“Sorry, today was incredibly long.”
“I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Good night.”
Later, after my shower, I plugged my phone in to charge and realized there was a text message from Alex.
Alex: Miss you.
I bit my lip for a second before responding.
ME: Miss you too.
By the time the weekend rolled around, I was itching to see him again. I had almost forgotten that Cathy was coming until she texted me Friday morning. Stanley and I were in the front yard discussing some of the fencing damaged by the last snowfall when she arrived. She was wearing jeans and boots, which was the first time I had seen her looking so relaxed.
She hopped out of the car with a package in her hands. Running straight to me, she threw her arms around my neck.
“Hey!” I hugged her back.
“You look good.” She pulled back to look at me. “I knew you’d feel better once you got out here.”
“I’m really starting to love it.” I took her inside and she handed me the package.
“Happy housewarming.”
“You didn’t need to get me anything.” I held it in my hands and examined the wrapping paper.
“Hush. You don’t go to a person’s new home without a gift!” She smiled at me. “Open it.”
I pulled the bow off and tore into the wrapping. Inside was a beautiful bird statue. I pulled it out and examined the detail. It was a merlin, small but fierce.
“It’s gorgeous.”
“It’s considered good luck. Most homes have a bird tucked somewhere. When I saw this was a merlin I had to get it.”
“Thank you. I love it.” I reached out and hugged her with my free arm. “Where should I put it?”
“A lot of people keep them in their kitchens or offices.” She shrugged. “But it doesn’t really matter.”
“I know just the place.” I led her upstairs and put it on the desk in the library. “Perfect.”
I showed her the house and told her about the few things I had decided to change. While I loved all the history, I wanted to make it feel a little more personal. Most of the things would be very small but would help me settle in.
I had invited Cathy for a pizza party, but I hadn’t known there wasn’t a pizza parlor anywhere nearby. Instead of ordering in I had bought all the ingredients and we were trying to figure out how to make pizza dough.
“You’ve never done this before?” She looked at me over a glass of wine.
“How hard can it be? A little flour, a little water, knead. We can do this.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “Grab the measuring cup.”
I had told Margie to take the night off, so it was just me and Cathy. She looked behind her at the cups on the counter and frowned. “How big?”
“What?”
“Which one do you want? There are four measuring cups here.”
“I don’t know.” I picked up the instructions and read over them. “Three-quarters of a cup.”
“These are in metric.” She laughed but handed me the right one. “Here.”
“I forgot about that.” I frowned. “I hope I don’t mess this up.”
Forty minutes later we were both covered in flour and giggling. The dough had been runny, so I had added more flour, but that hadn’t helped. Cathy was trying to scrape the sticky mess off the counter when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it.” I grabbed a towel on my way and tried to scrub the mess from my hands. I pulled open the door and my heart thumped in my chest. Alex was standing on there with a small duffle bag and a huge smile.
“Hi.”
“I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow night!” I smiled and stepped back so he could come in.
“I managed to get stuff done early, so hurried home.” He dropped his bag and walked toward me.
“Is that why you were so tired last night?” He had snored at one point, but when I told him about it, he denied it.
“Maybe.” He pulled the cloth out of my hands and threw it onto the entry way table. “It was worth it.”
His hands wrapped around my waist and I melted into him. When his lips slid over mine hungrily, I returned his kiss with fervor, devouring his taste. He growled against me and lifted me in his arms so that my feet didn’t touch the ground. There was no hesitation when he turned and started walking for the stairs.
“Now I know why you look so happy.” Cathy’s voice had me pulling my head away from Alex’s. “No, no. Don’t stop for me. I’ll just eat this nasty pizza all by myself.” The fake hurt in her voice made me roll my eyes. I looked over at her and laughed. There was flour all over her face and sticky dough clumped in her hair.
“Funny, huh? You don’t look much better,” Cathy pointed out.
I looked at Alex, who was still holding me off the ground, and realized I had rubbed flour on his face. “Oh no. I must look a mess!”
I wiggled and he set my feet back on the ground before kissing my nose. “I don’t care.”
“When did this happen?” Cathy leaned against the kitchen doorframe. “And I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
“Last weekend.” Alex watched as I retrieved my towel and wiped at my face.
“So your big plan worked.”
“Big plan?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Yes, it did.” He smiled, completely unbothered.