Gavin stayed at my place Friday night, meeting me after my shift. It was an excuse so that he didn’t have to get up extra early on Saturday. Really, it was an excuse for sex and cuddles, and I was not opposed to either.
“Why are we meeting your realtor at stupid o’clock?”
He chuckled, his hand reaching out to rest on my thigh. “Emma, it’s almost ten.”
“Yes, well, I worked second shift, then was kept awake by someone for another two hours.” I turned and narrowed my eyes on him. “Why are you so chipper?”
“I’m used to five or six hours of sleep. Starbucks?”
“If you want me not grumpy, I need a venti quad vanilla latte stat.”
“Who is the demanding one today?”
“Hey, about time you got a taste of your own medicine. Waking a woman up from a perfectly good sleep.”
His hand disappeared from my leg. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”
I reached out and pulled his hand back to my leg. “Yes, I do.”
“Why is that?”
“Because, the one thing I’ve been wanting for weeks is time with you outside the hotel. I’m just bitchy without my caffeine fix.”
“I will buy you a Starbucks if it makes you happy.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “That would make me very happy.”
“Good, because that’s all I want.”
“What?”
“You happy.”
I stared at his profile in shock. “Really?”
“You make me happy. Why do you think I put this off for so long? Finding a house meant not seeing you almost every day.”
“You stayed at the hotel for me?”
He nodded. “I told you. From the moment I walked through that door, it was always you.”
“But you were always yelling at me. Talk about the wrong signal.”
“It was the only way I could think of to see you and not seem like some sleazy hotel guest.”
“So you made my work life a living hell?”
He nodded. “I do whatever it takes to get what I want.”
“That was underhanded and a huge headache.”
“But it worked, because now I have what I want.”
We were heading back into downtown, which surprised me a bit. Though, once he stopped and got me my coffee, I didn’t care about where we were going anymore.
The first building we pulled up to I thought had to be a joke. It had to be. The high-rise condos in the building were known for starting in the millions.
“What is your budget?” I asked Gavin in a whisper as we walked through the parking garage and into the building.
“For Boston? Four million.”
He pulled on my arm, but my feet were stuck as I stared at him.
“What? I spend eight hundred a night at the Cameo, Emma. The mortgage is actually quite a bit less.”
“I just, I mean, I knew you had money . . .” I glanced down and stopped again in my tracks. “Are you wearing jeans?”
A chuckle slipped from a half smile while he shook his head. “You really do need coffee in the morning.”
I was stuck staring at him. I’d never seen Gavin in jeans. Ever. And it was even better than my fantasies, but also freaky. He looked so laid back, but he also looked like he’d stepped out of a fashion magazine. I’d noticed the fitted sweater and the way it hugged him perfectly, but adding in the jeans should have been illegal.
“Damn, you’re hot.” I peeked around the back and about died. “Your ass looks so biteable.”
He chuckled and we continued on our way in.
The one problem with being out with Gavin was the minute possibility of running into someone from the hotel. And even though the man behind the security desk didn’t know Gavin, he did know me.
I’d met Shannon’s boyfriend on multiple occasions, including bumping into him on campus a few times. I prayed he didn’t recognize me, but I didn’t have such good fortune.
His face lit up when he saw me, and I knew there was no getting out of it. “Hi, Emma! What are you doing here?”
“Hi, Brandon.” I gave him a wave. “Just helping a friend look for an apartment.”
“Oh, hi,” Brandon said, his hand sticking out for Gavin to shake.
Gavin merely glared at the outstretched hand momentarily before ignoring Brandon altogether.
“Baby, what time is the realtor meeting us?” he asked, his hand moving to my lower back as he guided me away from the desk. “What the fuck was that, Emma?” His eyes were slits as he looked at me. Shit, he was angry.
“His girlfriend is Shannon,” I said, but received no reaction. “One of my front desk clerks.”
“So?”
“So? He’ll tell her he saw me! I need my job, Gavin.”
His jaw tightened, and he mumbled something under his breath I couldn’t understand.
“And besides, I don’t even really know where this is going.”
His head snapped to look at me, and I could see hurt in his eyes as well as anger.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I whispered.
“Being my girlfriend isn’t enough? What do you need me to say? Are my actions not enough?”
“I need something more, Gavin. Because most days I just feel like your girl on the side,” I admitted, tears stinging my eyes, threatening to fall. I didn’t want to be that to him. I wanted to be so much more. Even with the meaning of the necklace, I still didn’t feel secure in his want for me.
“Oh, I am getting rid of that ridiculous notion right this moment,” he growled before taking a deep breath. “I’m falling in love with you, Emma, and I want you to move in with me when we finally decide on a place.”
My jaw went slack as I stared up at him, speechless. His hand moved up to my face, the back of his fingers gliding down my cheek. His eyes bored into mine, and I knew the truth of his words.
My arms flew up around his neck and pulled him down. I crashed my lips to his and he gave a startled sound, but it quickly faded. His hands wrapped around my body, drawing me closer, kissing deeper.
“But, what’s so great about me?” I asked, still shocked that he really wanted me enough to move in with him.
He shook his head. “You are what’s so great about you. I wouldn’t have you any other way, Emma.”
Suddenly, an image popped into my head of cooking dinner, but instead of being by myself, there was a little girl on the floor banging on pots and pans. Gavin would come in and scoop the little girl up before kissing me. It was a beautiful dream I hoped one day would become our wonderful reality.
It was only a few minutes later when the realtor arrived. The woman before us was so polished and put together that I felt strange being in the same space as her. My worn jeans, T-shirt, cardigan, and flats accentuated our age and status difference. I glanced over to Gavin and, of course, he seemed to match her, at least in aura.
Elite. Even in jeans.
“Diane, this is my girlfriend, Emma.”
“Emma, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” She held out her hand, and I slipped my hand in.
“Nice to meet you.”
She gave me a warm smile, then turned her attention back to Gavin. “Well, I’ve got a lot of houses lined up for you to look at today.”
“I really hope the right one is in there, because I don’t want to do this again,” Gavin said with a grumble.
“I assure you, Mr. Grayson, there is something in here. Maybe not to the level of features and upgrades you are looking for, but those are easily changed.”
“Please tell me there are some single family homes in your list.”
She gave a rueful smile. “Unfortunately, to stay close to downtown, that isn’t really an option. I found a few with a short commute for us to look at.”
“Mostly condos, then?”
She nodded. “Mostly.”
Gavin’s lips formed a thin line.
“City life not agreeing with you?” I asked. He’d come from New York, but had mentioned once that it was too congested. No room to breathe.
“Everyone is on top of everyone,” he said as we stepped onto the elevator. “If it has to be a condo, I want some square footage.”
I shrugged. “A condo is just a more expensive hotel.”
“That we can modify and make our own.”
“True.” I loved the way he said we.
“This first place is 1,975 square feet with three bedrooms and three bathrooms,” Diane said as she unlocked the door.
The second we stepped in, I was blinded. The lights bounced off nothing but white. White walls, flooring, furniture, cabinets, and even white decorations.
“It’s so . . . white. Do you think they are allergic to color?”
Gavin chuckled beside me. “It’s possible. What color would you paint this?”
“Something light that is not white. Maybe gray or a robin’s egg blue.”
We walked through, but I could tell pretty fast that Gavin wasn’t a fan. His expression was that maddening neutral.
“It’s too small,” he said to Diane. “Especially for nearly three million.”
The next place was nothing but a wall of brick and windows. It was hard to tell any of them apart. The ground floor was wall-to-wall hardwoods. Some rooms were modern, while some were in a classic style with intricately designed wood walls. It was big. Over three thousand square feet big. Lots of rooms and plenty of space.
It felt like a home, and while it didn’t have a private backyard, it did have a large grassy common area with lots of trees behind it.
“What do you think?” Gavin asked.
“I really like it. It has that room to breathe.”
He nodded in agreement, but I couldn’t quite read his thoughts. “It’s nice.”
The next option on the list was just a few blocks away, another high-rise. It was nice, with one problem.
“This kitchen is a cave,” I whispered. It was beautifully done and modern and clean, but there was absolutely no natural light or sight to anywhere else in the condo. A single, small doorway that I wondered how they even got the appliances in was the only opening. Not only that, the ceiling was a little bit lower than the rest of the condo, accentuating the cave-like feeling. “This is the kitchen of a nearly four million dollar condo?”
“Diane, this is a no.”
Half a dozen places later, we arrived at the last one of the day. It was an older townhome, which held some possibility until we got to the “back yard.” If that was what you could even call three ten-foot-tall brick walls around a brick patio.
“This isn’t a patio. This is a brick box with the top open,” Gavin said as he walked out and straight back to the front door.
Diane and I followed behind to the front where he stood looking up and down the street.
“Everything is so . . . historic. Is there nothing newer?” he asked.
“Babe, this is Boston, not Ohio.”
“I know, but isn’t there at least a ten by ten patch of green in any of these places?”
“We can always go farther out, Mr. Grayson,” Diane suggested. “In Newton and Needham there are some nice sized yards.”
Gavin tilted his head back and heaved a sigh before looking at me. “What do you think?”
“What’s important to you?”
“You.”
My heart skipped, and I smiled and leaned into him. “I meant in a home.”
“Besides you being there? Room to breathe, some green, but I don’t want a long commute that will keep me away from you even longer.”
“Then what about the Charles River home?” It was my favorite out of all of them. “It has a common green space between the buildings.”
“It wasn’t my favorite home, but I did like that green space.”
“Lots of space, and it also had that big rooftop deck,” I reminded him.
“It was also one of the most expensive, and there is no covered parking when it snows,” he argued.
“Actually, there is now an app for that,” Diane said as she pulled out her phone. “I’ve used it a few times myself. They come out and shovel the snow from around your car and clean it off for you.”
Wow, I’d lived in Boston for twelve years and never heard of that. I looked back to Gavin who was deep in thought. “There is always that twenty-fifth-story condo with the balcony.”
“Which is the same price as the house and more than I really wanted to spend.” He groaned and turned to Diane. “What if we upped the budget?”
“Wait, you just said—”
“I’m willing to spend more to get what I want, I just don’t want to,” he said, cutting me off.
“Still, in this area, there will be rooftop decks,” she said. “The Charles River house is a great location, a great size, and a great area.”
He gave a nod. “I think I need to sleep on it.”
“You have my number. Just let me know if you decide on one or if you want to look farther out.”
“Thank you for your time,” he said as he held his hand out.
We shook hands and said a final goodbye, then headed down to the car.
“You didn’t like any of them?” I asked when we sat down.
“It’s not that. There were a few I liked, and the Charles River home was one of them.”
“It wasn’t too far over your top budget,” I said.
“Two hundred thousand. That’s no small amount.” His jaw ticked, and I watched as his mood switched. “My money isn’t unlimited. You can’t just spend it like it’s never ending.”
I pulled back, pressing against the door. My hackles were raised. “Why are you trying to fight? I never said anything about spending your money. I just meant when you’re talking about millions, what’s a few hundred thousand? I doubt Diane would have an issue negotiating a lower price.”
His hand covered his eyes, his fingers pressing into his temple while his thumb dug into the other side. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I have to remind myself . . .”
“That I want you for you?” More of the Gavin Grayson mystery. Whatever or whomever it was, money was evidently an issue.
He nodded, sighing as he turned to me. “That was your favorite, wasn’t it?”
I tried not to let it show, to smile, but I couldn’t help it. “It was so pretty, and looking out the back windows, it didn’t seem like it was in the heart of downtown. There’s always looking in other areas, like she suggested. Lots of single family homes, but it’s quite a commute.”
He twined his fingers with mine and pulled them up to his lips, his demeanor back to normal. “I’ll have Diane write up an offer when we get back to your place.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “For us.”
I crawled across the seat into his lap and wrapped my arms around him. “For us.”
Never did I think when we met that I would one day live with him, but there we were, buying a house. Sure, we’d only been together a few months, but I’d never wanted anything more than to be with him.