Bliss (Entangled Hearts Duet 2)

Two hours later, at a few minutes after seven, we’re pulling into my parents’ driveway. They don’t know we’re coming. We talked about calling them on the way, but instead, opted to surprise them.

“Are you nervous?” I ask Reese, pulling the keys from the ignition.

“No. Are you?”

“Nope. How do you want to do this?”

“I’ll call Mom and Dad and ask them to come over.” She pulls her phone out of her purse and dials the call, putting it on speaker so I can hear.

“Reese, what a nice surprise,” her mom greets her.

“Hey, Mom. I was hoping you could do me a favor?”

“Anything,” she replies.

“Well, Coop and I are sitting in Trevor and Ann’s driveway. We were hoping you would come and visit with us for a little while.”

“You’re here? Now?” she asks. “Garrett, the kids are here!” she yells. “We’ll be right there,” she says, and the line goes silent.

We get out of the truck and head inside. I don’t bother knocking. “Mom, Dad!” I call out.

“Cooper?” Dad asks, appearing in front of us. “Reese.” He pulls my girl into a hug. “What are the two of you doing here?”

“We’re on our way to my place in Indy. Just thought we would stop in to say hi.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be on a flight to Louisiana?” Mom asks, hugging us both.

“Yeah, we need to go to my condo first. So we thought we would stop in on our way.”

“I’m glad that you did. Reese, we should call your parents,” she says, just as there’s a knock at the door.

“That would be them,” Reese tells her.

The six of us gather in the living room and spend the next twenty minutes or so catching up. It’s not until Reese’s mom asks about our flights tomorrow that we find our opening.

“You fly out tomorrow, right?” Eve asks.

“Actually,” Reese glances at me, “we moved our flights to Friday morning.”

“Yeah, we had something come up tomorrow that we had to take care of.”

“What’s that?” Dad asks, just like I was hoping one of them would.

I look over at Reese, and she’s smiling from ear to ear. My girl is happy. Her smile is contagious. Reaching over, I entangle her fingers with mine. “Reese and I bought a house.”

The room is silent.

“Did you say that you bought a house?” Garrett asks.

“We did.” I’m sure to include Reese in this, because what’s mine is hers. She doesn’t know it yet, but the house is in both of our names.

“Wow,” my dad murmurs. “Where?”

“Indianapolis. About twenty minutes from the stadium.”

“You’re moving?” Eve asks Reese.

“Yeah. Today was my last day at my job. Cooper…” She swallows hard as her emotions get the best of her. “Cooper started a foundation. The Latham Reeves Foundation.” She goes on to tell them all about the foundation. She starts at the beginning, telling them the frustrations with her job, and how I listened and created a solution. She’s giving me all the credit, but it’s her and her love of helping others… her big heart that she shares with those kids that created this foundation.

By the time she’s finished retelling the story, both of our mothers are in tears, and our fathers both wear looks of pride on their faces. “So, we bought a house. Reese is moving to Indy to run the foundation.”

“Can we see the house?” Mom asks.

“It’s gorgeous,” Reese says, pulling out her phone. “I can’t believe this is where we’re going to be living.” She passes her phone around, and they each take turns flipping through the pictures.

“You’ve done well for yourself, son. I’m proud of you,” Dad says.

My chest swells with pride at his words. Sure, I’m good at football, and the money that provides us is going to let us live a life most can only dream of. That’s great, but I know it’s more than that. He knows Reese is my heart, and he’s proud of me for not giving up. For fighting for her. For us.

I nod, accepting his words. However, I keep mine to myself. I don’t tell him that I would give it all up for her. If that’s what it took for me to spend the rest of my life with her, I’d do it. No questions, no hesitation. I’m glad that’s not how it turned out, don’t get me wrong, but there is nothing in my life more important than Reese.

“We fell in love with it. It’s big enough to start our family and still have room for the four of you when you come to visit.”

“Family?” they all four say at the same time.

I dropped that little nugget of information that I know they were all dying to ask but weren’t for whatever reason. They’ve stayed out of our romantic relationship, but it’s time they know what’s going on. I’ve told them all that I love her, and this was my plan, but it’s time for them to know the plan has been set in motion. Next stop, our engagement and our own wedding.