Part 29 (1/2)
”I love you. You know this.”
She nodded, but didn't speak.
”I want us to be together.”
Again she nodded, though she frowned. They were sharing an apartment. They lived together.
”This here,” he motioned in the air around him. ”This place is called Blackheath. It's kind of infamous around this area you know, considering the house was built by a pirate.”
”A pirate?”
He grinned, and that flash of the young boy he must have been made her want to hug and kiss him silly.
”Yeah. A pirate.”
”I still don't understand.”
His hand slid to hers once more, and he pulled her away from the car, leading her a few feet away. And then he turned her around. And Abby's mouth fell open.
Several hundred feet away stood an old antebellum mansion, though from her first quick glance, it looked in need of some serious love and attention.
”It's beautiful,” she whispered, the artist in her visualizing what it was. What it could be.
”Come on.”
Tucker led her down an overgrown path that led to the house, and when they got closer, she saw that the windows were all broken and missing, the paint was peeling and the general condition was much worse than she'd originally thought.
”It's amazing, Tucker.” She turned to him. ”But I don't understand what we're doing here.”
”I grew up in Florida, and no matter where I am, it will always be home. I only moved to New York to...”
Her heart turned over.
”I moved to New York to get away from the memories, and for the most part, it worked. I think for a while there, I needed to get away. Needed to put some distance between myself and everything that Florida represented to me. But...”
He glanced away, and for the first time, a bit of fear took hold.
”But?” Abby prodded, suddenly desperate to know where all of this was going.
”It's time for me to come back.” He gestured toward the house. ”I bought Blackheath last year. Just before I met you. It was a spur of the moment thing, and I didn't tell anyone because I was pretty sure my family would have thought I'd gone off the deep end.” He chuckled. ”h.e.l.l, for the longest time, I thought I'd gone off the deep end. But then I met you, and things got better.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and gazed into her eyes so intently that Abby felt as if he could see into her soul.
”The thing of it is, I didn't know until recently that I bought this place for a reason. This is my future, Abigail, and I guess I'm hoping that...”
His hands crept up to either side of her face, and he cradled her, his eyes never wavering. ”I'm hoping that you'll consider sharing this future with me.”
”What are...you...what do you mean exactly?”
Oh G.o.d. Think Abby. Think.
”I love you Abigail Mathews, and I want to grow old with you. I want to watch you paint. I want to watch you sleep. I want to watch your belly grow large with our kids. I want a family. I want a dog. h.e.l.l, I'd even consider a cat, because I know you like the one in the office. For you, I'd do anything.” He shrugged. ”That's all I got. I want you, and I think that this could be our home.”
Abby's heart was so close to busting wide open, it was crazy. She was so full of love for this man that someone could have chopped one of her limbs off and she wouldn't have known.
She was so crazy in love with Tucker that to actually hear those words-words that told her that he was in the exact same place that she was-well, it was pretty overwhelming.
She leaned into him, suddenly weak in the knees and feeling like an idiot because of it.
”Abby,” Tucker whispered, holding her close. ”Say something. Will you move here with me? I know it might be hard to move away from your brothers. From your family, but I promise we'd see them. Can this be our place?”
She got her s.h.i.+t together and sniffling, looked up at him and nodded. ”Well then, Mr. Simon. I guess I'm going to need a h.e.l.l of a lot more than the bag we brought.”
The grin that spread across Tucker's face was priceless, and he bent low to kiss her. ”About that bag.”
”Hmm?” she murmured content to stay this way forever.
”We've got to head back to the airport.”