Epilogue
TARIQ “REEK” HORTON
“Iknow you’re tired of me and these houses,” Ava said as she reached for the passenger door handle, “I just needed to see this one again because we’ve seen so many that I forgot how this one looked.”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “Ava, you’ve been looking at this house every day online since we saw it.”
“But it’s different when you see it in person.”
I laughed and got out on my side. “That’s because you keep looking at houses you don’t really want. You know you love this one.”
She came around the truck in a fitted little birthday dress that made me want to cancel the whole rest of the day and take her back home.
She frowned up at me, having to squint because of the sun. “I just want to be sure.”
I shut the door and fell into step beside her. “You’ve been sure. You’re lucky it’s not sold yet.”
Me and Ava had continued looking at houses, but for her, nothing compared to the one we saw the day of Sincere and Rhythm’s wedding. No matter how many places we saw, she kept circling back to this one. This was the house. Even when she acted like she still needed more time, I knew it.
We were leaving for Thailand that evening because that was where she wanted to go for her birthday. She had loved Thailand so much that she wanted to revisit. Plus, she wanted me to experience the country.
The realtor unlocked the front door and stepped back. Ava walked in ahead of me and got quiet right away. That was how I knew. It happened every time she liked something for real. She got quieter and started looking around like she was already placing pieces of her life there.
Ava walked slowly through the main floor like she was trying to re-feel every detail.
By the time she got to the primary bedroom, she turned and looked at me with a huge grin. “This is it.”
I leaned against the doorframe. “Yeah?”
“Yes.” She smiled, and it was one of those real smiles that took over her whole face. “This is the house. I don’t care what else we look at. Nothing has felt like this one.”
I nodded once like this was new information.
She laughed a little. “You knew I was going to say that.”
“I had a feeling.”
She went back toward the windows. “I kept trying to be practical. I kept thinking maybe I should look at more just to make sure. But I compared every other house to this one.”
“That’s because this one’s yours.”
She turned back toward me as I stood in front of her and reached into my back pocket.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
Instead of answering, I pulled out the envelope and handed it to her. She looked from me to it, confused. Then she took it and opened it slowly.
As she read, her smile faded. Then she looked up at me with her eyes wide. “Reek!”
I just grinned, loving that I could make her this happy.
She looked back down at the papers. Then at the keys tucked inside. Then at me again.
“You bought this house?!”
“Yeah.”
Her mouth fell open a little. “When?”
“A few days ago.”
“A few days ago?!” She looked down at the papers again like she had read them wrong. “Why would you do that without telling me?”
“Because I knew this was what you wanted.”
That made her stare at me for a long second.
“I knew you loved this house, baby. Now, it’s ours.”
She looked around the room again. Her eyes were already getting watery.
“You wanted a home,” I said. “You wanted something that felt warm. Something that made sense for us and RoRo and whatever comes after. This place did that for you the first day. I saw it.”
Her voice became softer. “You really bought it.”
“Yeah.”
“For me?”
“For us.”
She closed the folder against her chest and stepped into me so fast I barely had time to catch her before she wrapped her arms around my neck. I held her tight and laughed into the side of her head because I had been waiting on that reaction since I signed the papers.
“You are crazy,” she swooned into my chest. “You bought a whole house without telling me.”
“I sure did.”
She leaned back enough to look at me. “What if I changed my mind?”
“You didn’t.”
That made her laugh through the tears starting in her eyes. “You are so arrogant.”
“No. I just pay attention.”
She looked down at the keys again and shook her head. “I can’t believe you did this.” And she shoved me lightly in the chest.
Then she looked around the room one more time, slower this time, like the fact that it was really hers had changed what she was seeing.
“This is really our house,’ she gushed.
“Yeah.”
She covered her mouth for a second, then dropped her hand and looked at me like she could not decide whether to cry, laugh, or take me right there in that empty bedroom.
I stepped closer and put my hand on her waist. “Happy birthday, BB.”