Beyond These Walls (The Walls Duet #2)(78)

I turned to kiss each of them, a tiny smooch on Meara’s nose and a lingering long kiss for Jude.

“How much I’m going to miss this view,” I admitted, placing my head on his shoulder.

Meara rested on his chest, and her fingers reached out for a strand of my hair.

“Me, too,” he sighed.

“But I don’t mind New York either,” I said, trying to rally up some encouragement.

“We can introduce Meara to all our favorite restaurants when she gets a bit older,” he offered.

I didn’t respond as my head tried to envision our new life back in our old one. We’d once been happy in the city. We could be again. It would just be a readjustment. Lots of people raised families in big cities. We would, too.

“Hey, I know we still need to pack some things, but I want to take you somewhere this morning. Do you think you could go get ready real quick?” he asked before adding, “I’ll throw in breakfast afterward.”

“Well, only because you’re feeding me,” I said with a grin.

I raced down the hall before taking a quick shower and tossing on a pair of jeans and a blouse. My hair was thrown into a casual bun, and within a few more minutes, I was ready to go. He was already jiggling the keys by the door, and he had Meara in her car seat.

“No chance I can talk you into running by Dunkin’ Donuts beforehand?” I begged, rubbing my grumbling stomach.

“Sorry, no. We have an appointment. And we’re going to be late if we don’t leave now.”

“Well, you could have let me know sooner!” I announced.

We raced down the walkway and into the car. Of course that took time now as well. With a baby, we couldn’t just run out the door like we use to. Diaper bag had to be packed, bottles made . . . it was a lengthy process.

After quickly clicking Meara’s car seat into place, we were ready to go.

“So, any clues as to where we are going?” I asked, looking over to him, as he raced down the road.

“Nope.” He just grinned.

It didn’t take long to reach our destination, and as my eyes wandered around the construction site, I began to get suspicious.

“What are we doing here?” I questioned. I took a step out of the car.

“Just wait a second, and I’ll explain everything.”

I pulled Meara out of her car seat and held her to my chest. She hated being trapped in that thing, and if the car wasn’t moving, she would demand to be freed from it. As I walked around, I noticed the expansive ocean view immediately. It was endless and uninhibited to whatever they were building since it was the only house around.

I turned just in time to see Jude returning side by side with another man wearing a hard hat and vest.

“Lailah, this is Jim Duncan. He’s the lead on this project, our project.”

My eyes flashed back to the building, looking from one end to the other. “Ours?”

His grin widened as he nodded. “Yep. Ours.”

“Is it an investment property?” I said, trying to figure out just what was going on.

There were boxes all over my house that were going to New York at the end of the week. We were moving to New York. That was what he’d said.

“We’re not moving back to New York—ever.”

“We’re not?”

“No.” He laughed.

“I don’t understand.”

He looked over to Jim, and some sort of understanding was struck between the two of them. Jim gave a nod. As Jude took my hand, we walked up the stone path leading to the front door. Landscaping hadn’t been done yet, but mostly everything appeared to be finished. A large Spanish-style door greeted us, and we entered. The entire back wall was completely made of glass, giving a surrounding view of the sandy beach beyond.

The Spanish theme continued inside. Rustic colors of deep orange, yellow, and various shades of tans moved throughout the kitchen and living room. No furniture yet, but it already felt warm and inviting just standing there.

“I couldn’t let us leave,” he finally said, turning toward me, as we stood together in what would be our family room.

“But what about the company? Your job?”

He smiled. “Part two of our stops for the day. We’re opening a West Coast division. Expansion seemed like a good move, and several of the New Yorkers were looking for a change of scenery. When I suggested it to the board, they wholeheartedly agreed. Roman about croaked, but he’ll get over it. He once told me he could be a grown up when he wanted to, so now he’ll just have to make good on that promise—permanently.” He shrugged. “So, here we are.” He opened his arms out wide.

“We don’t have to move?”

He laughed, pulling me close. “Well, we do but not cross-country. And not away from that,” he said, pointing toward the ocean.

I looked around at this amazing house he’d built and then back to him. “It’s breathtaking.”

“And so are you.”

There were still a hundred boxes scattered everywhere, but we were finally here, in our very own house.

Home—it had a nice ring to it.

Over the last year, I’d become quite attached to the house we rented on the beach, but there was always a part of me that knew it wasn’t permanent. It wasn’t ours. It had been a temporary solution, and I’d thought, eventually, we’d move away, back to New York, so I’d never allowed myself to get too attached to it.