As far as homes went, save for the motel, I’d stayed the shortest amount of time here. I’d spent seventeen years at my parents’ house in Brooklyn. I spent a summer at Aunt Carla’s, ten months in boarding school, and four years in the same dorm building during college. And in the six since graduation, I’d only had three leases.
I’d lived a lot of places, and all of them for much longer than I’d lived in this house in East Hampton.
But it was here that I finally found myself.
Where I’d made myself complete.
“You have work in eight hours. Should we go to sleep?” Emmett asked as we both drifted habitually into the kitchen. I made a long hmm sound as I gave his question some thought.
“I was thinking we could watch a movie to wind down.”
“Really,” he smirked, trailing me over toward the living room couch. “What kind are you thinking?”
“We could always finish the last one we started together,” I said, raking a grin between my teeth as Emmett took a seat and pulled me sideways onto his lap. I turned on the TV as I leaned into him, settling against his chest and exhaling in quiet relief as I felt that sense of warmth again. That unmistakable sense of home.
Emmett chuckled as he watched me go back to HBO and click on that awful movie we’d watched together a few months ago.
“If we watch this again, we should probably rewind a little so we remember what was happening.”
“Any scene you have in mind?” I giggled as Emmett slipped his hand under my shirt and kissed just under my jaw.
“I think you know.”
Epilogue
EMMETT
Two Years Later
I had dinner in the oven, Netflix cued up and my wife running late for our Thursday movie night.
“Six-thirty, yes, promise – I gotta go!” Aly exhaled all in one breath when I’d called her to check her ETA. Then without the usual “love you,” she hung up.
Which meant something was up.
That much I knew.
But I wasn’t going to badger her to tell me what it was. As mellow as we were in our married life at home, our lives outside our downtown apartment were hectic –Aly’s in particular. She was in the middle of finalizing her Manhattan location for the restaurant, which was set to be open year-round. She and Evie had been running around all month reliving the madness that was opening a brand new place, so I excused the fact that Aly was an hour-and-a-half late.
Though she did finally pique my concern when she rushed home, a blur of blonde hair and pink cheeks as she kissed me, said hi to Ozzy, then rushed upstairs for a shower.
“Baby. Everything okay?” I asked suspiciously, following her halfway up the stairs.
“No! Just start the movie without me. I’ll be downstairs soon and everything’s fine!” she said, making sure to flash me a bright smile that made me snort in her face.
“You realize you’re giving m
e no reason to believe you, right?” I called after her as she ran up to the bedroom. But once I heard the sound of her shutting the door, I turned around, exchanged a look with Ozzy and went to play some random show while I waited for her to come downstairs.
But just as I hit play, the screen flickered to black and suddenly, I was staring at YouTube video.
No fucking way.
My heart slammed when my eyes moved across the title of the video emblazoned across the bottom of the screen.
BEST WAYS TO SURPRISE YOUR HUSBAND THAT YOU’RE PREGNANT!
I took half a second to read the words before chucking the remote on the couch and storming for the bedroom.