Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 65354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
“You are well on the way to becoming a successful artist, so don’t. This is every bit of your house as much as it is his.” She took a sliver of the pie and plopped it on my plate before grabbing her own. I sipped my water and shifted in my seat before I compiled a list of what we wanted. I nibbled on the pizza as the results loaded and set it down when the first house popped up on the screen. Tori leaned over, and we both looked at the pictures listed down the screen.
“Oh, God. This is a lot of houses,” I murmured as I scanned the choices. “All of them.” We looked at each one and decided on our options through dinner. I compiled a list to send to Ryder with my mind on what he wanted and what grabbed me in the pictures.
It took a couple of weeks, but we settled on one and went to see it when he was in town. It was a five-bedroom house with three large bathrooms located on two acres with a great view of the mountains. The feature that sold me on the house was a little mother-in-law cottage, which was perfect for my art studio. It offered a lot of space without being obscene, something I teased him about through the search. It was also empty, and there was a good chance that we’d be in it in five weeks for Christmas. As we made a cash offer on the house, which was immediately accepted, the real estate agent handed over the keys to us in record time.
I asked him to pinch me when we were in bed later that night. Ryder laughed and kissed me instead. “This has to be a dream.”
“It’s real life, baby. We’re going to have our dream.” I chuckled, since this whole dream thing was new to both of us. Living together in this condo was a big step to begin with. The news of the baby only moved everything else right along.
“I didn’t know I had one other than being an artist. You’ve shown me so much, Ryder.” I snuggled against him and kissed him softly. “Living here with a man who loves me and wants to give me the world on a string is more than I ever could have hoped for. I didn’t know that men loved women like this apart from seeing my father when he lost my mom. Now, we’re buying this beautiful house to raise our baby in. It’s too much.”
“It’s not enough,” he assured me, pulling me against him as our bare skin heated up. We fell asleep, and he told me that he wanted to swing by the new house to measure something the following night. I agreed and we picked up some food since I was starving out of the blue. He unlocked the door, and I followed him inside, gasping as I looked around. The living room was lit by flickering candles, and I stared around.
Ryder stepped forward and cupped my face in his hands once dinner was set down. I felt tears in my eyes as my stomach growled. “Oh, love. You and this baby mean the entire world to me, and I’ll do anything to give you both whatever it is your heart desires. I see so much in our future, but it needs to start the proper way since we’ve been out of order everywhere else.” My heart raced, and I slipped my arms around his waist. “I want you to be my wife, Elyse. I’ve never loved anyone the way I do you, and I want you in my life forever. Please marry me.”
“Yes. A thousand times, yes.”
He kissed me, holding me carefully among the scattered candles, and I clung to him. When we broke free, Ryder managed to move me to slip a shimmering band with a large round diamond on my left hand, making me cry. “Oh, Ryder.” I kissed him again, and he lifted me to bring me to the counter as my stomach growled again.
“I think we need to feed the baby,” he murmured against my lips as I laughed through my tears.
“Someday, we can tell them how they ruined a good moment.” My voice was shaking, and Ryder gazed at me.
“Not ruined, love. It just reminded me of the gift you’re giving me.”
Epilogue
ELYSE
Six weeks later
WE WERE MOVED into the house a week before Christmas. I was further along and stressed about how we were going to host a dinner, but Ryder assured me that everything was going to be okay. We bought furniture before moving in that was delivered days after and set up along with the things Ryder brought from the condo. We set the living room up with couches in warm colors around the mantel and the huge TV. It was an open floor plan and the kitchen was to the right, offering everything a cook could want. Ryder’s family was already excited about cooking there, and I smiled as I walked to the back door. We had a large deck with room for entertaining and lots of grass for our children and future dogs to play on.