I pull back the blankets on my side and adjust the pillows before I slide in, wrapping my body around hers. We both quickly drift off to sleep, wrapped up in each other’s arms.
30
Lauren
I wake up, the room still dark, with Sam’s warm body next to me. I was so shocked when I walked out of the kitchen at Steven and Renee’s house last night to find him standing there in the doorway. I’d obviously missed him since returning from my week with him, but I didn’t realize just how much that was until I was back in his arms last night. It’s going to suck when he has to return in just a few more days.
I roll out of bed and quietly make my way to the bathroom, shutting the door quietly, and waiting until the lock snicks closed to turn on the lights. I quickly do my business, stopping only to wash my hands and quickly rinse my mouth out with some mouthwash from Sam’s bathroom bag, then wipe a warm wet washcloth over my face. I didn’t have on much makeup, but it still feels good to get the grime and sweat off my skin from last night.
Once I’m done in the bathroom, I slip back into the bedroom, lifting the covers. I sneak a long look at Sam’s naked body. The defined muscles along his torso, those thick strong thighs and biceps that are not huge body-builder type, but large enough you know he works out on a semi-regular schedule. His sinewy muscles do funny things to me and are sexy as hell. I don’t mind the view one bit.
Once I finally stop staring at his naked body and slide back into bed, curling up next to him. He’s lying on his back, so I place my head on his shoulder and drape one of my legs over his, bringing my hand to rest over the beat of his heart. He stirs slightly, wrapping his arm around me, finally settling his hand against my hip.
I place a chaste kiss against the skin of his chest. “I love you,” I whisper into the silent dark room. It’s only just before four a.m., so I quickly shut my eyes and drift back to sleep.
I’m awoken a few hours later to the feeling of warm wet kisses being dropped along my skin. I squirm at the feeling of Sam’s facial hair tickling my sensitive areas as he kisses his way down my body, now paying attention to the underside of my breasts.
“Mhmmm…” I moan as I arch into him.
He kisses his way back up, until he’s face to face with me. He takes my lips with his own, giving me one hell of a good morning kiss.
“Morning,” he says against my lips.
“Morning,” I reply.
“How’d you sleep?”
“Perfect, since I was back in your arms.”
“I’d have to agree with that,” he says, kissing the tip of my nose.
“What should we do today?”
“Well…” he says, stalling as he shifts me back next to him. “In the excitement of me surprising you last night, I realized I forgot to tell you the news I got yesterday as I was leaving work.”
“Did you get the transfer?” I ask, excitement lacing my voice.
Sam nods his head, a huge smile covering his face. “Yep, I’m moving back home in just a couple of weeks. So, I was kinda thinking we could go out looking for a place to rent, if that’s something that you still wanted to pursue.”
I sit up, looking down at him with a huge smile on my face. “Of course! I’m so excited you’ll be back here so soon! Do you know yet if you’ll be working out of the small field office here, or in Louisville?”
“I’ll be here in Lexington, and might just have to go into the larger office in Louisville occasionally. So, no long daily commutes. I’ll be home most nights, here to annoy you,” he teases, pulling me close enough to kiss my lips.
“I like the sound of that,” I say against his lips.
“Well, with that said, why don’t we get moving. Grab some breakfast, drop by your parents’ house so you can shower and change, and we can look up some places to go and check out for rent. If we find something, we can even put down a deposit if needed, and get the ball rolling on that. We can even go look at furniture if you want if we find a place we love. I know you don’t have any, and some of mine won’t be worth paying to move, so we’ll need to buy some things.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I say, rolling out of bed and collecting my clothes.
After we both get dressed and ready to leave, we stop in the hotel’s lobby to grab a cup of coffee and a bagel with cream cheese for me and a breakfast sandwich for Sam. We head out to his rental car and he drives us over to my parents’ house.
“Good morning!” Mom calls from the kitchen when she hears the door open. “How was watching Ethan last night?”
“He was perfect!” I say as Sam and I walk into the kitchen.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were in town, Sam! No wonder Lauren didn’t come home last night,” Mom teases us.
“Good to see you, Debra,” Sam says, wrapping my mom in a hug. “I flew in late last night and surprised Lauren for a few days. Steven was the only one who knew I was coming in. Her babysitting was his attempt to help me get her to their house, so I could surprise her when I got in late.”
“Oh, how sweet. What do you kids have planned for today?”
“We’re going to go look at potential places to rent. Sam’s transfer was approved, and he’ll be back home in just a few weeks!” I tell my mom excitedly.
“That was fast. I bet you guys are excited about the distance no longer being an issue.”
“We sure are,” Sam tells her, the look of happiness evident on his face as he wraps an arm around my waist, resting his hand on my hip.
“I’m going to go shower and change real quick,” I say to the both of them. “Do you want to start looking up some rentals available online or in the paper? I can grab the Classifieds from today’s paper for you.”
“I’ll start with what’s online, and if we need more options, we can check the paper.”
“Ok, I’ll be back down in just a bit,” I say, giving him a quick peck on the lips.
“I’ve got to head out myself,” Mom tells us before I leave the room. “You kids have a fun time looking at places, and let’s plan on dinner sometime before Sam leaves.”
“Sounds good, Mom. I’ll text you later if we find anything,” I say, turning to head upstairs.
31
Sam
With Lauren up taking a shower and getting ready for the day, and Debra gone, I pull out my phone and get to work looking up potential rental properties. I pull up one of the many websites that property managers can list their rentals on, and put in some search criteria that I think we’ll want. Two bedroom, one-and-a-half bath, central air, et cetera. I even include the potential of renting a small house, that way we don’t have to share a wall with any neighbors if we don’t want to, and maybe down the road, we can get a puppy.
By the time she comes back down about thirty minutes later, an overnight bag in one hand, I’ve got a list of over a half-dozen places I think we should check out. I’ve successfully already scheduled appointments with about half of them for today, and have submitted requests or left messages with the other places.
“How’d the searching go?” Lauren asks, sitting on the bar stool next to me.
“Good, here’s the list I’ve come up with so far,” I tell her. “These, we have showings at already, and the rest I’m waiting to hear back from to set up something. We never really discussed what we wanted in a place, so was there anything that you specifically wanted in amenities?”
“Laundry either in the unit, or hookups so we can buy our own. I loathe having to take my clothes to a laundry mat or lug them over here to Mom and Dad’s.”
I chuckle at her. “I hadn’t thought of that, but I think most of these places have laundry in each unit. Two of the places are actually small houses.”
“Oh wow, I figured a house would be too expensive.”
“Most are, but I found a couple that I thought would be worth looking at, to see if we like them. Though, not sharing a wall and having a little more space would be nice.”
“When is our first showing?”
>
“In about a half hour, so we should probably head out and start our search.”
A few hours later, we’ve looked at six places. Three were complete duds. Two were okay, but one was by far the winner of the bunch. It was a two-story townhouse that was built within the last eighteen months. The tenants who moved out were the only people to live in it so far, and the owners had already gone in and fixed the few minor things that needed repaired after they’d moved out. It had everything, plus a few things that were not on our must-have list, like a garage! With an additional pet deposit, they were fine with the potential of us getting a dog down the road. It had a nice little fenced-in backyard, two bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, and a nice open floor plan on the main level that, even empty, felt homey and perfect.
“I love it,” Lauren tells me as we walk through the master bedroom for a second time. It boasts his and her walk-in closets, dual sinks in the master bath, a large walk-in shower, and a soaking tub.
“I do, too. Should we do it?” I ask, pulling her into my side and kissing the top of her head.
“I’m afraid if we wait, it will be gone.”
“Then let’s do this.” I kiss her lips.
We walk back downstairs to where the rental property representative told us she’d wait for us.
“We’d like to fill out whatever paperwork is needed, and put down the deposit or whatever amount is needed to secure the place,” I tell her once we enter the kitchen.
“Absolutely!” she says excitedly. “You can fill out the application electronically here on this tablet. It only takes a few minutes for it to process, and then give us an approval or denial. We do have a twenty-five dollar per adult application fee that it will prompt you to pay at the end. Once that checks out, we can sign a lease and get you keys. We do require first and last month’s rent, as well as a security deposit. The rent is twelve hundred a month, and the security deposit is the same as the pamphlet states that I gave you when you arrived.
“If you still wanted to think on it, I can also send you with a paper application that you can drop off at the office at your convenience. We go in order of applications received on who gets the unit, if we end up with multiple applications. This listing just became available this morning, and you were the first showing, so if any of the other showings today want to fill out the application, they’ll be notified they are in line for it if you guys were to pass on the property, or the showing will be canceled if you sign a lease today.”
“Perfect! We don’t plan on passing, we love it and think it will be perfect for us,” Lauren says as I fill out my portion of the application. I slide the tablet to her to fill out her section before we both sign it in the appropriate places, and I swipe my credit card to pay for the application fee.
“Did either of you have any questions while we wait for this to process?” the agent asks.
“Where do we pay rent each month?”
“We have a few options available. You can set up for an ACH autopay that we deduct from the account you give us permission to, on the first of each month. You can also drop a check off at the office, or have a bill payment check sent directly from your bank. We don’t accept cash or money orders. If you want to pay using a debit or credit card, then a three-percent processing fee is added to the rent amount.”
“I can run to the bank and get a bank check for the deposit and first and last month’s rent as I don’t have a checkbook with me,” I tell both Lauren and the rental agent.
“I can help cover some of it,” Lauren says.
“I know, we can figure that all out later.” I drop a kiss to her temple.
The tablet makes a dinging noise, and the agent picks it up with a smile on her face.
“Congratulations, Sam and Lauren. You’ve been approved! I take it you’d like to head over to the leasing office and sign the lease for this place?”
“Yes, that would be great. We’ll run to the nearest bank and be back in just a little bit,” I tell her as we all head for the door.
An hour later, we’re holding the keys to our first place together.
“I can’t believe we found a place that quick, and already have the keys to it!” Lauren squeals in my arms as I spin her around our empty living room.
“Believe it, babe, and welcome home. I can’t wait to get moved in here with you,” I whisper against her ear before I nip at the lobe.
“Mhmmm…” she moans as I kiss along the column of her neck.
“God, I want to fuck you here right now,” I growl against her skin.
“What’s stopping you?” she sassily asks.
“No condom and no bed.”
“Oh,” she says, a little deflated. “The ‘no bed’ thing we could make work, the ‘no condom’ thing, not yet, sorry.” She shrugs her shoulders. “I made an appointment with my doctor to go and talk to them about getting an IUD placed. They are safe for women with the clotting issue I have, and would give us a back-up and eventually allow us to ditch the condoms.”
“You know it doesn’t bother me to have to use one, right?”
“Yes, I just like the idea that we won’t have to if we don’t want to use one. Allow for spontaneous moments like this to not be ruined.”
“Well, what do you say about going out window shopping at the furniture store? I can bring my bedroom furniture, as I bought it all new when I moved into my condo a few years ago. The living room furniture can either come or we can replace it. We’ll eventually need to put something in the second bedroom, and get something for the dining room and a couple bar stools for the counter.”
“Sounds perfect. But I’m not letting you pay for everything. You have to let me pay for something,” Lauren insists.
“Okay, babe. I promise. But I also want to take care of you, and this is one way I can do that.”
We head out for the furniture store with a few things in mind for the new place.
32
Lauren
Sam and I have been at the furniture store for a while already, wandering through all the sections. We found a living room set we both love, so we’ve decided to just sell off his old set and go with the new one. We also picked out a dining room table and some bar stools. I also found the cutest entryway table that I added to the list of what we’re apparently going ahead and buying today.
“We can set up to deliver everything any day starting as early as tomorrow,” our salesman, Jake, tells us, as he enters everything into the computer. “Did you have a preference on what day?”
“Tomorrow would be great,” Sam tells him, then turns to me. “That way, I’ll be here to help you decide where we want things set up.”
“That’s fine with me,” I tell him, as I wait for Jake to finalize the transaction, so we can leave before spending any more money today.
“How was your day?” Renee asks as I help her in the kitchen, getting things ready for dinner tonight. The guys are out on the deck, putting the steaks on the grill.
“Productive, busy, and expensive!” I say on a laugh.
“Oh, how’s that?”
“We went looking at rentals, and found the perfect townhome! It’s just adorable! I can’t wait to have you guys over to see it. It’s in that newish rental development off Sixty-Third and Grand. It has a clubhouse with a workout room, and a pool, both indoor and outdoor. They take care of all the yard maintenance and keeping the roads and driveways cleared of ice and snow in the winter. After we signed the lease and got keys, we went and picked out some new furniture we’d need that Sam either doesn’t have or isn’t worth him bringing with him.”
“I’m so excited for y’all,” Renee tells me as she rinses the lettuce before placing it in the salad spinner.
“Thanks, it’s all happening so fast, but it doesn’t feel that way. It just feels right.”
“That’s when you know it’s meant to be. Plus, it isn’t like you guys haven’t known each other forever. Nice thing about falling in love with your best friend, it just feels
right,” she says with a knowing look on her face. If Sam and I can make this work between us, like Renee and my brother have made their relationship and marriage work, then I think we’ll be just fine. I know they’ve had their issues here and there, as all couples have, but they’ve always worked through anything that’s come up, and come out stronger from it.
We finish up in the kitchen, each grabbing items to take outside to the deck to join the guys. Ethan is playing away in the bouncer toy that Steven pulled out here for him to sit in and keep him occupied.
“Hey, you,” Sam says against my ear, wrapping an arm around my torso and squeezing me in a quick hug.
I smile up at him as I hand him a beer before handing my brother one as well.
“Thanks, Ren,” Steven says as he grabs the beer from me. “I hear you guys found a place today.”
“Yep, it’s great. Once Sam is back, we’ll have you guys over for dinner one night.”
“Oh, I’ve already been conned into coming over to help unload the U-Haul truck when this guy arrives with all his stuff in a few weeks. I told him I require beer and pizza as payment, and maybe a babysitting session or two.” Steven laughs as he flips the steaks on the grill.
“You know I’ll never turn down time with my nephew,” I tell him. “Neither will Mom and Dad, you know.”
“We know. We’re just so tired by the end of each day and week, that going out gets pushed to the bottom of the list of what we actually want to do. We’re lucky if we can muster up some takeout and Netflix by Friday night,” Renee says.
“Well, the offer always stands,” I reply.
We fall into great conversation between the four of us, all taking turns paying attention to Ethan when he demands it from us. We devour the dinner that we all helped cook, and once we’ve finished, we work together to clean everything up before moving inside to continue our conversation. Renee steps away for a little bit, to get Ethan down to bed, but returns as soon as he’s asleep.
Marry Me (Lyrics and Love Book 1) Page 16
