Chapter 17

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Hanging out with a two-year-old was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. We picked a paint, but not until she scrutinized every single shade. Will was definitely Sookie’s daughter. When she finally found a yellow she liked she told me very decisively. By the time we got home I was her new best friend, or so she’d told me. She was hanging on my neck when I walked in and found Sookie with a silly grin on her face.

 

“What…” I had a toddler attached to me and a five gallon bucket of lellow paint.

 

“I found our house,” she said with excitement.

 

“Oh yeah?” I set the paint down, but Willa wasn’t letting go.

 

“Yep. It’s got character and the most amazing views to inspire that brain of yours. Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, an open floor plan downstairs and two garages. Both of them are heated and one has a workspace that has a half bath you could use for an office,” Sookie rattled off.

 

“Sounds nice. We should schedule a time to go look at it,” I said as I pried Willa off of me.

 

“Tomorrow morning at nine we meet Amelia Carmichael there,” she grinned. “I already put in an offer.”

 

She what?

 

“What do you mean you already put in an offer?” I wasn’t sure I heard that right.

 

“I know it’s crazy but so is this marriage. It just feels right. Look for yourself.” Sookie thrust her tablet at me.

 

I took the tablet and started to flip through the images of the house, that apparently we had already put a bid in on. I definitely got the appeal. It wasn’t too big and the kitchen looked like the perfect place to make cookies with our kids. The only thing missing was an inside image of the garages. I liked that she was thinking about my work.

 

“I see what you mean,” I smiled. Even if I thought she was insane it was a good insane. It was an insane that kept me. “If it’s haunted I’m blaming you and I pick the next house,” I warned.

 

“Deal.” She held out her hand to shake on it. “And I made English muffin pizzas for lunch.”

 

I tugged her close by her hand. “Northmans don’t make deals with handshakes,” I purred. “We seal the deal with a kiss.” I ran my fingers through her hair to hold her head in place while I leaned down to kiss her.

 

“That went better than expected. I thought for sure I’d be in trouble later,” she winked.

 

I bent down to whisper in her ear, “I can bend you over the bed to give you a hard spanking for being too impulsive.”

 

“Dirty boy,” she whispered.

 

“Mmm, but you like it,” I reminded her.

 

“Maybe.” Sookie pecked me.

 

“My turn!” Willa pushed her way between us.

 

“Your turn for what?” I bent over to lift her up to our level. Well, my level since she was looking down at Sookie.

 

“Mommy kisses,” she answered.

 

“Come here, munchkin. You hungry?” Sookie took her daughter back and smooched on her little face.

 

“Uh huh,” Willa giggled.

 

“We got froyo while we were out. I got her a small vanilla with some Fruity Pebbles, her choice.”

 

“Oooh, Eric got you ice cream?” Sookie walked Willa over to the table and put a nodding little girl in her booster seat. “Did you say thank you?”

 

“Thankoo,” Willa said with one of her cheesy grins.

 

“You’re welcome,” I smiled.

 

“Are you hungry?” Sookie asked as she started to cut up a muffin for Willa.

 

“Always,” I answered. “How many pizzas did you make?” I could have eaten at least six.

 

“I made an entire package of muffins, and Willa will only have half of one. I’ll eat one and the rest are yours,” she told me.

 

“You really are an awesome wife,” I told her as I went to grab one of the pizzas when she pointed to the oven.

 

“Why thank you.” She got some strawberries from the fridge and started to cut a few of them up to go on Willa’s plate.

 

“What time does Willa normally nap?” I asked.

 

“We normally have lunch between eleven-thirty and noon. I let her tummy settle some and she gets to watch one of her shows or read a book, and then it’s nap time. Occasionally she sleeps on the couch but I try to get her up to her room so I can clean or whatnot down here without worrying that I’ll wake her,” Sookie explained.

 

“How about today when she goes down we take a little time to make out,” I grinned. I knew it wouldn’t be an all the time thing. This thing was new though. I was supposed to want to ravage her at all times.

 

“I might be able to carve out some time for that.” She walked across the room to give Willa her plate.

 

“Good.” When she moved back in my direction I stopped her. I gave her another long, lingering peck on the lips. I was a very affectionate man and the new women in my life needed to get used to it.

 

“Want something to drink? I made fresh lemonade,” she told me. “I also picked up a pork roast for supper.”

 

“Sure,” I nodded. “It’s going to be weird if you do all the cooking. I was the primary cook before… all this.”

 

“We can do it together or trade off days or something. We’ll find what works,” she shrugged.

 

“Yeah. I suspect we’re going to find a lot of things we need to get used to. It’ll be fun though. I’m looking forward to being so head over heels in love with you I can’t see straight,” I smiled. I knew it was going to happen. I could feel it starting.

 

“Oh yeah?”

 

“Mmhmm. You’re the kind of girl that makes a man do silly, unreasonable things to keep her happy. Not through any fault of your own, we just do,” I chuckled. “Oh, pretty, pretty princess flirted her way into extra sparkles in her lellow paint.”

 

Sookie laughed and said, “I’m not surprised. She’s good.”

 

“It’s those damn eyelashes. She had me and the kid behind the paint counter doing whatever the hell she wanted us to do. Something tells me she got that from you.”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sookie moved to the fridge for the lemonade.

 

“Uh huh. I’m sure you don’t.” She didn’t have to do it because I was a sure thing with her, but that first night we met at Gilroy’s her eyelashes were fluttering all over the place. Her hand on my cock wasn’t so bad either. She probably didn’t even realize she did it. “I’ve decided the Herveaux-Northman girls are ridiculous flirts. Both of you.”

 

“I still have no idea what you’re talking about.” She knew. Her smile said so.

 

“Maybe instead of making out at nap time you should get punished for lying to me,” I purred, giving her a little love tap on her ass.

 

“I like option one better.”

 

“Of course you do,” I chuckled. I gave her another quick peck before I turned back to my lunch.

 

Sookie poured us lemonade and then got down a plate for herself to grab two of the little pizzas off the cookie sheet. She pinched my ass and went to the table.

 

Minx.

 

It was going to be an adventure hanging out with her. I liked that. I liked a lot of things about her.

 

I was working on my third pizza when my phone went off in my pocket. I pulled it out and chuckled when I saw Bobby’s ugly mug show up.

 

“Hello?” I answered. I hadn’t talked to him since I picked up Molly and I didn’t tell him directly about being married. It wasn’t my fault he didn’t look at my hand.

 

“You cock,” he said.

 

“Yes, I have one of those,” I replied.

 

“You seriously got married again?”

 

“I did. We’re going to look at a house on Monday. It was a GHB induced mistake that turned out not to be a mistake after all.”

 

“That’s… You’re… Is the pussy that good?” Of course Bobby would go there.

 

“Yes, but so is everything else about her. I can’t explain it, man. She’s right for me. We talked about getting it annulled, but that felt so fuc– wrong. She’s a great person and you’re going to love her.”

 

“Uh huh.”

 

“I have a stepdaughter too,” I told him with a cheesy grin he couldn’t see.

 

“What the… seriously?” Bobby was clearly perplexed by all this. “Dude, you just got your freedom back!”

 

“I never asked for it. I was happy,” I reminded him. I motioned outside to let Sookie know I was going to finish the call outdoors. I didn’t mind if she heard me but some things Willa didn’t need to hear. As soon as I closed the door I added, “Unlike you, I like being in a relationship. I got any wildness out in the few weeks I was technically single.”

 

“You’re insane.”

 

“Why?” Just because he didn’t want a family didn’t mean I was insane. It meant we were different. At thirty-six I didn’t have that desire to go out and fuck a bunch of random girls. I had fun with Ginger, who I was going to have to turn down if she called, but I didn’t need anything more than the woman on the other side of the door.

 

“You don’t even know the broad you married,” he pointed out. “It’s just nuts.”

 

“I know enough. Since you have no concept of intuition you wouldn’t get it. We talked about an annulment when we woke up the day after we got married. It didn’t seem like the right thing to do. Logical, maybe, but not right. I know this is where we would end up anyway. You’ll get it when you meet the girl that you’re supposed to marry,” I tried to explain. There was nothing I’d ever be able to say to Bobby to make him get it. He had a similar reaction when I married Maria. He was determined to be a lifelong bachelor. For me, it was fine when I was in my early twenties. Not anymore. I was happy, Sookie was happy, and that was all that mattered.

 

SPOV

 

I could see it on Eric’s face as soon as we pulled up to the house; it was the one.

 

“Eric…” I reached for his hand. I was overwhelmed with the feeling that all the pieces were falling into place.

 

“You think this is it?” he smiled over at me.

 

I nodded as the truck came to a stop. Willa was at my parents’ house instead of coming along. I wanted us to have a chance to look around without her being underfoot.

 

“Look, right there,” I pointed to the garage that was off to the right a little bit. “I’m guessing that’s the one with the bathroom attached to it. Wouldn’t that be a good workspace for you?” It would be private and no kids to interfere but still right by the house in case he was needed there for some reason.

 

“It would be,” he nodded. “While we’re talking about me working, I think I should tell you once I get on a roll I can disappear for a day or two at a time. That may change with kids, but… yeah, that happens.”

 

“If you disappear on me for too long I’ll just bring you a baby with a fully loaded diaper,” I promised. If that didn’t get his attention, I had no idea what would.

 

“Good to know,” he chuckled. “I try not to, but sometimes the characters won’t shut up until I get it out. I’ll try to work regular business hours.”

 

“I get it. I mean, I understand you don’t have the most conventional job Sometimes you’ll have something inspire you at a weird hour and I’m okay with that,” I assured him.

 

“Good. We just never talked about it, so I figured it was time. What did you do, or were you a housewife?”

 

“Before I had Willa I was a flight attendant,” I told him. “I’ve done quite a bit of traveling. It seemed to fit in well with my childhood as an army brat.”

 

“I think we may need to have some flight attendant/passenger role play one day,” Eric smiled. “I also think we should go meet the lady waiting to show us our new home.”

 

“I agree. And we’ll see about that role playing thing.” I let go of his hand so I could get out of the truck. Amelia was waiting for us at the front door with a friendly smile on her face.

 

Eric and I walked over to the front door hand in hand. His hands were so much bigger than mine but it was reassuring to me.

 

“Amelia?” I knew from the picture that accompanied the listing that it was her.

 

“Hello. You must be Sookie and Eric Northman,” she replied.

 

“We are,” I confirmed. “Thank you for meeting with us. I’m sure you probably thought I was nutty for putting an offer in on a house I hadn’t even seen in person, but I just got the strongest gut feeling that this is the right place for us when I saw the pictures.”

 

“Not at all. In fact, I like that kind of aggressiveness. A woman who trusts her gut is a good thing, in my book,” Amelia said. She shook each of our hands and then said, “Well, I’ll let you all go on in and have a look around. The sellers are looking to make this a quick sale so if they accept your offer I imagine it’ll be a quick possession for you.”

 

I wasn’t sure what all that meant but it sounded good. Amelia opened the door for us and Eric gestured for me to go in ahead of him. As soon as I walked in I was positive that was the house we were supposed to live in.

 

“I don’t think it’s haunted, babe,” I said as I walked further into the house.

 

“No, I don’t think so either. I normally get a feeling if it is,” he told me as he took in the front room. “It feels comfortable. Like I can already imagine a giant chair over there that I sit on and either you or Willa come over to snuggle with me.”

 

“That would be good,” I agreed. “She will, you know? She’ll bring her duck or one of her blankets over and just make herself at home.”

 

“She stuck to me like glue when we were shopping for paint,” he told me. “She’s a good kid.”

 

“Yes she is. I got lucky with her.”

 

The house had tons of windows, which I loved. I liked all the natural light that was coming in. There were windows pretty high up, however, so we were probably going to have to have professionals come in once a while to clean them since there was no way I’d be able to get to them without scaffolding. The laundry room was in a good spot and there was a nice counter that would be good for folding things on before going back in the basket.

 

Upstairs the bedrooms were all decent sizes. I could already imagine which one Willa would probably want to be hers since it had a little crawl space attached to it that she could use for a secret place when she got older. For the time being we were going to have to figure out how to keep it shut so she could accidentally lock herself in there or something. The master bedroom was very spacious and if the workspace out in the garage didn’t seal the deal for Eric, I was pretty sure the master bath did.

 

“Do you think we should get a new bed?” Eric asked as we walked through the room to the master bathroom.

 

“I think that would be an excellent idea.” I was pretty sure neither of us liked sleeping on the same beds our significant others used to sleep in, particularly since we knew what they were up to. “You know, I hate to mention it but I sometimes wonder if they hooked up in my bed when I wasn’t there.”

 

“It’s possible,” he sighed. “I don’t like thinking about it. I went on a few work trips, so it’s possible they did it at my house too.”

 

“Ugh. They’re so gross,” I muttered. I reached for Eric’s hand and pulled him over to the shower area. It was huge and had two shower heads. It was a big enough space that there wasn’t even need for a shower curtain. I backed up against the wall and said, “Imagine the possibilities in here…”

 

“Willa can run circles under the spray,” he teased, moving in closer to rub his body against me.

 

“I wasn’t really thinking about her.”

 

“What are you thinking about?” Eric rubbed his hands up and down my sides as he dipped to give me a soft kiss.

 

“I probably shouldn’t tell you. Amelia might walk in on us,” I replied.

 

“We’ll hear her heels on the tile,” he shrugged, moving his kisses down to my neck.

 

“You’re trouble,” I smiled.

 

“You like it.”

 

He had me there.

 

“I do, but I don’t think now is a good time to fool around,” I told him.

 

“Come on,” he replied. He gave me one last kiss before he straightened up and took my hand to lead me out of the bathroom.

 

“Is this room big enough?” I asked him. There was a California king bed already in the room with plenty of space left over, so I assumed we would be fine.

 

“It’s perfect. I think I want to get rid of this carpet and put in hardwood,” he told me.

 

“Yeah, small children and carpet do not go together well, I can tell you that.”

 

“Something tells me this would turn red and brown and every other color under the sun,” Eric chuckled. “Do you think Willa’s going to like her room?”

 

“I think so. As long as she has her lellow sparkles she’ll be fine,” I chuckled.

 

“Man, she’s serious about those sparkles,” Eric laughed.

 

“Of course she is.”

 

“Alright. Should we go find Amelia and tell her how serious we are about this place?”

 

“I think we should. Oh, should we go look at the garages first?”

 

“Sure. I figure if I don’t like it I can remodel.”

 

“That’s true.” I walked ahead of him and squeaked when he pinched my ass. “Watch those hands, buster.”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said nonchalantly.

 

“You’re not fooling anyone with that,” I laughed.

 

When we got to the bottom of the stairs he took my hand and we went out one of the sliding doors to walk around the front of the house.

 

“Are the garages unlocked?” I asked Amelia as we approached her. “We wanted to see the workspace to see if it’ll work as an office for Eric.”

 

“I believe they are. If not I have a key for them,” she told us.

 

“Thanks,” I smiled. “Uh, which one is the one that has the workspace?”

 

“That one.” Amelia pointed to the one I had suggested would be the winner when we pulled up. There was a path leading from the front of the house to the garage, which was good. The other garage, the one we would most likely park our cars in, was off to the side of the house. There was a covered porch area that connected the house to the garage and it would make a great entertaining space. I could already see a nice table and grill set up there for outdoor meals. Since we would be right on the water it wasn’t hard to imagine Dad coming out to go fishing with Jason.

 

Eric walked into the garage ahead of me and felt around for a light switch. He found it and the overhead lights turned on. It was a two car garage that would be great for storing our lawn care equipment and possibly a small boat if we opted to get one at some point. There was a door that I guessed led to the workspace. We walked through it and sure enough, there it was.

 

“I would buy this place just for the this little office space,” Eric said as he looked around. “Baby, you picked the perfect house.”

 

“Thank you,” I smiled. “I think we’ll probably have to get rid of the carpet in here, too, but does this feel like a good space to you?”

 

“Yeah, it does. I like to work in silence for the most part so this will be perfect.” Eric walked over to the window to look out. “Yeah, this is good. I can see the house. If I put my desk here it would be good.”

 

My brain was definitely oversexed because all I was thinking about was the different ways we could fuck on top of said desk.

 

“That would work. There’s enough space in here for whatever it is you writer types need?”

 

“I need a laptop and somewhere to sit. The amount of space is perfect,” he smiled. “I might get a bean bag chair…”

 

“Are you sure your old man bones can take it?” I teased.

 

“I’m not that old,” he chuckled. “You think we can get a quickie in without Amelia coming up?”

 

“It’s not happening.”

 

“You’re no fun,” he winked. “Come on, we need to see what we can do to make sure we get this place.”

 

“I’m plenty of fun. I have a sore bottom to prove it,” I reminded him.

 

“I’ll kiss it better when we get back to the house,” he promised.

 

“I’m sure you will,” I smirked.

 

We walked out of the garage and went in search of Amelia. There was no way of explaining it, but I was positive that was where Eric and I were meant to end up. I just hoped the sellers would accept our offer.

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