Page 12 of A Constant Love
It was so much space, I thought maybe it might even be a bit much for Tyler’s family of six. But I could see the appeal of the house and why his parents invested in it.
Mind you, I could never be so extravagant (even if I had the means to do so) because I’d never been all about the grandeur, but I couldn’t help but admit it was fun to play in for the weekend.
Tyler took me on a tour showing me the basic idea of where everything was, but I didn’t care about the logistics of the place.
“Ty, you can show me a million times where all this stuff is, and I’ll probably never remember. Instead, show me why this house means something to you. I want to know where you fell and skinned your knee. I want to know about Christmas mornings here. I care about your memories in the house, not the house itself…no matter how gorgeous it is.” My eyes gazed at the large room around us.
He grinned, genuinely grinned. “Do you know how amazing you are?”
“Yes,” I said jokingly. “But you can always remind me why.”
“Because most people I would bring here would only care about the house. They’d be in awe of the square footage and all the amenities, but not Sam Flemming. She wants to know all about little old me.”
I shook my head, “Mr. Wendell, there is absolutely nothing little about you.”
“Is that right?” He leaned in close to whisper the words so that his lips were mere inches from mine.
“Yeah, but maybe you should show me just to be sure.” I winked.
He pulled me close so that I was pressed up against his hard body. “Oh, believe me Kansas, I have big plans for you later on. But first, let’s get something to eat.”
After a playful slap on my ass, he took my hand and led me back into the bright kitchen.
“Well, I got us stuff to have a nice dinner, so I figured we could have a light lunch if that’s okay with you,” he said, walking to one of the refrigerators.
“Sounds perfect,” I smiled.
Five minutes later, we were eating a couple of lunch meat sandwiches and some fresh fruit.
“So, you guys only lived here part of the time?” I asked.
He nodded. “We would come here pretty much any time we weren’t in school…long weekends, Christmas, summer vacation.”
“Did you spend the rest of your time at your parent’s apartment in Manhattan?” I asked before popping a strawberry into my mouth.
He shook his head. “No, they actually just moved into that place about a year ago. We had another penthouse across the city, but when all the kids moved out, they downsized.”
I tried to picture how big their other penthouse must have been to have downsized. The one they lived in now was huge.
We finished our lunch with some small talk about how it was supposed to snow the following day.
Once we were done, Tyler led me into the living room which had large bay windows which overlooked the perfectly manicured lawn of the large piece of property. It looked like something out of a movie.
Jokingly, I said, “You didn’t bring me here to turn me into a Stepford Wife, did you?”
His laughter filled the room. “Not this time, Kansas. Pretty sure even if I tried, you still wouldn’t listen worth a damn.”
Rolling my eyes, I giggled. “You’re probably right.”
He gestured for me to have a seat on the large, overstuffed white sofa while he walked over to a shelf and grabbed a couple books.
When he joined me on the couch, I saw they were photo albums.
“Alright, Kansas, you want to know about me and my childhood, I figured this would be a good place to start.”
As he flipped through the books, I couldn’t help but smile. Tyler as a little boy looked like just as much of a lady-killer as he did now. He had the same dark hair, crystal blue eyes, and gorgeous smile. Back then though, he had adorable dimples to cap it all off.
Most of the photos were of him and his sister Tess together. Tess was less than two years older than Tyler, and since their older twin siblings were a good ten years older than both of them, they spent the majority of their time together.