Rhys #4
I’d bought one single item from each of those stores that I’d needed for the representation of Kendall’s gift.
Construction paper, markers, a ribbon to tie the paper into a roll, and a fourth item I was sure we’d need once I revealed the others to him.
I was perfectly aware these were all common items I could have gotten all at once, but I’d needed to talk to a handful of people to get the Cherryvale gossip train rolling.
“And I might have mentioned to whoever rang me up at each of those stores how I’m moving in with you, and how happy we are together, and how completely adorable I find you. Just, uh, you know, things of that nature,” I went on.
He laughed, squeezing his eyes closed in embarrassment, but I could tell he was thrilled with it.
“I never want you to feel like I’m keeping you a secret,” I said, shifting into a more serious tone. “I want everyone to know how we feel about each other. I don’t care if they like it or not. Oh, fuck. No, you can’t cry already!” I protested. “I haven’t even given you the gift yet!”
“Three days in a row has got to be some kind of awful record,” he lamented, swiping the back of his arm across his eyes to wipe them clean. “You’re turning me into a human faucet.”
“As long as they’re all happy tears,” I said, raising my hips a little to dig the fourth item of my pocket, one of those little portable packs of tissues so I could shove them into his hands.
“They are,” he promised. “No one has ever been so good to me.”
“They should have, but I’m kind of glad they didn’t,” I said, before grimacing. “I mean, no! Jesus, that sounded better in my head. I just mean I’m glad I get to make you as happy as you make me. I love you so much, Kendall.”
“I love you too,” he laughed, and the pretty, musical sound of it made my whole body feel like it was floating. “I get what you mean. I hate what your ex did to you, but… Everything that happened to us led us to this exact moment. And I’m very, very happy to be here.”
“Yeah,” I said, releasing a relieved breath. He really did get me. “Okay, so here’s your gift.”
I handed it over so he could pull off the ribbon and let the thick construction paper roll out flat again.
I’d never been much of an artist, but the cartoonishly simple depiction of the deed and title for a house, complete with a full address and official looking stamp in the corner wasn’t hard to understand.
Still, he stared at it for a long time, his dark eyebrows furrowed together as his eyes raked over it.
“I don’t get this,” he admitted, looking back up to me. “Is this supposed to be like if you bought the abandoned house on Mulberry?”
“Ah, yeah,” I said, scratching the back of my neck. Maybe my skills hadn’t been as up to par as I’d thought. “Well, I’m buying the house on Mulberry. I don’t have any paperwork or anything yet, but I talked to the realtor today and no one else wants it anyway, so…”
“You’re buying it!?” He gasped, the wonder in his voice so genuine and sweet I could barely keep from melting into a puddle under him. “How!?”
“Ah, I came into some money with the whole divorce thing. I’ll tell you later,” I said, waving it away. I didn’t want to taint the moment with the past. “But yeah, I’m buying it. I’ll have the money tomorrow and can start the process then.”
“I’m just so glad it’s not getting torn down,” he said, joy and relief showing clear as a bell on his face.
Jay would never understand how it felt seeing him look like that, so of course he didn’t understand why I’d taken less money so I could get it faster.
But I’d have chosen it a million times over.
“It needs a lot of work, but you know all about that stuff. So you’re the perfect person to own it. ”
“Well, yeah, I plan on doing a lot of work on it. But I’m not going to own it. You are.”
“W-what?”
“I’m putting the deed in your name. The house is the gift. It’s yours. I mean, it’ll be yours.” He stared at me in total astonishment for so long, I had to clear my throat. “Uh, but it would be really nice if you let me live in it with you, once I have it fixed up and everything.”
The light sheen of tears that had misted over his eyes at my earlier words were lost in the sudden torrential downpour.
“You’re serious?” He asked, the words coming out like a sob. “Are you sure?”
“I’m very, very sure.”
“Of course I’ll let you live there,” he said, hugging my neck and burying his face in my shoulder.
I could barely understand the words he blubbered out into my skin, but I understood the basic sentiment.
“I want you with me every day for the rest of my life. I don’t want anything if you aren’t there with me. ”
“I feel the same way,” I said, holding him tight to me. “I was so angry and so bitter when I had to come back to Cherryvale. All I could do was feel sorry for myself, thinking about every shitty thing that had ever happened to me. But getting to be with you makes everything worth it.”
“It’s always been you,” he said, raising his face to stare at me with big, shining emerald eyes. “And getting to have you, to really know that you love me back, was worth the wait. I love you more than anything, Rhys.”
“I love you too, Sparkles.”