24. Stephen
24
STEPHEN
“I didn’t think we’d be able to get an appointment this quickly,” I said as we pulled up to the curb of the first property we were looking at today.
We decided finding a place of our own was the right move for us. Something we picked out together. After dinner a few nights ago, we researched different houses in the area with both of us agreeing we’d prefer to still be near the beaches, especially with hockey season taking up a large portion of the year. Being near the beach would be like a vacation itself.
I was also reluctant to leave the place I’d been for so long. A new home would be good, but one change at a time.
“Was she able to get us into all the places we sent her?”
I opened my phone and checked the email the real estate agent had sent the night before. “All but one.”
“Which one?”
“The four bedroom that was closer to the mainland.”
Jensen nodded. “The last one we put on the list. That’s okay.”
Neither of us had been very sure about that house in the first place, but the online pictures never did the actual place justice.
I climbed out of the car and stepped up onto the curb where Jansen waited for me. Before we could walk to the door, Jansen wrapped his arm around my waist and brought me flush against his body. He placed a brief kiss on my lips and pulled back, a huge smile on his face.
“I’m so excited to be doing this with you.”
I lifted my hand to his face and rubbed my thumb along his cheek. “Trust me. I know.” I gave him another brief kiss and took his hand in mine. Hand in hand we walked to the front door. It swung open wide before we had the chance to knock.
A woman in her early fifties stood on the other side. Her straight, dark hair stopped at her shoulders. She wore a navy-blue suit with heels to match.
Immediately, she held her hand in my direction. “Mr. Forrester?”
I took her hand in mine. “Please call me Stephen. You must be Kelly.”
“That’s me.” She turned to Jansen. “Kelly Weaver.”
Jansen shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.” When he let go, he took my hand back in his.
She smiled. “My husband is a huge fan of the Jetties.”
“I’m happy to hear it.”
She stepped back and gestured into the house. “Should we take a tour?”
I nodded. “That would be fantastic.”
Kelly shut the door behind us, and the foyer practically plunged into darkness. It wasn’t pitch-black, but the natural sunlight that had brightened the room in the pictures had completely disappeared with the door shut. It gave the room a cold feeling.
I glanced at Jansen to see if he had the same reaction. His eyes darted around the large space, then landed on me. “It’s darker than I expected.”
I squeezed his hand. “You read my mind. It’s not as bright and warm as the pictures made it seem.”
“This room doesn’t have a lot of natural lighting.” She walked to the side wall and flipped a switch. The light above us came on, bringing the room back to life. “This gorgeous light fixture can easily take care of that. Most of the other rooms have much more natural light.”
The light fixture was a beautiful modern-style chandelier. The lights curved around, accenting the arch of the staircase that led to the second floor.
“It is gorgeous, but I’m not sure I want to always leave the light on to brighten the entry.”
Jansen took a step forward. “Let’s look at the rest of the house. Maybe the other rooms will make up for this one.”
He had a point. I didn’t want to give up on the house yet. Especially considering it was only the first of five different houses we were seeing today. “Lead the way.”
Kelly smiled and walked to the next room, taking us to each one in the home. The primary bedroom had a small balcony that could only be accessed from the door in that room. There was enough space for two chairs. And because the primary bedroom faced the back of the house; we’d be able to sit outside and watch the sun rise over the beach.
The house had potential, yet there was something about it holding me back. I liked it. I didn’t love it. The darkness of the foyer and the tightness of the kitchen worried me. The area between the island and the counter along the wall didn’t leave a lot of room for two people to work comfortably.
The hardest part was the way Jansen reacted to every other part of the house. The only room that made him second-guess this house was the foyer. Although, listening to him in the rest of the house, I didn’t think it was a big enough objection for him to not love it. I thought we’d be on the same page when we left the foyer. I’d been wrong.
Would he be upset I didn’t love it the way he seemed to?
I stood at the railing, breathing in warm, salty air. When I came outside, Jansen had been checking out the shower in the en suite. The scent of Jansen’s cologne hit my nose a second before his strong hands settled on my hips.
“I think we could be happy here.” He pressed a soft kiss to my neck.
“This balcony is perfect.”
I looked over my shoulder and saw Jansen looking around the area. “I can see us spending summer nights out here. Just the two of us.”
I leaned back against his hard chest. “I like the sound of that.”
He put his finger under my chin and tilted my face up to him. “Then why don’t you sound convinced?”
“Not to sound cliché, but it has nothing to do with you.”
He stepped back and I turned around to face him. “What don’t you like?”
I gripped the railing behind me. “The entryway is so depressing. It’s dark and feels like it’s closing in on me.”
“I agree. I’m used to the welcome entrance at your place. I’m sure that could be easily fixed.”
“I’m also not a fan of the kitchen. The island is the center focus, taking up more room than necessary for a kitchen that size.” Jansen smiled and I lifted a brow at him. “Why does that make you happy?”
“Because this is just the first house. We still have four more to go.” I should have known my opinion would matter to him. That he wouldn’t bulldoze my feelings because he liked something more than I did.
“And while I agree with you on those things, I’ll be happy anywhere you are.”
“You’re right. This is only the first house. We still have plenty more to look out.”
“Yes, we do.”
“Let’s go look at the second one.”
I followed Jansen back into the room, locking the balcony door behind us. “I haven’t ruled this one out yet. I still love most of it, but if we can find something that has everything we’re looking for, that will be better than having to change what we don’t like.”
We reached the bottom of the stairs and Kelly was waiting for us. “So, what do we think?”
“There’s a lot that we like, but a few things we don’t,” Jansen answered. “We’d like to move on to the next one.”
“We can do that. Should I add this house to the no list, or could it still be a maybe?”
Jansen and I looked at each other, and it was as if our minds were connected. “It’s a maybe,” we both said at the same time.
She smiled. “I’ll keep it on the list. Let’s head over to the next house.”
“We’ll follow you.”
Jansen and I waited in the car for Kelly to lock up the house. Jansen turned to me. “These houses don’t need to be the only ones we look at.” He caressed my arm. “If we don’t love any of them, we’ll wait and keep looking. I want us both to be happy.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
All of my worries faded away as Kelly climbed into her car. We followed her to the next house, ready to see what else waited for us.
By the time we finished walking through the fifth house of the day, I felt like I had a million decisions to make. None of the houses were exactly what we were looking for. They had potential to be the perfect house. It would be hard to decide on which one had the features we liked the best.
“Do you have any thoughts on the houses we looked at today?” she asked.
“I think there are definitely things we liked…” I started.
“…But none of them had everything we wanted,” Jansen finished.
He described it perfectly. If I could take pieces of each house and put them together, we’d have the perfect home.
“Good to know. I will keep my eye out for anything similar and give you a call if I find something.”
“That would be wonderful.” I shook Kelly’s hand once again. “We haven’t ruled any of these houses out yet. I think we were both hoping we’d find the perfect house today.”
Jansen wrapped his arm around my waist and brought me tight to his side. “We’ll talk about the ones we saw today. If you do see anything else, we’d be happy to see them as well.”
“I’ll start looking when I get back to the office.”
We said our goodbyes to Kelly and told her we looked forward to hearing from her. Once she pulled away from the curb, we climbed into the car, and I started us in the direction of home.
I dropped down onto the couch the moment we stepped into the living room. We hadn’t done anything but walk through the different houses and yet my brain was completely tapped out for the day. Analyzing each and every pro and con of the houses had taken its toll.
Jansen plopped down next to me. He closed his eyes, and he slid his head back against the cushions. “That was exhausting.”
“I don’t even know where to start on explaining how tired I am. And we still haven’t decided on one.”
Jansen rolled his face toward me and opened his eyes. “Tomorrow, when my brain feels like functioning again, we can make a list of what we like and dislike about each. That’ll help us decide. What did you want to do with the rest of the night?” Jansen’s gaze lingered on me. His strong jawline and stunning eyes snapping me out of the haze.
I moved over on the couch and swung my leg over Jansen’s lap. “I think I have a couple ideas.”
A smirk lifted the corner of his lips. “I thought you were tired.”
“I said I don’t want to think anymore.” I dipped my hands beneath the hem of his shirt and ran them up the warm skin of his chest. “What I want to do doesn’t require my brain to do anything. All we need to do is feel.”
Jansen’s blue eyes smoldered. He cupped the back of my neck, pulling me forward. “I like the way you think.”
He captured my lips and any ability I had to think disappeared completely. We were all lips and tongues. No thinking required.