“It will be worth it,” I tell him immediately. Even though I haven’t seen the house, I know for certain that one day, when he’s done, it will be beautiful.

“Waking up to a view of the lake every morning and sitting out on my deck at night, watching the sun set on the water, I know it will be, too,” he says quietly, and something in his eyes changes in a way that makes my body feel funny.

Pulling my eyes from his, I turn around to face the counter before I say something stupid, like “I want to see both those things with you.”

“Do you want a sandwich?” I ask instead, and hear him say, “Sure,” behind me right before the power drill starts up.

Once I’m done making a sandwich for him and one for myself, I pull down a box of Cheez-Its from the top cupboard and drop a handful on each of our plates. Then I take both over to the coffee table and set them down. Moving back around where he’s working in the middle of the room, I head to the fridge and open it up to see what kind of drinks I have, which isn’t a lot, since I don’t drink soda or anything else besides water really.

“Is water okay with you?”

Turning off the drill, he nods, and I grab two bottles from the still open fridge. I hand one to him as he stands, and then he follows me to the couch where we both sit.

“Do you read a lot?”

Chewing and swallowing the bite of turkey and Swiss sandwich I just took, I look at him and notice his eyes are on my collection of signed books I have stacked up neatly in the corner of the room.

“Yeah,” I reply, folding my feet under me and setting my plate on the tops of my knees. “I love reading. I always have. When I was young, I used to sneak into my parents’ room in the mornings before school and read whatever book my mom was reading. Then when I got old enough to buy my own books, I would buy romance novels with guys on the covers with their shirts open and their long hair blowing in the wind.” I laugh, watching his eyes fill with humor. “Once, my dad found me in my room reading one of those books, and he lost his mind. He was convinced I was reading porn. Thankfully, my mom came to my defense and told him to back down and that he should be thankful I was reading and not out partying and doing drugs.”

“My mom reads a lot, too, and so do my sisters.”

“How many sisters do you have?”

“Three, and two brothers.”

“I always wanted siblings growing up,” I confess, wondering not for the first time what it would have been like if I hadn’t been adopted, if I had grown up with my mom and sister. I know my life would have been completely different. My mom shouldn’t have had kids at all, and I know that because my sister told me about her childhood. She told me what it felt like to wonder if she would get dinner or where she would sleep.

“So do you think it will take us a year to finish the shelf?” I joke when I feel sadness start to creep over me like it always does when I think about Kelly and what she had to endure growing up alone with our mom.

“Nah, it shouldn’t take long at all.”

HOLDING THE LAST shelf, I watch Sage screw in the last four shelf guards and fight the urge to laugh at the frustrated look on his face. It’s been over five hours since he told me it wouldn’t take a year to put the shelf together, and he was right; it shouldn’t have taken so long. He had all the right tools, but half the screws and things that came with the shelf had disappeared, which meant we had to go to Home Depot to buy them. And seeing how he just happened to know everyone we came in contact with, our ten-minute run into the hardware store took us forever.

Okay, so I may have spent a little time there wandering down the aisles. Home Depot may be a store dedicated to men, but every female knows they have the best cleaning supplies at the best price you can get anywhere. Plus, Sage took me to the kitchen department so I could see all the stuff he was planning on putting in his place, which included an awesome six-burner gas range with matching fridge, dishwasher, and double oven. He also showed me the cupboards and countertops he had chosen, which were a cool, sandy-colored material with flakes of teal, silver, and gold glass in them.

After he showed me everything, I made him promise that I could see the kitchen in person when he was done with it, and that was when something changed. I don’t know exactly what it was, but when I made him promise, his face turned soft and his eyes warm, right before he took my hand and led me to check out, not letting me go until I was back in his truck.

“Are you laughing at me?” he asks, bringing me out of my head, and I shake it then press my lips together when he starts to grumble under his breath. About what? I don’t know, but it’s cute seeing him like this. “Fucking finally.” He takes the shelf I’ve been holding and puts it in place before stepping back. “Jesus, this thing was a pain in the ass. I think we’d have been better off building the shit from scratch.”

“That would have probably taken us four years,” I correct him, and he turns to look at me, smiling.

“You’re probably right. Now where do you want it?”

“Back against that wall.” I point to the only wall in the room that doesn’t have an angle to it, and he picks it up and carefully puts it in place. “Thank you for helping me out. If I had been on my own, I probably would have tossed the whole thing over the deck and had a bonfire with it.”

“Good thing I came to the rescue then,” he says, then he pulls out his phone and looks at the screen. Knowing what’s coming and that he’s about to leave, I pick up our plates, which are still sitting on the coffee table, and take them to the sink. “It’s late. Do you feel like ordering something?”

My body, which I didn’t know was tight, relaxes and I turn to face him.

“Sure.” I shrug like it’s all the same to me, when it isn’t. “I have a few menus.” I open one of the drawers in the kitchen, and he shakes his head.

“Nah, I know a place. Do you like Italian?”

“What woman in their right mind doesn’t like Italian?” I ask as my answer.

“Right.” He puts his phone to his ear, and I listen to him place an order then give my address without having to ask me for it, which I can only imagine must come in handy with his job. As soon as he’s done, he puts the phone back in his pocket. “We have about an hour, maybe a little longer, before the food gets here.”

“Cool. Do you want to watch a movie or something?” I ask, going to the couch and picking up the remote, and I turn on the TV that hardly ever gets used, since most of the time I’m reading or listening to music if I’m home.

“I actually need to make a few phone calls. Do you mind if I step outside for a bit?”

“Sure.” I nod, and he touches my waist with the tips of his fingers as he walks past me to the door.

Stepping out onto the deck, he shuts the door behind him, and I watch him put his phone to his ear. Seeing his phone, my mind goes to Kelly. She hasn’t returned any of my phone calls in the last few days, and even though she has a tendency to disappear for days at a time without so much as a text to let me know she’s okay, I still worry every time it happens.

Going to my room, I find my cell in my bag, put it on the charger, and wait for the Apple icon to pop up on the screen. Then I wait for the phone to turn on. As soon as it does, I see I have three texts from my mom, all of them asking how my bag hunt went this morning, and one from my dad reminding me that I need to book my ticket to go home to surprise my mom for her birthday, but nothing from Kelly. Sitting down on my bed, I snap a picture of my new purse and text it to Mom with It went awesome. Then I send a text to my dad letting him know I already bought my ticket and when I will be arriving. With that done, I toss my phone on the bed and change into one of my lounge-around-the-house outfits before I head to the living room, where I wait for Sage to finish his calls and our food to arrive.

Sage

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. My chest heaves and I pull in a deep breath, trying to get my breathing under control and my heart rate back to normal. I didn’t expect this to happen. Not yet, anyway. But after Kim and I ate, we were sitting there talking and she laughed. It was at that laugh that I leaned in and kissed her without thinking, and then one thing led to another and we were taking off each other’s clothes like it was a fucking race to see who could get who naked first. I won, and fuck me, I thought she was beautiful fully clothed, but she was beyond that when she was laid out completely exposed to me.