“I want to,” she says, leaning into me. “I want to give you something for a change.”
“You give me something every day.”
She throws me a look and shakes her head. “Aren’t we done with Lame Line Larry? We are married now. Don’t need the lines.”
“They aren’t lines,” I laugh, pinning her with a look. “It’s the truth.”
She grins as she bounces on the balls of her feet, a pleased look on her face as we come to a stop in front of our door. Pulling the keys out, I unlock it and push the door open.
“Welcome home,” I say and she flashes a wide grin as I hit the lights and she goes in. Standing in the doorway, I wait as she looks around, taking in all the awesome things Lucy did. She let me rent all her staging furniture, so the apartment is fully furnished. It’s a little classier than anything I would actually have, but she was convinced Avery would love it.
But when Avery looks back at me, her brows pulled together and her face twisted, my heart sinks. “You don’t like it?”
She shakes her head. “No, I love it. But I didn’t think it would come furnished and especially not with awesome stuff like this.”
I smile. “Lucy did it.”
Her face breaks into a grin. “She did?”
“Yeah, as a housewarming gift. Also, we owe her babysitting for the renting of the furniture, but look,” I say, shutting the door and pulling her through the living room.
“My guitar is here?” she asks, pointing to the corner where it sits, and I nod.
“I had Mekena bring over all your stuff.”
“Really?” she gushes as I pause by the wall between the kitchen and living room. I look up and a big canvas picture of the day we got married looks back at us. I love this picture. We’ve been married for a little over a month now and it’s still my wallpaper on my phone and computer. I glance over at her, and she’s covering her mouth as she takes it in. “We looked so busted that day.”
I laugh, nodding as I snake my arm around her waist. “But we are still hot.”
“This is true,” she says, kissing my cheek before turning and taking it all in. We weren’t allowed to paint, so the walls are still a pale gray, but the furniture is so full of color that it kind of doesn’t matter. The kitchen is small, really only appliances and one counter, but Lucy still dressed it up, putting little touches of us all over the house.
“How many bedrooms?”
“Just two, with a bathroom and closet between them.” I take her hand and bring her to the first bedroom, which is our room. A huge bed sits in the middle with pictures of us all over the walls, but when I glance at her, she isn’t looking at the walls, but at the bed.
“That’s one big bed,” she says with a wink and I grin.
“Yup, lots of room to lie in.”
“That and to do the naughty with no one walking in on us.”
“Thank God.”
Leaning into me, she waggles her eyebrows at me. “Wanna break it in?”
I laugh as I take her into my arms, kissing her nose and then the side of her mouth as she presses into me. Looking up at me, she runs her finger down my jaw and then my throat before going up on her toes to kiss me softly on my lips. Pulling only a breath away, she whispers, “This is amazing.”
Tilting my head to hers, I move my nose along hers, feeling all kinds of things that I made her happy. It’s all over her face, in her eyes, and the way her lips are curving. She loves it. Swallowing hard, I kiss her lips and then cock my head to the left. “Let me show you one more thing.”
“Tease.” She laughs as I pull her through the bathroom, the only room that’s actually big and huge because of the position of the walk-in closet. “Ooh, this is nice.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I laugh as I keep pulling her through.
“Aw, you put away my clothes?” she asks, pausing to look, but I pull her again.
“I did. By the way, you have a lot of clothes. Come on,” I say before pulling her into what I’ve decided is the baby’s room as she laughs. A crib sits up against the wall, and when she sees it, Avery gasps as she looks up at me.
“We won’t bring the baby here, though? It’ll be born after school’s out.”