Chapter 28 Home Stretch
Home Stretch
Acadia
All five of us stand in front of the entrance to the atrium. It’s nestled between two buildings, and Kol was right, it looks small, but you can see parts of the roof, so it definitely gets bigger in the back.
This street is perfect. The gym the alphas go to is around the corner.
There’s a Thai restaurant a block away. An adorably chic coffee shop is across the street.
I think I saw a pharmacy, and even a beauty school.
An Irish pub. A nail shop. There’s more than one bus stop.
Mads has a smile on his pretty face. I reach up and pull him down for a kiss.
He wraps his arm around me and pulls me into him. Mads never kisses in half measure.
Kol uses the code to let us in the gate, and then the front door.
We head in, looking around at the empty hall.
The single-story building is big, but not too big.
There are also doors heading out to a sizable garden.
I keep walking around the perimeter and imagining everything we could do with the space—build rooms, have a large open-space kitchen, and even make space for whatever we can dream of.
But nothing is here.
“Are we able to fix this place up into a real house? A real home?” I ask Kol. His face doesn’t falter.
“Of course! My architect is already looking at the photos I’m sending her. She’ll make anything happen. The electricity and plumbing are already functional. It was zoned for residential when the last sale fell through. We could be here so soon if we get the right contractor.”
Locke comes over to take my hand. I love it when he touches me. It calms me.
Mads also walks over to me. I hold out my hand to him. He takes it and settles in close.
“I love it, Cadi.”
I lean into his ear. “Is this too much? We could choose one of the condos we saw and be done with it.”
He turns and kisses me on the cheek.
“Maybe you should write your own ‘love letter’ about the kind of place you want us all to live. Then we can make it happen for you. If you did that, would it be this place?”
Oh, this son of a bitch.
I rest my head against his shoulder. Looking at houses is exhausting. If I wrote my own “love letter,” it would be a place where we all could thrive.
“It would be this place. This is ours. I can feel it.”
“Me too, duchess.”
He hasn’t called me that in a long time. I sigh with contentment. I have my beta boyfriend back with me. I was so scared when he was gone.
I wonder if Aurora would be interested in this place.
Would it be too radical? Maybe she would prefer something modern.
I don’t know anything about her, and that’s the part that bothers me.
I tried looking her up on social media, but her profile was private, and her profile picture was a glass of champagne.
A glass being held by long acrylic nails.
Mads puts his arm around me and lets me lean against him. I could fall right to sleep. With my eyes closed, I just feel the space. This could be something good.
This could be our home.
I get scooped up into Kol’s arms and held close to his body.
“Hey.”
“Hey, Little Momma, you’re crashing.”
“Hm.”
I burrow my face in his large chest.
He carries me away, and I hear the men talk about ordering us a car back to the hotel.
“Do you like it?” I ask him with my eyes shut, on the verge of sleep.
“Yes. I love it, actually.”
“And Oscar?”
“He loves it.”
“Locke?”
He chuckles. “Yes.”
“Do you think she’ll like it?”
There’s a long pause. It’s so long, I wonder if he heard me. He pulls me even closer and kisses my forehead. And with that, I fall into a warm, deep sleep.