“Are you excited, Jess?” Gina asked.
Jess pumped her hand in the air and said, “Whoop whoop!”
Gina mimicked her, and before I knew it, they both stood up and started dancing around the kitchen.
I sat back in my chair, watching them, shaking my head and smiling. This was the family I’d always imagined for myself. Even though it started off much differently, I wouldn’t have wanted any of my past to change. Even with the awful two weeks without Jess, that was the push I needed to get to where we were. Gina and Jess’s happiness were my number one priority now. And that sure felt good.
Each of the houses we looked at were beautiful. As I intended to stay in Australia for a long time, I didn’t skimp on my budget. I had more than enough from my account and would get even more from the sale of the business and my house soon enough. The real estate agent, Sami Moore, was a professional and really listened to the ideas I had for what I wanted out of a forever home.
While they all had beautiful views of the ocean, it wasn’t until the last one that I was indeed taken away.
“Is there a reason you showed us this one last?” I asked Sami.
She had a wicked grin across her lips. “Because I figured that you’d want to stop looking after seeing this one.
We stood in the living room. As in every other house, Gina went straight for the bedrooms, and Jess was closely behind her. Jess had no idea I was going to ask her to move in with me, so she hadn’t invested a lot of her input even though I pried it out of her at each possible home.
I stepped forward, and Sami stayed behind me, giving me the space to explore. I opened the sliding doors to the terrace that overlooked the ocean. Below the terrace was a private beach with cement walls on either side for even more privacy.
“I thought you’d like the private beach,” Sami said from the doorway.
I turned around and smiled at her.
On the way back to Chloe’s house, Jess slipped her hand into mine and said, “Which houses did you like best?”
“I think that last one would be perfect,” I said.
“I liked that one too,” Gina said.
“Then it’s decided,” Jess said. “Did you tell Sami that?”
“Not yet,” I said, squeezing her hand. I glanced back through the rear view mirror at Gina who was busy playing with two small dolls. We’d brought them to keep her busy during the house hunt, but she’d barely played with them while we were inside any of the houses. Though by the way her eyelids drooped, I knew she wasn’t going to play for long. We’d spent all morning and most of the afternoon on a non-stop house hunt.
“How about we drop Gina off at your mom’s and we can go back to see the house again?” I asked Jess.
Jess glanced behind her at Gina. “That’s fine with me.”
When we arrived at the house, Chloe was in the living room watching television. She loved her soap operas and never missed an episode. Jess and I tried to convince her to record the episodes, but Chloe said that it was a ritual of hers that she was unwilling to break.
From what Jess said about Chloe’s alcohol recovery, there were several “routines” in Chloe’s life that she wasn’t willing to cut for fear of relapsing.
“Did ya tire out the little one?” Chloe asked.
Gina dragged herself over to the couch and laid her head on Chloe’s lap. Chloe covered her with the afghan that regularly sat on the sofa.
“Mom, we’re going to look at one more house.”
Chloe waved her hand. “I’m not moving my tushie for a while. Have fun.”
I took Jess’s hand and led her out of the house, gathering the courage for what I was about to do.
I had driven for a little while before I decided to come out with it. “Jess, I already made the decision to buy the house. Sami is drawing up the paperwork this afternoon.”
Her eyebrows knitted together. “Then why are we going back?”
“I want to make sure that you like the house too.”
“Don’t take my word for it; you’re going to be the one living there. Besides, Gina is pretty easy, but she really liked that one.”