“Where are we going?”

I turned left and then immediately right, trying my best to throw her off track completely. We’d spent the week since Jackson’s wedding talking and making plans. I’d left work early one evening to have a look at the furniture she had in storage and we’d had a heated debate about where to put it and if any bits would fit in my apartment. I said yes; she said no. On this occasion, Victoria won.

“You’ll find out when we get there.”

“Maxwell, you know I don’t like surprises.”

I squeezed her leg. “You’ll like this one.”

“I’d like it better if it wasn’t a surprise.”

Ava’s car was parked outside already and she was standing on the doorstep with Payton and Seph. I’d tried to persuade them to leave us in private for this, as I wasn’t entirely sure what Victoria’s reaction was going to be and if I was going to be rejected, I’d prefer it to not be in front of my siblings.

I parked the car. “Can I take this off now?”

“No. Leave it for another few seconds. I’ll come round and get you,” I said, wanting to be able to see her face when she saw it.

We’d decided we’d live together. For two people who had been so resistant to a relationship in the first place, we were doing a good job of throwing ourselves into it, and so far I hadn’t struggled to find the words I’d needed to explain my fears and concerns and wants. There was just one more thing left to say.

I opened her door and took both her hands in mine to guide her out, walking her down a newly laid driveway with a carefully tended garden. “Stop there and keep your hands by your sides.” She was facing the house, her grandfather’s house, which was now my house and what I hoped would be our home. “Before I take the blindfold off I need to tell you a few things.”

Turning around I gestured wildly to my siblings, pointing to the back of the house and flicking them the bird. Seph shook his head and was then dragged away by Ava. Payton gave me two thumbs up and followed, leaving us on our own.

“Victoria Esme Davies, I’ve told you countless times this week I want to make a future with you and for some reason, you seem to want the same thing. I want our future to start here. If you think it’s weird or you’d rather be somewhere else, then I understand. If you want to start here on your own and I’ll join you in the future that’s fine too. But,” my voice had started to wobble and I realised that I was flying by the seat of my pants with this more than anything ever in my life. “I want you to know that I love you, I’m madly in love with you and…”

“Just take the blindfold off already,” she said, then grabbed my hands before I could untie the knot. “One second. I think I know what you’re about to show me. Before you do, I need to tell you that I love you as well. Next time you tell me can I not have a blindfold on so I can see your face?”

I undid the knot and let the material fall away to the floor, stepping to the side so I wasn’t blocking her view.

Her expression was everything I’d hoped it would be: excitement, joy, happiness and I felt I’d managed to do something very, very right.

“Holy fuck, Max,” she said, starting to walk towards the house. “It looks incredible.”

The casement windows had been replaced, keeping the same style but with a grey stained wood. The front door was now like the one the house would’ve originally had and the lawn and flower beds had been tidied with new shrubs added. The driveway was completely new, grey stone that Ava had insisted we have. She’d been right, as she had about so much.

“I’m glad you like it. I was worried it would be too different.”

Victoria shook her head. “No. It’s different, but it’s still the house I grew up in. It just now looks like what it should.” She took my hand in hers and we walked over the drive to the front door that was slightly ajar. Ava had even managed to get some planters out which added some colour.

Inside had been completely revamped. The floor had been replaced with grey-stained wooden boards, walls had come down, fireplaces had been reinstated, everywhere had been rewired, replastered and painted. Wallpaper that had been expensive enough to make my credit card cry had been hung and there were a few soft furnishings, but Ava had refused to add more, saying that Victoria needed to choose her own. The kitchen had been extended into a kitchen diner with bi-fold doors and Velux windows. The fitted units were the ones Ava had managed to trick Victoria into picking.

“What do you think?” Ava appeared through one of the open doors, a huge grin covering her face. My youngest sister had been glowing for the past week at what she had done and had gone as far as to ask if she could have the property herself if Victoria decided she didn’t like it. “Do you like it? Is it what you thought it could be like?”

“Give her a chance to see the rest of it, Ava,” I said, watching Vic’s reaction. She was mesmerised, her eyes everywhere.

“It’s incredible. You’ve done an amazing job.” She turned to me. “This must’ve cost a fortune, Max. Why did you spend so much?”

“It was probably less than you think. Remember I get mate’s rates from Ava.” My tone was gruff and quiet. I was still nervous. “Let’s go see upstairs.”

She followed me to the hallway and the wide staircase that was now carpeted, the banister sanded and painted to match the rest of the house. “It’s stunning,” she said, her shoes discarded at the bottom of the stairs. “It’s… fuck, it’s just incredible.”

She saw the master bedroom, the thick carpet underneath her feet, the en suite wet room and the master bathroom with a bath in the centre of the large space. Ava had suggested making the room into another bedroom and partitioning another room in two, but the house was already six beds and I didn’t envisage having that many children, so we’d kept it.

“What do you think?”

“I think this is where I’ll be spending poker nights when you’re downstairs with the rest of the boys.”

I heard her words and my heart began to ping electricity through me at the implications. We saw the rest of the floor and the one above, the fireplaces that had been in each room now uncovered and restored or replaced with similar ones. Some were even working, such as the one in the bathroom—something Ava was inextricably proud of.

We headed down to the cellars that were now kitted out with gym equipment in one chamber and a huge screen and projector in the other.

“A man cave,” she said shaking her head. “I got bathrooms, you got a man cave. Is there a bed down here for Seph?”

“I’m allowed to move in?” the boy behind us said. He’d been quiet, watching Victoria’s reactions also, examining the fireplaces and new fittings.

“No, Seph,” I said. “We might let you stay once in a while when you’re too drunk to get home, but you’re not moving in.”

“I could have my own room. I’d be no trouble. Or even that summerhouse in the garden. There’s even WiFi down there,” he sounded enthusiastic and I knew one of us needed to have a chat with him about his current phobia of living alone.

“Summerhouse?” Victoria said. “Is there anything you didn’t include?” She looked between me and Ava.

Ava nodded. “You need to furnish it. Max told me about the furniture you have in storage and it’ll obviously fit with the period of the house, but I’d suggest having it repainted. Same with soft furnishings. I have a friend who will do your curtains and blinds, and you’ll need rugs but I can help you shop for them. I still have Max’s credit card.”

Victoria nodded, biting her bottom lip which I knew by now meant she was thinking of how to phrase what she wanted to say. Panic knotted through me and I felt my hands start to become clammy.

“Thank you,” she said to Ava. “You’ve done an amazing job. I love it, I absolutely love it.”

“That means you’re going to move in? With Max?” Ava said, her hands clapping together as they had done since she was a little girl whenever she was excited.

Victoria looked at me, her eyes soft. “Can you three give us a minute? Then we’ll order pizza and I hope someone had the sense to bring Champagne.”

There was a burst of noise, Seph saying something about taking up residence in the summerhouse and then we were left in the quiet.

“Is it too much? Did I go over the top? I don’t want to scare you—”

She stood up on her tiptoes and silenced me with a kiss. “Yes, it’s too much; yes, it’s over the top. You bought me a house months ago when we were only temporary. Am I cross or mad or scared? No. I love it, but I love you more.”

This time, I kissed her. Our hands roamed as if we had new territory to discover, although I knew her body as well as I knew my own. When we broke apart it was because of the noise outside and I recognised Callum and Claire’s voices, then Killian’s laugh.

“I wanted us to be permanent back then,” I said. “I just didn’t think I could.”

“Now you know you can.”

I nodded. “Am I allowed to live here with you?”

Her laugh sounded like music. “Yes. Hell yes. Try not and see how far you get.”

“That sounds almost like something a stalker would say,” I said, my hands on her ass, needing her badly, accept most of my family was cock blocking me. “By the way, security is in place.”

She smiled. “I didn’t doubt it. Shall we go tell everyone we’re moving in together?”

“Do you think they don’t already know?”

“Were we that obvious?” She tipped her head to one side and looked at me curiously.

“To everyone but ourselves, yes, I suppose so.” There was some comfort in knowing that my family knew me better than I did myself.

“Then let’s go tell them that they were right.”