“Yes! I figured they were from my brother and Mom. I mean, who doesn’t sign the card when they send something?”
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t think very many people.”
“Right? So anyway, I must have eaten half the cookies by the time Paxton got home. She freaked out and went into full-on panic mode. She was sure the neighbor was going to fall into a major funk because she didn’t get the cookies.”
“What did y’all do?”
Corina looked off in the distance and smiled. She was lost in the memory. Finally, she shook her head and laughed. “We stayed up nearly all night making cookies and decorating them, studying in between batches. The next morning, Paxton gave our neighbor the cookie bouquet. Her parents had sent the original basket, and she was so happy she cried. She offered some to me and Paxton and I felt so guilty I broke down right there in the hall and confessed my cookie-eating sin.”
I let a roar of laughter out. “Why does that not surprise me? What did the girl do?”
“Well, after she looked at us like we were insane, she busted out laughing. We all had a cookie-eating party that night and celebrated finals week being over. Turns out she was pretty cool.”
“That’s awesome. Y’all still friends?”
Corina shook her head. “We lost touch shortly after that. Paxton and I came back from summer break, and she was gone. Never did find out what happened to her.”
“That’s a bummer.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, she was a nice girl.”
I pulled into the driveway that led to my house. Corina’s cheeks flushed, and I knew she was thinking about me making her come against my truck. I was going to see more of that blush in a bit when I pushed balls deep into her.
Corina jumped out of the truck and started for the front porch while I grabbed a few things out of the back seat.
“There’s a light on in the house, Mitchell.”
Walking up behind her, I leaned in next to her ear. “That’s because I was here earlier today.”
She turned to me, a sexy little grin on her face. “This is where you went off to earlier for your errand.”
With a quick kiss on the cheek, I replied, “Yep. Come on, I want to show you what I did.”
I unlocked the door and we stepped inside. The smell of roses filled the air and Corina gasped. “Mitchell! You did all of this?”
Glancing around the living room, I smiled. Red roses were everywhere. They were in vases, some in small baskets, petals were carefully sprinkled across the floor, stems laid across the fireplace mantel. Everywhere.
“I did.”
She spun around. “You have no idea how many nights I dreamed of the two of us together like this.”
I set the stuff in my arms down and drew her to me. “I promise to never walk away from you again. I need you to believe me when I say that.”
“I believe it with my whole heart. I truly do.”
A single tear slipped from her eye. Leaning down, I kissed it away.
“I had a few things delivered to the house over this past week.”
Her brows lifted. “You did?”
“Yep. Figured we might be needing them if we planned on staying out here more. I hope you don’t mind, I sort of picked out a bedroom set for the guest room. I didn’t want to pick out ours without your input.”
I started to walk toward the kitchen to show her the new appliances. She was frozen in place.
My breath caught in my throat. What if she didn’t want to move in here with me? I had assumed since she was living with me, she’d move right on into this place when I did. Shit. We hadn’t even talked about it.
“I mean, that’s if you want to pick it out. I figured once your place is put back together we’ll be spending time between the two houses.”
She took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about.”
I swallowed hard. “Do you want to go sit on the back porch?”
Corina nodded. I took her hand and we started through the house. When we walked into the kitchen, she gasped.
“Mitchell! You got the appliances I said I loved!”
Smiling, I rocked back and forth on my feet. “You said you wanted them for your place, but you loved them so much, I wanted you to have them here too.”
She shook her head, and then our eyes met. “I don’t know what to say. You did all this for me?”
My finger went to her chin. Lifting her eyes to meet mine, I answered. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you, Corina. I’ve got a lot of making up to do, and I plan on making you the happiest you’ve ever been and spoiling you every day of your life.”