Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“Seriously…ask him.”
“How do you know it’s a man? You know him?”
“He’s standing right here.” Atticus stopped suddenly and gestured toward himself. “Ask him.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you trying to tell me something?”
“Ask me to see the house, and I’ll let you know.” He smirked.
“Can we…see the house?” I asked, my heart pounding.
Beaming, he reached into his pocket and took out a key. He tossed it in the air and caught it. “Sure. Let’s go.”
What is happening? I followed Atticus as he led me into the house.
Wandering around a bit, I realized the inside was just as beautiful as I’d imagined—a combination of dark, rustic wood and weathered pieces, vintage-looking but not old. The furniture was beautifully upholstered, and the place was impeccably clean.
“I don’t understand,” I told him. “Explain this to me.”
“Okay. Well, when we were here taking care of Mimi, I made the owner an offer he couldn’t refuse. He agreed to sell it to me. The guy and his wife were thinking of downsizing anyway. So it was perfect timing.”
“You’ve owned this house since then?”
“Yeah. I’ve been holding onto it and having work done.”
“Was the inside already decorated like this? Because this is exactly how I pictured it.”
“Not entirely. Some of the stuff is theirs. But I know your taste, and well, I have access to your Pinterest boards. Tina has a key and has been coming over the past few months to help set it up. I gave her my credit card and told her to go to town.”
“Oh my God.” My mouth fell open. “When were you planning to tell me? This trip wasn’t even planned.”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t sure when I was gonna tell you. It’s not completely ready yet. I wanted it to be a surprise, and I was going to give it to you whether you wanted to be with me or not. You’ve never taken anything from me, but I wanted you to have your Monksville dream house. The way you looked at it last time we were here, I knew it still meant a lot to you. The only thing that would make it a dream for me would be to share it with you. But that part’s up to you. Ultimately, this will be your house.”
I continued to walk around in shock. The same beautiful purple violets that filled the baskets out front were arranged in various vases throughout the place. “Tina put these flowers here, too?”
“Well, you always talked about the purple flowers out front more than anything, so I told her to add more inside. They’re silk, though, so they won’t die.”
“I don’t know what to say…”
“I’m not gonna lie. I’ve worried about your reaction a little. I never want you to think I’m trying to buy you or buy my way into your life. That’s not what this is about. But honestly, the way you stood up for me with your mother today? This felt like the right time to let you know about it. For the first time, I’m feeling encouraged that I might get to enjoy this house with you.”
“I wouldn’t let you gift me a house unless you were living in it, too.”
He took my hand and smiled. “Let’s tour the rest of the place.”
Atticus led me upstairs. There were three bedrooms, one primary and two others.
“I was surprised there were only three bedrooms, given the size of the house,” he said. “But we can always put on an addition someday.”
“Well, I guess they’re all accounted for, then,” I said.
“They are?”
“Our room, Christian’s, and the baby’s.”
Atticus’s eyes filled with emotion.
“I know you’ve doubted whether I could accept Christian into my life, and with good reason,” I told him. “But there’s no way I can be with you without accepting Christian as my son, too. The old me could never have fathomed that. She had way too much ego to consider such radical acceptance. But I’ve grown and learned so much about forgiveness in the past several months. Letting go of the jealousy and animosity over how Christian came to be gives me the freedom to love both of you.”
Atticus exhaled as he wrapped his arms around me. “Thank you,” he whispered.
We returned downstairs, and I noticed a set of built-in shelves just outside the kitchen. They had recessed lighting and displayed dozens of Starbucks mugs, each from a different location around the world. Atticus knew I liked to collect those, but because I didn’t travel all that much, I’d only ever had a handful from various states—nothing from outside of the US.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Took you long enough to notice.” He smiled. “Whenever the band and I were in a new city, I’d try to get you one or I’d ask whoever was going to fetch coffee to get me one. A few times they got broken or lost in transit, but these are all the ones I saved. I brought them home after every tour. I never knew if I’d have the chance to give them to you, but collecting them was my way of hanging on to hope. I recently came up with the idea for this shelf, so I wrapped them all up, put them in a box, and asked Tina to set them up for me here. As you can see, no matter where I was in the world, I was always thinking of you.”