Chapter 9 #3
“All right.” She thought about Harri and wondered if she was being good. She said as much to Zeno. “I don’t want to make a bad impression on your parents by the way I raised her. She and I were all we had, and I’ve never left her with anyone before.”
“But me. And I love that you trusted me with her.” She scrubbed his back, and he made love to her against the shower stall. “I can’t seem to get enough of you.”
“Nor I you. This is fantastic, the way that we make love to each other. It’s like we’ve known each other for all our lives.
” He said that he felt the same way. “I hope that Harri is all right with you living here. You will be, won’t you?
I mean, there is no point in us skirting around living together now, is there? ”
“No. And I’d love to live here with you and Harri.
We’ll be one little family.” She laughed and reached for a towel when he turned the water off.
“I have to go into work for a couple of hours tomorrow, and then I thought that the three of us would look at more houses. I think it’s great that we’re involving Harri in the process. ”
“She’ll no doubt have an opinion on all of them.
” It made her laugh to think about her daughter being in the process of house buying.
She would have an opinion, and she thought that was funny.
“All she’s ever talked about is having her own yard.
With a swing set. I guess your parents are going to be putting up one at their house for the grandkids. ”
“I’d heard about that. The kids will love going to stay with them, I think.
I hope that my mom is having a good time.
I guess they were going to go shopping for things for her bedroom at the main house.
” She said that she’d heard that and nearly screamed when she was dressed in something she’d been thinking about.
“I should have warned you about that. You’ll be able to change your clothing into whatever you want with just a thought.
I love it for when I’m running behind, but I didn’t think to tell you about it. It’s nice, I think.”
“It just startled me.” She changed her clothing twice more before she found something that she could wear in the warmer weather.
“This could come in handy when I’m running late in the morning, too.
I can change into my uniform with just thinking about it and not have to worry about ironing it. I love this perk with being with you.”
“I see. You’re just out for my magic.” She was embarrassed, but when he laughed, she joined him. “There will be more, I’m sure, but since Mac came into the family, I won’t know what to tell you what it will be. It’ll be different for all the women that come into the family, I’m thinking.”
They headed to the first house on the list and were disappointed in it.
There were enough bedrooms, but it needed to be updated on all the things in the house.
Especially the kitchen, which looked like it was decades old and needed to be stripped down to the studs and start over.
They didn’t want that sort of project for themselves, just starting out.
The second house wasn’t much better. While the kitchen had been updated in the last decade, the rest of the house had been neglected.
The carpets were worn in places and frayed.
The fireplace didn’t work as it was supposed to be gas.
Then there were the bathrooms. They didn’t look like they’d ever been updated since the house was built in the late sixties.
The third house had promise, but they were asking way too much for it.
Even Zeno thought so, and he had lots of money.
It would need some work on it, but again, the price was too high for a fixer-upper.
As soon as they were finished for the day, they made their way home to take a nap.
She really needed one after getting so very little sleep last night.
She’d not heard from Harri in all the time she was with her grandma.
It worried her a little that she might not be having a good time, but she knew that Harri could roll with things that most kids her age wouldn’t.
She supposed that it would tell if she wanted to stay again.
Anna knew that she’d be better handling it now that she’d done it once, but didn’t want to make a habit of it.
She missed her daughter something terrible and wanted to have her close at all times.
Not that it was possible. She really was growing up and would be five soon.
As soon as practice began for soccer, she’d be around different kids than she went to school with, and that would be good.
The more social she was, the better she would be in her friendships.
Anna couldn’t count on one hand how many friends she had that she could go and have lunch with, and was looking forward to having fun with the women of the family.
Mac had already told her that they’d have lunch once a week from now on just to catch up.
Her life was pretty boring, so she didn’t know what they’d have to talk about.
After taking a nap, she felt better. It had been a long night, and she didn’t mind at all not getting any sleep.
She was no longer as sore as she’d been earlier but was exhausted in a good sort of way.
Eating some lunch with Zeno was fun too, and they both sat in the living room to watch television until it was time to go to pick up Harri after dinner.
“I heard from my mom. She wanted me to thank you for allowing Harri to spend the night. I guess they’ve been shopping all day and are going out to lunch.
” She asked why she didn’t call her. “She doesn’t have a connection with you yet.
You’ll have to make a connection with all of my family so that they can talk to you when they need you.
I never thought about that until Mom mentioned it. ”
He had to explain how that had to happen, and she was slightly nervous about them biting her.
But she’d do it so that she could have the connection that they all used.
Zeno even showed her how it worked with his connection to her, and she thought that was fantastic.
To be able to reach out to him when she thought of something, especially when she was working, would be good.
She wasn’t supposed to have her phone on her while working, and this would make it so that no one would know that they were talking.
There was a lot to the mating business that she loved, and she knew that there was going to be a great deal more for her to understand, too.
They were at the dinner early enough that she got to get hugs from Harri. She got a little bit anxious when they hugged, but since Harri was all right with it, so was she. There was going to be more outings with grandma, and she knew that was something that she was going to have to get used to.