Page 453 of The Doctors Will See You Now

“And how are you getting her here?”

“I told her Doreen and Harry are cooking dinner.” Considering Charlotte was under the impression I’d given her tenants the official “get the fuck out” boot while she’d been in Rochester, she most likely thought it was a last big comfort food hurrah sort of thing.

But obviously, being the good husband I was, I had an ace up my sleeve.

“Perfect.” Winnie’s smile turned conspiratorial.

The entirety of our weird little family huddled into the house next door with the lights turned out, we watched as Charlotte pulled up to her house in a cab, grabbed her suitcase, paid the driver, and climbed out.

Doreen squealed a little as Charlotte turned to the dark house and frowned, and then turned back to find the cab already gone.

Hesitantly, she moved forward and knocked on the door, waiting for a Harry and Doreen that would never come.

When she moved back down the stairs and pulled her phone from her bag, I walked out of the front door of our compound. The house next door.

My first official rental property, and Harry and Doreen’s new home.

Charlotte looked to me quickly without paying much mind, but as her brain caught up to the cues of her sight, her gaze jerked back.

“Nick?”

“Hey, sweetheart.”

“What…what are you doing inside that house?”

I smiled and shrugged innocently. “Harry and Doreen’s for dinner, remember?”

“But…”

Her eyebrows pinched together, and her hair flew as she swung her head back to her house and then to me again. “Doreen and Harry’s…”

“I superheroed it, Char. We’ve got a place, and so do Doreen and Harry. Right next door. I’m thinking we won the neighbor lottery, aren’t you?”

“Nick,” she whispered.

“I’m hoping this means better things for my nuts, baby.”

Down with a thump, her bag hit the concrete and her body hit my own.

“Happy to be lawfully bound to me?” I asked cheekily.

“Always,” she cried. “Always.”

Thanks to Nick, I was finally enjoying the “moving week” I’d been dreaming about since I’d won this home at the sheriff’s auction.

To say he’d surprised the hell out of me was the understatement of the century.

There was no doubt about it, my husband was my superhero.

Sure, Nick had completed most of the moving the weekend prior, but I still had the finishing touches to implement.

Yesterday, we’d painted the living room and dining room. And the day before that, the master bedroom and bathrooms.

And today, with Winnie as my assistant extraordinaire, and while Lex was at school, we were one hundred percent focused on Lexi’s bedroom.

“God, I really hope she ends up liking this room,” I muttered as I moved my rolling brush through the fresh cream paint. I’d chosen to go neutral in terms of wall color for her room. Lex wasn’t the type of girl who went gaga over pink and purple. She’d choose simple and clean over bright and girly any day of the week.

Winnie laughed beside me and flashed a wry grin.