“You only deserve the best.”
“I have an air mattress in the basement. It would be easier than taking the mattress off our bed and carrying it down the stairs.”
“It’s not much an issue for me,” he reminds me. “Though I think the mattress from the guest room would fit better in the living room than the king-sized one.”
“Probably.” I sit up, groaning at the thought of having to take my makeup off. I’m going to be lazy and just wipe my face with a makeup-removing wipe. I’ll wash it in the morning. “I’ll move the couch and you get the bed?”
“You’re not moving anything heavy.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not fragile, remember? And I wasn’t going to actually touch it.” I hold out my hand, flicking my finger and telekinetically throwing a pillow off the loveseat across from us. “I won’t put any strain on myself.”
“Show-off.” He kisses me and gets up, extending a hand to help me off the couch. We tangle together, kissing once more before forcing ourselves apart. I’m so tired and falling asleep by the fire with Lucas next to me is going to be so fucking nice.
“We should start packing,” I muse as I slowly go up the stairs. “We leave for Florida soon and I have nothing prepped.”
“How long does it take you to pack?” Lucas cocks an eyebrow.
“I need at least two days. One to lay everything out and another to agonize over if I’m bringing too much or too little.”
“If you need anything, we’ll just buy it.”
“Thanks, sugar daddy.” I turn around, giving him a wink.
“And speaking of packing, we can start boxing things up to take over to the new house. I know this house is feeling a little tight with both of our items.”
A smile pulls up my lips. “That’s exciting! There’s a lot of stuff in the basement I can send over. That will make it easy, really, if we start slowly moving everything over.”
“Do you need everything in the basement?”
I reach the top of the stairs and give Lucas a pointed look. “Most of that stuff is holiday decorations. I might have a few boxes of books, but they’re all signed to me and I cannot get rid of them.”
“Your bookshelves in your office and in your bedroom are filled with books.”
“Those are my reading books.”
“Reading books?” he questions.
“Yeah, books that are okay to crack the spine and read. You don’t actually read signed copies.”
“Wait a minute.” He pauses in the doorway to our bedroom, amusement on his face. “So, what you’re saying is that you have two copies of some of the same books? One that’s signed by the author and another for you to read?”
“Yes, and usually I’ll buy the e-book version of it too.”
“I think you can let some of those go.”
I gasp. “No fucking way! I love my books!”
“You have a bookstore.”
“Because I love books,” I counter. “And I thought you did too.”
“Oh, I do. I very much enjoy reading in as many languages as I can. But I also don’t like clutter.”
I put a hand on my hip. “Just be thankful I’ve only accumulated a few years of clutter. Prepare yourself for the off chance I am half immortal or something like that because I’ll be saving all the things.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
I cock an eyebrow. “You mean you’ll carry all my stuff across said bridge.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Lucas laughs.
“It does in my head.” I cross the room and go to the dresser. It’ll be warm by the fire, and I haven’t worn my silk pajama set in a while. The shorts are quite short, and the tank top is low-cut. Lucas will love me in it, I know, and it’s actually really comfy for being as sexy as it is. Men don’t realize how uncomfortable most lingerie is.
I pull it out and close the dresser drawer. I’m feeling a million times better, and having two exciting things to look forward to gives me the biggest sense of relief. I’m going to pack my suitcase for a magical vacation with Lucas, and when we come back, we can move some of our stuff into the new house because we’ll be that much closer to moving into it together.
And when we’re finally able to move into the big, old estate, I’ll be another month or two along with this pregnancy. Moving into a new house, picking out which room we’ll set up for the baby, and then decorating the nursery together, excited and nervous about having our baby arrive…it’s how life is supposed to go.
Meet your soulmate. Fall in love. Get married. Start a family.
It’s something I’ve always wanted but never thought possible. But it is, and it’s happening. I let out a happy sigh, feeling—for the first time in a while—that things are going to be okay. In just a few days, Lucas and I will board a fancy-shmancy private jet and will stay in an over-the-top presidential suite at an already over-the-top fancy resort.