Bent Not Broken (A Cedar Creek #1) (34 page)

So Betty would have a full house this year and it was going to be mayhem. Mayhem that would leap over to Cal’s house, seeing as his sister and her three boys were staying in his guest suite in the basement until Sunday. They were arriving tomorrow morning.

Meaning I wouldn’t be at my house at all this weekend.

Meaning, seeing as my day would be busy sorting out my store, going through book orders, figuring out which conventions I wanted to attend and making arrangements for that, and the next two days I anticipated a high influx of clients, seeing as I had decided to keep
Serendipity
closed over the long weekend and re-open next Tuesday, I needed a few hours that night in my own house by myself before mayhem ensued.

When I made it down to the kitchen I saw that like every morning Cal had already poured me a cup of coffee and had made me some toast. Something else I loved about being with him. He made sure I had my much needed dose of caffeine first thing in the morning. Well, second thing in the morning, after he gave me an orgasm and I returned the favour during our daily morning shower.

Priorities.

If someone had told me two months ago that my first priority in the morning would not be coffee, I would have sent them straight to the loony bin. But orgasms given to me by Cal were so much better than the need for caffeine. Now, since he had taken care of that, it was time for coffee.

When I walked into the kitchen, Tommy was sitting at the breakfast bar munching his cereal. He was hyper this morning. I could tell by the way he was bouncing his foot non-stop. Excited for the long weekend and excited to see and spend time with his cousins, I assumed. Itching for the next three days of school to be over.

I went straight for my coffee, leaning my behind against the counter across from where Cal was standing, and took a sip. Mmmmh. That first sip was always the best and I always made sure I enjoyed it. Which meant I leaned my head back until I was facing the ceiling, closed my eyes and groaned. Ah! That should set me up for the day.

I heard chuckles. One man-chuckle and one boy-chuckle. Tipping my head back, I opened my eyes to see both Cal and Tommy were looking at me. Cal over the rim of his own coffee mug, Tommy with a spoonful of his cereal close to his mouth.

“What?” I asked them, looking back and forth between the two.

“Total goof,” Tommy murmured, smiling at me before he returned to consuming his cereal. Cal just shook his head at me and chuckled again. I shrugged my shoulders and focused again on my mug.

What could I say? He was right.

“So, boys. Change of plans for tonight’s activities. After what will undoubtedly be a very busy work day for me, while you have dinner and start getting the house ready for visitors, I’ll go to my house for a few hours to take a much needed bubble bath, give myself an even more needed mani and pedi and probably a facial. Then I’ll come back here and we’ll have dessert together and watch a movie.” Very proud of myself for how I had delivered that speech, I took another swig of my coffee and started nibbling on the toast that Cal had put next to me on the counter.

The room was quiet. Too quiet.

Uh oh.

I lifted my head to see Cal was staring at me, confusion—and was that hurt?—in his eyes, which were hot and disapproving on me. Tommy was staring at his dad, obviously feeling the intense vibe.

“Baby, we talked about this. Want you here with Tommy and me,” Cal said in a low voice.

“Cal, it’s not a big deal. I just need a few hours to myself. I’ll be back here before you know it.” It really wasn’t a big deal, and I had no idea why Cal was making it into one.

“You’re telling us you need time away from us, need that time to be at your own house at the other side of town and it isn’t a big deal?” His voice was still low, but angrier now.

I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. He was being dramatic.

“Baby, don’t roll your eyes at me unless you can deal with the consequences.”

I rolled my eyes back to his.

Oh no. Now he was mad.

Really? Why?

“Cal, I don’t get it. It’s not like I’m telling you I don’t want to be with you. I do. Sometimes women just need some space to themselves.”

“I get that, baby. But you can have that time to yourself here in this house while we’re here. We’ll stay down here out of your way for as long as you need us to. No need to go across town to your house.”

“But…I miss my house,” I said quietly, feeling this was not going the way I had planned. “And I won’t be in it until next weekend.” Really, was this so hard to understand?

Cal studied me, arms crossed on his chest, eyes now soft on me. His change of mood was giving me whiplash. Then he spoke again and what he said made my heart trip. And not in a good way.

“Right. Done with this shit.”

What?

What did he mean he was done with this shit?

What shit?

Me? Us?

Why?

Things were going great. Or weren’t they?

“What?” I whispered, fear and confusion evident in my voice. Cal’s eyes on me warmed as he read my reaction.

“Done with this two-houses-shit, baby. Told you where I wanted to take us, told you what our future was gonna hold. Gave you time to get used to it. Now that time is up. We’re moving in together.”

Immediately, a million different thoughts assaulted me.

We’re moving in together?

But…wasn’t that too soon?

We had only been together for a little under three months. Wasn’t that crazy?

And where would we live? His house or mine?

Before I could voice any of these questions, Cal went on and gave me answers to some of them without me having to voice them.

“This weekend after the holiday, we’re moving Tommy’s and my shit over to your house. I’ve already looked into putting this house on the market or maybe putting it up for rent. Haven’t decided. Wanted your take on it, so haven’t made any moves. Family is in town this weekend, so they can help with the move. Figure Larry is gonna help, too. Shouldn’t take more than a day. We’ll do it Saturday. Give everyone time to recuperate from the Thanksgiving food coma.”

Holy shit! He had it all figured out! How long had he been thinking about this? I was so dumbfounded by all that that I just stood there and stared at him, mouth hanging open like an idiot.

“Baby, you hear me?” I swallowed, then nodded, still tongue-tied. Then I thought about all he had said and all at once now, the million thoughts that had assaulted me multiplied into a
gazillion
thoughts and questions running through my mind.

What about Tommy?

Was he okay with this?

What about his parents?

What would they think?

What about all his furniture?

Where would that go?

Sure, I could make some room, rearrange things, but there was no way all their stuff could fit in my house. And it didn’t match my stuff. There was no way if we combined our shit, our house wouldn’t look like the Villa Villekulla. All we’d need to complete the ensemble would be a monkey we’d name Mr. Nielsson and a big white horse with painted-on black dots we’d name Old Man. Though, I’d have to sign up for a gym membership and work out some more, since I was far from the strongest girl in the world.

Should we try and mix our things and make it work somehow or should we just get rig of everything and start over, so that it felt like our, not mine or his?

My brain was whirling with all these questions and more when Cal again spoke.

“Ivey, you with me?” I came out of my thoughts and looked at him, then tried to untwist all that was going on in my brain and discuss strategy with Cal.

“Um—” Yes, that’s all that came out of my mouth. Very intelligent.

Cal’s brows shot together in a scowl and he uncrossed his arms to put both hands to his hips.

“Um…what? You not saying anything mean you don’t want us to move in together?”

What? Of course I did!

“No! I mean yes! I mean definitely! I mean, I definitely want us to move in together.” I babbled.

Jesus, I was a dork.

“It’s just that—” I trailed off again, not sure what to ask first, my mind coming up with new questions what felt like every nano second.

“It’s just that what? Ivey, talk to me.” Cal walked the two steps that separated us and put his arms loosely around my waist. I tipped my head back so I could look at him while he tipped his chin down to lock eyes with me. I took a deep breath to get my nerves under control. Then I let it all spill out.

“What about Tommy? This is his home. He should have a say in this. What about your parents? Won’t they think it’s too soon? Is it too soon? What about all your stuff? It doesn’t go with mine and there is too much of it. I’m no Pippi Longstocking and I don’t feel like spending the majority of my time at the gym so I can do her justice. What about—” I was on a roll, but Cal interrupted me by giving me a light squeeze and putting his mouth to mine, not to kiss me, but to shut me up.

“Baby, slow down and take a deep breath,” his eyes were amused and relieved. Happy. Like it always did, looking into those eyes immediately calmed me down. They had had that effect on me from the first time he had witnessed one of my panic attacks on our way to dinner in his truck when he had helped me come out of it. He was right of course. I was being silly. So I kept hold of his eyes and took another deep breath.

“Tommy is cool with it. Remember what I told you he asked me when we picked up Stella from the farm?” I nodded, warmth flooding my entire body at the reminder of Tommy wanting to call me
mom
.

“That wasn’t the only thing he said. He also said we should move in together. That was eight weeks ago, baby. We’re way ahead of you. He loves your house. I love your house. With you there, it’s already our home.”

That was nice. Really nice.

“Okay,” I whispered happily.

“It’s not too soon. We’ve practically been living together for the whole time we’ve been together. Doing that in one place just means we’re un-complicating things. And don’t worry what my parents think. They love you. They can see you make us happy and they want that for us. They also want that for you.”

“Okay,” I whispered again.

“Not sure what Pippi Longstocking has to do with this, not even sure who Pippi Longstocking is, but everything else is just logistics, and we’ll find a way to figure that stuff out. Easiest thing to do would be we decide to rent this house out to tourists, meaning we should leave it furnished anyway. We’ll take the things that are important to us and give them a new home in your house. We’ll let Tommy decorate his room, so he can make it his instead of him feeling like he’s sleeping in the guest room. We’ll add a dresser to your bedroom, you make some room for me in the closet, let me have one of the drawers in the bathroom and we’re all set.”

That sounded way too easy. Was it that easy?

“That’s it?” I asked.

“Yeah, baby, that’s it,” he said on another squeeze.

I looked over Cal’s shoulder at Tommy. “You good with all this?”

“Yup,” Tommy said on a nod, munching away at his cereal, seemingly unperturbed about the major life changes his father and I were discussing that would deeply affect his life as well.

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“You sure you’re sure?” Tommy smiled at me, shook his head, then gave me what I needed.

“Yes, Ivey. I’m sure I’m sure.”

“Okay.” I looked back at Cal, a bright and relieved smile on my face. His eyes were still on me, now also smiling brightly.

“Okay?” He asked.

“Okay,” I replied happily.

Nothing had ever felt this good.

Absolutely nothing.

My man was holding me in his arms, we had just decided to move in together, and I was completely over the moon about the fact that he had no qualms about that, but instead insisted on it and had been thinking about it almost from the beginning. In that moment, I made a decision. A decision that would even be more life altering for me than agreeing to live in the same house.

I rolled up on my toes and put my mouth to his, eyes locked to his. There I whispered, “I love you, Cal.” His body locked. He was surprised.

I had never said it. Neither had he, at least not since he had laid it all out for me weeks ago on my front porch.

I had shown it. A lot.

I had thought it. Many times.

But I had never said it.

I am not sure why. There had been many moments when I wanted to, but somehow, I had always chickened out.

Now I needed to say it, so I did.

“Sucks,” Cal’s low and growly whisper now made my body lock in confusion. Before I could freak about that one word and what it meant, he continued.

“Sucks I don’t have the time to show my gratitude and appreciation when my woman tells me for the first time that she loves me. Sucks big time.”

“Oh,” I breathed as the realization of what he meant hit me.