a piece of trash his workers left behind, Jason peeked up at me, his eyes flipping to the girls. “I hope to hell you understand what you’re doing, man.”
Tossing it in the industrial trash can he hadn’t hauled away yet on his way to the front door, Jason motioned for us to follow him inside. “There used to be a breezeway between the garage and house, but I thought a mudroom and office would be a better selling point for the city crowd.”
Wrestling with the coded door latch, he shifted his chin back to her. “I gutted this one almost to the studs. So everything is pretty much new except for the bones.”
The front door popped open, and he held it back until we got inside. “If you wanted a modern farmhouse, I did this one by the book.”
The second Faith came through the doorway, I glimpsed the wide-eyed innocent girl I sat behind on the first day of school when she gasped. “Oh, Jase. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful before.” Shoving her fingers together in front of her mouth, she rolled her eyes over the open-concept living room and kitchen, lined in dark gray and brown hardwood. “This is some straight-out-of-a-home magazine stuff right here.”
An exposed, white brick wall framed the kitchen, and she rubbed her fingers over it as she stepped inside. “Is this original or...”
After he set the thermostat, Jason stretched his neck to find out what she was looking at. “Yes, ma’am.” He knocked his fist against the wall above her head as he moved through the room. “Since it’s in such great shape, I only had to scrub it down and white-wash it.”
Afraid she’d smudge the giant gas stove with the cast iron griddle in the middle, Faith’s fingers hovered over it, barely grazing the curves. “Is this stainless steel?”
Resting his chin on his fist, he leaned over the white kitchen island with the black marble top. “Black stainless steel. I picked it up at an auction a while ago and thought it might fit in here alright.” The side of his mouth twisted back at me as he motioned to her with a shrug. “But I can switch it out if you want.”
Smiling back at him because I knew it was just her style, I was already shaking my head before she poked him in the belly. “No, don’t you dare. It’s perfect.”
I’d been here a hundred times while Jason was rebuilding it, and I’d memorized every detail already. So I pulled at Faith’s elbow to come with me to the living room. “If you think that’s good, check this out.”
Faith’s eyes teared over when we came around the corner, and she found the matching brick fireplace that spanned half the wall. Shaking like a leaf, her hand came to her mouth. “Oh, babe. Do you see that?”
I was standing inside her head with her as she imagined herself putting up Christmas decorations, and that was the moment I knew no other home would ever measure up to this one. “I sure do.”