Lift You Up (Rivers Brothers 1)

Just the two of us in the sand, the sun, the waves.

It had been exactly what we needed.

It eased the tension in our shoulders, the frustration in our souls.

There was nothing to worry about there.

We spent our days in bed, lost in each other, only crawling out when we needed something to eat.

When the day finally came for us to head home, we were tan, rested, ready to get back to Paddy and Petunia, back to life, back to the foundations we were building.

We'd left it all a wreck.

Paint cans everywhere, walls half-built, cut-outs from magazines tacked up to walls as ideas.

I didn't even think we had washed out the rollers from the last attempt to paint the bedroom.

"What the hell?" Savvy demanded as soon as we pulled up the drive, seeing the house for the first time in almost a month.

Half of the house had been covered in bright blue tarp then.

Tyvek had been wrapped around part of the house where we had needed to take the old wooden shakes off due to water damage.

The stacks of supplies had been piled to the side of the driveway.

But there were no tarps, no Tyvek, no supplies.

Because the house was finished.

As in... finished finished.

The addition we couldn't afford - and couldn't pull off because of the septic issue that we couldn't quite fit into the budget to fix yet either - was suddenly there, long, sprawling, with new red wooden shakes, gleaming windows, what looked like the two extra bedrooms, living room, half bath, and dining room we had wanted.

"Did you know about this?" she demanded to know, looking over at me with huge eyes, a slack jaw.

"No," I assured her, parking the car, pushing the door open immediately, hearing her door slam behind her as she did the same.

"They even did the porch," she said, moving in beside me as we made the way up to the door, now laid with a red brick path lined in hearty, happy-looking Black-eyed Susans.

None of which had been there when we left.

"This is insane," she added as I slid the key into the lock, stomach twisted in anticipation. "They already paid for the honeymoon. This is too much."

It was.

Way too much.

But I couldn't seem to find a bit of bruised pride at someone else having done the work that had been driving us crazy, that had been draining our bank account faster than we could fill it.

"Oh, my God. This is exactly how we had pictured it," Savvy gasped as we walked into the fully finished kitchen - all white like we had wanted, with the only pop of color being the bright blue cabinets of the oversized island.

There was a small white table-for-two beside a large white China cabinet.

"Those are the plates I wanted!" she shrieked, mouth open in a huge O. "They were sold out!" she added, rushing over to open the cabinet, holding one of the plates, running her hand over it. "And they discontinued it."

"And this range was back-ordered," I said, brows lowering.

"Come on, let's go see the rest," she said, grabbing my hand, pulling me in through to the dining room that - while it wouldn't host all our family and friends at once - had a table that could seat eight, an oversized sideboard, an entire wall full of windows.

The bedrooms and extra bath were off a hall that connected back to our old bedroom.

"This had to have cost a fortune," Savea said, worrying her lip with her teeth.

It wasn't that our family couldn't afford it. It was fair to say many of them were pretty much rolling in it. From their loanshark business all the way through to all their legitimate businesses, they had more money coming in than they could possibly ever spend.

It wouldn't hurt their bottom lines. Especially if they pooled together to get it done.

But, yeah, it would have cost more than I cared to think of. Especially to have it done so quickly for us.

"I don't think my heart can take anymore," Savea said as my hand pulled her back down through the hall, the dining room.

The family room was all that was left.

It was a large space with windows on three walls, a giant stone fireplace dominating the far wall.

"Can you imagine this in the snow?" Savvy asked. "The snow coming down on all sides with a fire roaring. It would be like being inside of a snow globe... what's the matter?" she asked as something caught my eye, making me drop her hand, move across the fully furnished space, full of all the items we had pinned to an idea board, some of them 'wild fantasy' choices that we knew we wouldn't be able to afford for a long time.

Everything was perfect.

Everything had a place and was in it.

Exactly as we had imagined.