Six days later, Jacqui stood beside Mitch on the sidewalk outside the house in Hillcrest, gazing at the front door with a bone-deep longing. The keys to that door dangled in Mitch’s hand, and she wanted nothing more than for him to open it and let her walk inside to explore again. He’d borrowed the keys from the Realtor who’d shown them the house before, saying he wanted to look at the place with Jacqui one more time before making an offer—just to make sure this was the right choice.
It was still hot on this first Saturday in September. The sky was a deep, cloudless blue overhead, the afternoon sun beating down on the heat-shriveled trees and grass. A few flowers still bloomed in the beds, but their colors were fading and the beds needed tending. Jacqui’s fingers itched to play in those small gardens, weeding and pruning and planting colorful mums for the coming fall. She would rest between chores with a glass of lemonade on that lovely porch, she thought wistfully, her gaze moving to the inviting wood rockers. This was exactly the house she had always dreamed of.
She turned resolutely away. “I don’t think you should buy it,” she said abruptly to Mitch.
He looked at her in visible surprise. “I thought you loved this house.”
“I do,” she had to admit, because she was always honest with him. “It’s perfect. But you shouldn’t buy it for that reason.”
He spun to face her fully. “Jacqui
, you know I’m hoping you’ll share this house with me. I’ve gotten accustomed to having you under the same roof. Even more accustomed to sharing a bed,” he added in a low, affectionately teasing tone that brought warmth to her cheeks.
“And I will live with you,” she assured him around a lump in her throat. “But I want you to make very sure it’s what you want before you commit to a purchase this big.”
She drew a deep breath. “If you still want to try living in a few other places before you buy a house and settle in for the long-term, I think you should do it, Mitch. As for me—I’ll go where you go. I’ll support you completely in whatever you need to do, just as you’ve promised to do for me.”
For the first time in her life, she understood her mother a little better. Troubled as she was in so many ways, Cindy Handy loved her husband and she wanted to be with him wherever he drifted. Jacqui was dissimilar from her mother, and she had different priorities in her life—for one thing, if she ever had children, which she hoped to do someday, she would strive to give them much more of a sense of security and emotional support than she and Olivia had received. But she understood now what her mother had meant when she’d said that “home” wasn’t necessarily a place but a feeling.
As much as she loved living in Little Rock, Jacqui understood now that she could make a home with Mitch wherever they went. For one thing, she knew he would always put her needs and desires first—something her own rather selfish father had been unable to do for anyone else. The fact that Mitch was willing to buy this house just because he knew she loved it, that he had always put his loved ones’ best interests ahead of his own, was all the proof she needed that she had given her heart and her trust to the right man.
Mitch took both her hands in his, the keys cupped between his right palm and her left. His eyes were dark with emotion when he gazed down at her, his mouth curved in a loving smile. “The fact that you offered to move away with me means more than you could ever possibly realize. I know exactly how hard it must have been for you to make that offer. You love it here.”
“I love you more,” she said, her voice a bit shaky now.
He leaned down to brush a kiss over her lips, oblivious to the car passing on the street behind them, to anyone in neighboring yards who might see them. Again unlike her parents, Mitch was open with his emotions, unabashed at having anyone see that he was in love with her.
He had made it clear to his family that he had chosen Jacqui for his life partner. It wasn’t as if this was a decision they’d made overnight, he had added when they had reacted with delighted surprise. He’d been in love with Jacqui for more than a year. He’d just been a little slow to do anything about it, he’d admitted.
Jacqui had been overwhelmed with gratitude by how enthusiastically Mitch’s family had approved his choice. Especially his mother, who was recovering nicely from her health scare under the watchful eyes of her still-guilt-ridden physician children. LaDonna confided that she’d watched Mitch’s behavior around Jacqui for several months with a suspicion that he was smitten, and she couldn’t have been more delighted to have been proved right.
As for Alice, she smugly claimed credit, saying she really should go into the matchmaking business someday rather than orthodontia. She also claimed responsibility for getting her dad and Meagan together.
“I am exactly where I want to be,” Mitch assured Jacqui now. “My family is here, my work is here, but most importantly, you are here. I can’t imagine any other place on this planet having more to offer me.”
After twenty-nine years of protecting herself from disappointment, it was difficult to put so much faith in anyone else. But she was getting there with Mitch. “Just don’t rush into it on my behalf,” she said. “There will always be other houses if you want to keep looking for a while.”
He nodded, squeezing her hands before dropping his own. She noted that he had passed the keys to her. She wrapped her fingers around them, feeling the tug of temptation to use them.
“I was thinking that porch could be taken down and replaced with a sunroom,” Mitch commented, turning to eye the front of the house again. “Maybe brick with lots of glass. And all that stained wood inside? Maybe we could update it a little. You know, paint it white or something.”
She gasped. “You will do no such thing! That porch is perfect. And don’t you even think about getting near that beautiful wood trim with a paintbrush. This house is—”
She fell silent when she saw the grin cross his face.
“Yours,” he finished for her in somewhat smug satisfaction. “This house is yours. It has been from the first moment you saw it. Might as well admit it.”
Her knees went weak as her fingers tightened spasmodically around the keys to her dream house. “Fine,” she managed to say after a moment. “But I’m putting my savings toward the down payment.”
“That isn’t necessary. I—”
She poked his shoulder with one finger as they moved toward the front door. “I haven’t worked and saved for the past ten years just to have someone come along and buy a house for me, Mitchell Baker. I told you, I’m no Cinderella. Maybe this is a nicer house than I could have afforded on my own—okay, it’s definitely more than I could have managed—but that doesn’t mean I won’t be fully invested in owning it. It won’t be all mine—or all yours. It will be ours.”
“Ours,” he repeated. “I like the sound of that.”
“So do I,” she said, her vision misty as she fitted the key into the lock of the house they would make into a home together. “So do I.”