by Ryan, Kaylee
“Was that Roger, as in Roger Watters, the quarterback for the Defenders?” My voice is a shrill squeak. How is this our life?
“Yep.” He nods as he types. “He bought a house last year and had a great experience with his realtor. This is her site.” He turns the laptop so I can see it. He puts his arm around my shoulders and pulls me in close. “Time to find our dream home, baby.”
That’s how we spend the rest of our night. Scrolling through house listings. It’s surreal searching through the homes he’s got us looking at. They’re huge and fancier than anything I’ve ever lived in. Cooper says we need to have the best because that’s where we’ll be raising our family. I argue it’s too much money, but he counters that it’s our home base and that if we’re going to blow money, a home is a good place to do it. He’s right, but it seems frivolous.
“Babe, I need you and our future kids to be safe when I’m on the road. These neighborhoods are the best, and most of the houses have gates,” he explains when we’re lying in bed.
“Okay,” I concede. “I can’t believe you called the realtor at eleven o’clock at night.”
“She was happy to hear from me.” He laughs.
“She was happy to think about the potential commission.”
“I don’t care why. All I care about is that she’s making it happen, and we’re going to look at houses tomorrow.”
“This is unreal, Coop.”
“This is us, baby. This is our life.”
“Thank you for not giving up on me.”
“I should be saying that. I know I hurt you, and yet here you are. In our bed, in my arms.”
“Nowhere else I’d rather be.”
He kisses the top of my head, and I close my eyes. I’m content and happy, and it’s hard to believe we’re here, but he’s right. This is our life, and it’s what we make it.
I can’t wait to see what our future holds.
* * *
“I’m kind of disappointed. I was sure we would have found one we loved by now,” Cooper says as we drive to the fourth house of the day.
“They were all nice.”
“Yeah, but we didn’t love them. I don’t want to settle for nice. This is where we’re going to be spending the majority of our time, raising our kids, making our kids.” He glances over with a quick wink and wag of his eyebrows.
“We have time, Cooper. It’s not like your condo isn’t nice.”
“I know, but I’m ready to do this. I feel like we’ve been on hold since we were eight. I don’t want to be on hold anymore. I want to be full steam ahead in this new life of ours.”
I reach over and place my hand on his shoulder. “There’s no rush. I’m still moving here as soon as my two weeks are up.”
“Damn right you are,” he says, pulling into a subdivision.
“Wow, these houses are unreal,” I say as I take in each one.
“This is it.” He pulls up in front of a wrought iron gate.
We wait as April, the realtor, opens the gate. Cooper follows her through and my breath hitches in my throat. The house sits back off the road, and it’s on a small knoll. It’s a light brown brick, and it’s gorgeous. My favorite of the day by far, but this place has to be out of our price range.
“Welcome.” April greets us as we get out of the truck. “Each lot is ten acres or more, so it keeps the neighbors from being right on top of you. There are homeowner association fees that pay for keeping the road maintained. Shall we?” she asks, already heading toward the front door. “You know the drill. I’ll be here if you need me. Since this house is empty, you can look around on your own, much like the others. It’s five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and two home offices. There is also a fully finished basement.”
“That’s huge.” I look at Cooper wide-eyed.
“Lots of babies,” he whispers, taking my hand and leading me through the house.
With each room we tour, I fall more in love with this place. The kitchen is huge, with a large island and plenty of space to cook and feed a big family or group of friends in our case. The bedrooms are all large, as are the bathrooms and the living area. The master bedroom has a sitting area, and the shower… it’s the biggest shower I’ve ever seen before in my life. Like, ten people would fit in there, comfortably, I might add, all at one time.
“Wow,” I murmur when we walk out on the back porch. It’s covered, and there is an outdoor kitchen, fireplace, and even a TV. The view of the woods behind the property is so private and serene.
“Good wow?” Cooper asks.
I glance up at him. “It’s breathtaking.”
“I really like this one, Reese. It’s big enough for kids, and we both have an office. There is room for our parents to come and stay when they visit. I really like the theatre room set up in the basement, and this outdoor area… it’s private, and I love that. We need that with my career.”
“I agree. What did you not like about it?” I ask. I’m hoping he says nothing.
“Nothing. I love it all, and that master bath….” He leans down and places his lips next to my ear. “The things I could do to you in there.”
I shiver. “Yeah,” I agree.
“What do you think, baby?” He moves to stand behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. “Can you see us living here? Raising a family here?”
“Can you?” I ask him.
“I asked you first.”
“How far away is the stadium?”
“About twenty minutes.”
“Not too far of a drive.”
“No. In fact, I think a couple of my teammates live close to here.”
“So?”
He chuckles. The sound is soft and low, but I can feel the vibration of his chest against my back. “I can see us here.”
“Me too,” I say excitedly.
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Let’s go find April.” We locate her in the kitchen, leaning over the counter, typing furiously on her phone. “We’ll take it,” Cooper announces.
“Well, all right then. I’ll draw up the paperwork. Can you stick around to sign the offer?” she asks.
“Yes.”
“And the price?”
“Full asking. We’d like to move quickly.”
“Of course. Give me ten minutes to get this written up, you can sign, and I’ll send it over to the seller’s agent. Hopefully, we’ll hear from them later today.”
Fifteen minutes later, we’re in the truck headed home. “I can’t believe that just happened,” I say, scrolling through the picture I took of the house on my phone.
Cooper just grins and reaches over the console for my hand. The drive back to his condo is quiet but not uncomfortable. I can’t stop myself from imagining us living there. Excitement like nothing I’ve ever known races through my veins. It’s not the house, as much as it is the meaning of the house.
Our home.
Chapter 19
Cooper
Reese’s two-week notice ended up being eight days. She was already scheduled to be off Thursday and Friday of this week for Nixon and Tessa’s wedding. They honored that time off, thankfully. She was stressing out about missing the wedding. I tried to assure her it would all work out. I didn’t tell her she could just quit. I know Reese, and that’s not who she is.
“How was your last day?” I ask her as soon as she comes through the door. She maneuvers herself around the boxes that we’ve been packing the last two weeks.
“Good. Sad. I promised the kids we’d come back to visit,” she says sheepishly.
“Of course we will. Come here.” I pull her into a hug. “April just called.”
“And?”
“The closing is still on for tomorrow. I moved our flights to early Friday morning.”
“Did you tell Nix?”
“Not yet.”
She reaches for her phone, hits a few buttons, and it begins to ring. She has it on video, so she holds it out for me to see. “Hey.” Tessa
smiles on the screen. “Oh, hi, Cooper,” she greets me as well.
“Hey, Tess. Where’s Nix?”
“Is that Cooper?” I hear Nix ask before his face appears on the screen. “Hey, you two. What’s up?”
“Oh, you know, just living the dream. And we bought a house,” I say nonchalantly.
“What? You bought a house?” Tessa grins.
“We did,” Reese confirms.
“You bought a house together?” Nixon asks.
My hand slides behind Reese’s neck as I pull her into a kiss. Just a soft peck on the lips, but Tessa’s gasp and Nixon’s “about fucking time” tells me it gets the reaction I was hoping for.
“You’ve been holding out on me.” Tessa smiles.
“Kind of. We just wanted to take it slow for a while.”
She wanted to take it slow, but I don’t correct her. “So we bought a house, and the closing is tomorrow.” I drop the bomb.
“No way, man. You are not missing my wedding.” Nixon crosses his arms over his chest.
“We’re not. We were supposed to fly out tomorrow afternoon, but we changed our flights to Friday morning.”
“The rehearsal is at six,” Tessa reminds us.
“Our flight lands at one,” I explain. “We will be there in plenty of time.”
“Good. Now, let’s get back to the house. You’re living there together? As in roommates or sharing a bed?” Nixon asks.
Tessa nods as if he read her mind. I look over at Reese. “I thought you would have told her?”
“No, I haven’t had time to talk to her. She’s working, or I’m working.” She shrugs.
“She’s the love of my life,” I tell them.
“Aw.” Tessa smiles.
“So the two of you are together, as in an item?” Nixon clarifies. I see the glint in his eyes that tells me he’s giving me shit. It’s his way of gloating without saying I told you so. I’ll take it. I should have listened to him years ago. I should have opened my eyes and tried to see it from his point of view.
“Yes.”
“It’s about fucking time, my man.”
I throw my head back and laugh. We spend the next fifteen minutes chatting and catching up. I assure them we will be there in plenty of time for the rehearsal, and end the call. “You want to head to Indy tonight? The closing is at ten in the morning.”
“Yes. That sounds better than getting up at the ass crack of dawn to drive there.”
“Maybe we can take some of your things and leave them at the condo,” I suggest.
“We’d have to move them twice.”
I shrug. “Doesn’t matter. We don’t have to unpack them, just have them there. Besides, we get the keys tomorrow.”
“I can’t believe it. Less than two weeks is record time for a house closing.”
“It is, but money talks. The title search and appraisal were done quickly, and I paid cash.”
“Oh.” Her mouth forms the perfect little circle. “Yeah, I guess that will do it.”
“We can stay there tomorrow night if we want. It’s all ours once we sign those papers.”
“Wait,” she says with a hint of panic in her voice.
“What?” No way is she backing out on me now.
“Have you told your parents?”
Shit. “No. Have you told yours?”
“No.” She chuckles. “Let me grab some clothes and what I’ll need for the wedding. If we leave here in thirty minutes, that will get us to their place a little after seven. We can stop in and say hi, give them the news and then head to Indy.”
“That’s going to put us at the condo pretty late.”
“Yeah, but we should tell them in person.”
“Agreed. Go get what you need. I packed my bag earlier. I laid out some of your stuff I thought you might want on the bed, and your suitcase and carry-on are ready for you too.”
“You spoil me,” she says, pressing a kiss to my lips.
“Damn right, I do. Get moving, woman.” I try to smack her on the ass, but she’s too quick as she laughs her way down the hall.
* * *
Two hours later, at a few minutes after seven, we’re pulling into my parents’ driveway. They don’t know we’re coming. We talked about calling them on the way, but instead, opted to surprise them.
“Are you nervous?” I ask Reese, pulling the keys from the ignition.
“No. Are you?”
“Nope. How do you want to do this?”
“I’ll call Mom and Dad and ask them to come over.” She pulls her phone out of her purse and dials the call, putting it on speaker so I can hear.
“Reese, what a nice surprise,” her mom greets her.
“Hey, Mom. I was hoping you could do me a favor?”
“Anything,” she replies.
“Well, Coop and I are sitting in Trevor and Ann’s driveway. We were hoping you would come and visit with us for a little while.”
“You’re here? Now?” she asks. “Garrett, the kids are here!” she yells. “We’ll be right there,” she says, and the line goes silent.
We get out of the truck and head inside. I don’t bother knocking. “Mom, Dad!” I call out.
“Cooper?” Dad asks, appearing in front of us. “Reese.” He pulls my girl into a hug. “What are the two of you doing here?”
“We’re on our way to my place in Indy. Just thought we would stop in to say hi.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be on a flight to Louisiana?” Mom asks, hugging us both.
“Yeah, we need to go to my condo first. So we thought we would stop in on our way.”
“I’m glad that you did. Reese, we should call your parents,” she says, just as there’s a knock at the door.
“That would be them,” Reese tells her.
The six of us gather in the living room and spend the next twenty minutes or so catching up. It’s not until Reese’s mom asks about our flights tomorrow that we find our opening.
“You fly out tomorrow, right?” Eve asks.
“Actually,” Reese glances at me, “we moved our flights to Friday morning.”
“Yeah, we had something come up tomorrow that we had to take care of.”
“What’s that?” Dad asks, just like I was hoping one of them would.
I look over at Reese, and she’s smiling from ear to ear. My girl is happy. Her smile is contagious. Reaching over, I entangle her fingers with mine. “Reese and I bought a house.”
The room is silent.
“Did you say that you bought a house?” Garrett asks.
“We did.” I’m sure to include Reese in this, because what’s mine is hers. She doesn’t know it yet, but the house is in both of our names.
“Wow,” my dad murmurs. “Where?”
“Indianapolis. About twenty minutes from the stadium.”
“You’re moving?” Eve asks Reese.
“Yeah. Today was my last day at my job. Cooper…” She swallows hard as her emotions get the best of her. “Cooper started a foundation. The Latham Reeves Foundation.” She goes on to tell them all about the foundation. She starts at the beginning, telling them the frustrations with her job, and how I listened and created a solution. She’s giving me all the credit, but it’s her and her love of helping others… her big heart that she shares with those kids that created this foundation.
By the time she’s finished retelling the story, both of our mothers are in tears, and our fathers both wear looks of pride on their faces. “So, we bought a house. Reese is moving to Indy to run the foundation.”
“Can we see the house?” Mom asks.
“It’s gorgeous,” Reese says, pulling out her phone. “I can’t believe this is where we’re going to be living.” She passes her phone around, and they each take turns flipping through the pictures.
“You’ve done well for yourself, son. I’m proud of you,” Dad says.
My chest swells with pride at his words. Sure, I’m good at football, and the money that provides us is going to
let us live a life most can only dream of. That’s great, but I know it’s more than that. He knows Reese is my heart, and he’s proud of me for not giving up. For fighting for her. For us.
I nod, accepting his words. However, I keep mine to myself. I don’t tell him that I would give it all up for her. If that’s what it took for me to spend the rest of my life with her, I’d do it. No questions, no hesitation. I’m glad that’s not how it turned out, don’t get me wrong, but there is nothing in my life more important than Reese.
“We fell in love with it. It’s big enough to start our family and still have room for the four of you when you come to visit.”
“Family?” they all four say at the same time.
I dropped that little nugget of information that I know they were all dying to ask but weren’t for whatever reason. They’ve stayed out of our romantic relationship, but it’s time they know what’s going on. I’ve told them all that I love her, and this was my plan, but it’s time for them to know the plan has been set in motion. Next stop, our engagement and our own wedding.
I look over at Eve and Garrett. Here goes nothing. “I know we’ve talked about this before,” I say, keeping my eyes trained on them. Reese squeezes my hand, I’m sure to get my attention, but I don’t break their gaze. “I love her. I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I would like your blessing to do so,” I say formally.
Garrett looks over at Eve, and something passes between them. “You’re already a part of our family. We’d be honored to officially call you our son.”
Our parents gather around us, giving us hugs and congratulations. We talk a little while longer with plans for them to come and see the house when we get back from the wedding. We’re barely in the truck with our seat belts on when Reese smacks my arm.
“Ouch.” I pretend that she hurt me. She didn’t. “What was that for?” I ask, but I already know the answer.
“That—” She points toward the house. “You just did that.”
“I did.” I fight my grin.
“In front of me and all of them.”
“They’re our parents.”
