Chapter 32
Ellary
My shoes squeak on the shiny hardwood floor.
“It’s so empty,” I say, looking around the high-rise downtown apartment. My sister lives in an older building, which she crammed full of stuff, so I’d been expecting something like it when I came with Jackson to pack up his clothes and move back into the house.
Jackson pushes the door closed and drops his keys in a small bowl beside the front door. He steps up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist, his palms resting on my belly. I lean back against him, moaning as he kisses my throat.
“It was just a place to lay my head at night. It wasn’t home. Only when I’m with you do I feel like I’m home, which is something I realized too late.”
The words lodge in my heart. “It wasn’t too late,” I whisper, my eyes burning.
He takes a hand from my belly and cups my face. There’s an ocean of feeling in his gaze: love and anguish wound tightly together.
“Yes, it was too late,” he gently corrects me. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I will be worthy of it one day. I promise you that, Ellie.”
He touches his lips to mine in a sweet, but far too brief kiss that only ends when our baby gives me a good kick.
Jackson widens his eyes, feeling it with his left hand still on my bump. “Shit, that was intense. Are you okay?”
Wincing, I shrug off the pain. “Be grateful that you will never know how it feels to be kicked in the bladder. Bathroom?”
Smiling sympathetically, he takes my hand and leads me through the empty-looking apartment.
“In here. I’ll get started with the packing.”
“Okay.”
I do my business, peering around me on my way from the bathroom to the living room, struggling to believe Jackson has called this place home for the last several months.
It’s better than a motel room, but there’s no sign of him anywhere in this place. In college, he was messy. He had posters of his favorite bands on the walls, and hockey shirts from his favorite players bursting out of his tiny dorm room closet.
I’d asked if he wanted me to call my parents and sister to come help. He refused, saying it wasn’t a big job and he could manage it on his own in under an hour. I hadn’t believed him. Now that I’m here, I can see he was right.
Jackson has the three boxes we brought from the house on the white marble kitchen counter. One is full, and I was only in the bathroom for five minutes.
He peers over his shoulder at me and smiles. “Nearly done. The freezer was empty, and I tossed the stuff from the refrigerator. Just need to pack up my clothes, the stuff in the bathroom, my laptop, and I’m good to go.”
He said we could pack up his apartment in under an hour. With the speed he’s tossing things into boxes, we’ll be in and out of here in twenty minutes.
Frowning, I move toward the kitchen to start cleaning. “You should have gotten more stuff from the house. Is this really all you had?”
He drops a kiss on my cheek as I pass him, and I smile in response.
“The apartment came fully furnished, so I just needed clothes. Where are you sneaking off to?” he asks when I step past him and toward the microwave.
“I wasn’t sneaking anywhere,” I grin. “I was on my way to clean the kitchen. Are we going to need to stop at a grocery store to pick up cleaning supplies, or do you have anything I can use here?”
“I have Lysol, but you’re not cleaning anything.” He grabs my wrist, pulls me close, and I laugh as we do a slow dance across the living room.
With my arms looped around the back of his shoulders, I grin up at him. “Is there a reason you’re dancing me across your apartment, Mr. Olsen?”
He kisses me. “Romancing you, Mrs. Olsen. No heavy lifting or cleaning. We’re just here to throw stuff in boxes.
I’ll call someone over to give it a clean.
” He makes a face. “Breaking my lease is going to take a hit on our wallet, but what’s another couple hundred dollars to have this place cleaned up? ”
“I don’t mind doing it.”
“You will be too busy to clean.”
“Oh?” I notice where we’re heading. His bedroom. “Did you have something else in mind?”
“I did,” his voice lowers, turning husky. “I want to make love to my beautiful wife. After we have a nap, we’ll throw the boxes in the car and I intend to take you out to dinner.”
“Where?”
He lifts me onto the bed. “Not sure yet. It’s suddenly impossible to think.”
“That tired from packing, huh?” I tease.
His smile fades as he looks down at me. “Amazed this isn’t a dream I’m going to wake up from.”
“Well, it isn’t a dream because no one kicks me in those and I never have to wonder where the nearest bathroom is.”
He grins. “We should have a barbecue.”
“We just had one,” I remind him.
“Yes.” He kisses the corner of my mouth. “But it won’t be right away. In a month, maybe.”
I poke his chest. “Which is about how long it’ll take us to eat all the food in the refrigerator. Not sure how many people you thought you were feeding with all that meat, Jackson, but it was at least twice as much as we needed.”
Chuckling, he lifts my finger to his mouth and kisses the tip. “You might have a point. I won’t go crazy at the store for the next one.”
We spent most of today making love and cleaning up after yesterday's barbecue.
“What’s this barbecue for?” I ask.
He lays a hand on my belly. “Maybe we could have a gender reveal party and find out whether we’re having a boy or a girl. I see a little girl with your beautiful brown eyes in our future.”
I shake my head. “Nope. It’s a boy.”
“So we’ll turn it into a competition.”
“Done.”
His eyes dip to my mouth. “And what do I get if I win?” he says, his voice husky.
I lick my dry lips. “The same thing you get if you lose.”
“And that is?” His head slowly descends as I slide my palms up over his chest and loop my arms around his shoulders.
“Love. Win or lose, we both get love.”
His smiling mouth brushes mine. “You’re on.”