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Circling my arms around his neck, I smiled like a loon and let him walk me to his bedroom. He set me down on the bed and kissed my neck, my shoulder, my jaw. His hand slid up to clasp my breast, and I let out a shuddering breath.
I was home. Not just in this house, but home with him.
Sighing, I opened my eyes. And froze.
Sebastian must have felt me stiffen, because he paused his ministrations and backed away enough to look at my face. “You okay?”
“What is that?”
Following my gaze to the far wall, Sebastian let out a little puff of breath. “Oh. Right. It’s a gift I commissioned from a stained glass artisan. For you. I figured the house should have more than one.”
Crawling off the bed, I walked over and picked up the small window as a lump grew in my throat. A kaleidoscope pattern of blue, gold, purple, and white stained glass in a regal picture of George Washington. It was the ribbon on top of an already amazing gift. Sebastian got me down to my very core.
“Do you…like it?” he asked.
Turning, I took in his uncertain, almost shy expression. I set the jeweled glass down where it had been as my heart crowded out my lungs. Then I straddled his lap and rested my forearms on his shoulders.
“I love it so much,” I told him, touching my nose to his. “Almost as much as I love you.”
His shoulders softened as he stroked my sides and leaned in to kiss me. Then we forgot about stained glass, old houses, and everything else for a while.
EPILOGUE
CHARLIE
FOUR MONTHS LATER
It was demo day. In the best possible way.
After Sebastian had sold Radcliffe House to me for a whopping one dollar, he immediately got to work as promised. The roof and missing walls were rebuilt. The old wiring was replaced. And the restored plumbing and hot water heater now generated an abundance of luxuriously heated water. But there was still a long way to go before our house would be ready.
Yes, the house was ours. A decision that had never changed from the moment I proposed it. Of course, it would still be a while before we could officially move in. For now, Sebastian and I had rented a small home in New Elwood. And when we weren’t getting tangled up with one another in our bed sheets, we were working our respective jobs.
Being New Elwood’s heritage preservation officer had never been more satisfying. Not only had I started a historic preservation program in our local public school district, but I was also contributing to the establishment of the new museum at The Monticello Historic Hotel.
Construction of the old theater on Main Street had been underway for months. And Sebastian very much enjoyed being in charge of it all as the new owner and founder of the hotel. He was the ultimate businessman, so he’d kept his real estate business up and running, which meant sometimes we split our time between New Elwood and his high-rise apartment in Arlington—where we had lots of opportunities to explore Washington DC’s history. It was the best of both worlds.
Yes, Sebastian and I seemed to be breaking new ground everywhere.
“Would you like to do the honors, Charlie?” Sebastian asked, handing me a sledgehammer. His green eyes were covered in a pair of safety glasses, but I could still make out the lines that cracked around his lashes when he smiled.
“Why, thank you,” I said, pecking a little kiss on his lips and brushing my fingers over his knuckles as I retrieved the demo tool.
We were standing in what was once his bedroom and would soon be our bedroom after we knocked out the wall. But it wasn’t just us embarking on repairs; we’d enlisted the help of a few friends.
“C’mon, Charlie, what are you waiting for?” Abigail called out, anxiously awaiting her turn.
Rex stood next to her, arms folded, and flicked his brow. “Cool your heels, Abigail.”
I huffed a laugh and looked back at Sophie and Minnie, who stood about as far away from the wall as they could get, offering their support with their thumbs up. Then my eyes met Sebastian’s again, and I couldn’t help but blush at the man who loved me so much that he’d do anything for me. Even make sure I got my dream home where my fondest memories had lived. And where we would create many, many more. Sebastian nodded his chin, encouraging me to have at it.
My mom always said that in order to make an omelet, you had to break a few eggs. Through the course of the renovations on the house, her voice had resonated in my mind more than once. As I held the sledgehammer, I could almost feel her smiling over my shoulder.
Time to break some eggs, Mom.
I planted my feet, gripped my hands around the handle, held my breath, and swung at the wall. The hammer smashed with a booming thud, and drywall shards and dust flew from the laceration. Laughing, I turned to see Sebastian grinning at me, brows arched in appreciation.
“Not bad for a first try,” he told me.
