Submerged(Bound Together Book 1)(98)

 

“Shall we go check out that back deck?” I ask, extending my hand towards her. Carly takes it without hesitation.

 

I lead her down the hall and towards the closed blinds. Taking a big deep breath, I slowly pull them along the track, opening them for the first time since our arrival. There on the patio is the scene I planned with Luke. He’s standing off to the side, but will only be here for a few more minutes.

 

“What’s this?” Carly asks, her beautiful face alive as she takes in the room. Even though it’s daylight, the room is filled with candles. A table for two sits in the middle, complete with covered dishes.

 

“This is for you,” I tell her as I pull open the sliding door with my good arm.

 

“For me?” she asks, stunned as she slowly steps into the room. You can clearly see the backyard now. The pool with water as blue and clear as the ocean is directly in front of us. Another door at the far end of the screened room opens to a staircase descending downward towards the ground.

 

I reach over and take Natalia from her arms. “Give Mommy a kiss, sweet pea,” I instruct our daughter. The surprise on Carly’s face is priceless as we both kiss our daughter. Walking over to Luke who has remained quiet the entire time, I hand over his niece.

 

“What’s going on?” Carly asks behind me.

 

“Luke is going to take her to the apartment for a bit. We’ll join them there shortly.” Her look is skeptical as I kiss the top of Nat’s head goodbye. Of course, this was all part of my master plan for today. The extra car seat is already in the backseat of Luke’s Tahoe.

 

“You two behave,” he says as he takes Natalia and heads towards the doorway leading to the vacant house. “Don’t worry about us. We’ll be just fine,” Luke says before disappearing completely, though I can hear him talking to his niece the entire way.

 

“Why did your brother just take our daughter back to the apartment, and why is this place set up like this? I’m sure Charles will be back any minute looking for us,” Carly says.

 

Taking her in my arms–okay arm since my right arm still has limited mobility–I gaze adoringly into her eyes. “Charles isn’t coming back,” I confess. “He’s already gone.”

 

“Gone? But what about this house? He just left us here?” Her eyes are filled with concern as I raise my arm, smoothing out the little wrinkle between her brows.

 

“Yes, sweetheart, he’s gone. He’s gone because I told him to. Because I wanted this moment to be special and having my realtor walking around doesn’t constitute as special in my book,” I say with a little grin.

 

“I don’t understand,” she whispers while wrapping her arms around my waist.

 

Pulling her flush against me, I say, “Well, let me explain. Charles is gone because the new owners are already home.” I wait several moments while my words sink in. When it finally hits her, I think I could push her over with a feather. “Yes, you heard me. New owners. This is our home.”

 

Her deep brown eyes instantly fill with tears. “You bought this house?”

 

“Yes. I knew when we were looking at it last week that this was the place we’d raise our family. This is where I want to teach Natalia to ride her bike, teach her to swim, and give her brothers and sisters. But most importantly, this is the place I want to come home to every night and kiss the lips of the woman I love more than anything in this world. I want to fall asleep with her in my arms every night after I’ve made love to her repeatedly. I want to wake up the next morning and do it all over again. I want all of that…with you. I want the life I never even knew I wanted before you were in the picture. I want everything…with you.”

 

I swipe stray tears from her eyes, but as soon as I do, more leak out, so instead, I use my lips and kiss them away. I can taste her salty tears, as I hold her close and let her absorb my words and my strength.

 

“So, this is our house?” Her voice shakes from the weight of her emotions.

 

“Yes, baby. This is our house. Our home. If you want it, that is. I made an offer and they accepted it yesterday. We close in a month if you want. If this isn’t the one, then we’ll keep looking.”

 

“But, how did you buy it?”

 

“I’ve made two salaries for two years. When I was undercover, I still collected my salary with the bureau. They were depositing it directly in a savings account for me. While I worked at First Class Auto, I also collected an income. That’s what I lived off of and rented my shitty apartment with.” She remains quiet and seems to calm down a little when I tell her how that whole thing came to be.