Kelly Jamieson: Breakaway

He held her gaze.

“You made an offer on my house? You want to buy my house?” She squinted at him.

“Yeah.” He smiled, showing lots of white teeth, and shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “I saw the For Sale sign and realized you’d decided to sell. Uh…are you okay with selling it? ‘Cause I kinda had the feeling your sister was pressuring you to do it.”

“I’m okay with it now.” She sighed, pushing her fingers through her hair. “I’m sad about it, yeah. I love that house. It was our home. But I realized you were right and I need to let them deal with the consequences of their decisions. If things with Jasmine and Ethan don’t work out, I’ll be there for her, sure, but she’ll have to deal with it. And Kyle too. He wants to go away this summer. If things don’t go well at college, he’ll have to figure out what he wants to do with his life.” She paused. “It’s hard. I still feel I should be there for them.”

“You will be.”

“Yeah. But not rescuing them. Just supporting them. There’s a big difference.” She straightened her shoulders. “And I already started looking for an apartment near school. But Jase…” She frowned. “Why would you buy the house?”

“So you can live there.” He stepped toward her. “I didn’t know if we’d ever be together at that point, but I hated to think of you being forced to leave your home. I know you love that house. So I just had the crazy idea that I’d buy it and you could live there.”

Her breath stuck, her heart pattering, feeling very warm and dizzy, she just stared at him. She could not believe what she was hearing. He wanted to buy the house? For her? That was crazy.

Crazy nice.

“You can’t do that,” she breathed, trying to get air into her lungs.

“Why not? I can afford it. It’d be like an investment. Real estate’s supposed to be a good investment, that’s what my financial guy tells me. Plus there’s some tax benefit or something.” He waved a hand. “Which I definitely need.”

“I…I don’t know what to say.” Her mind wobbled, words clogged up in her tight throat. Nobody’d ever done anything like that for her. She was always the one looking after everyone else.

He shrugged. “You don’t have to say anything. But…” He looked endearingly uncertain, big shoulders up at his ears. “Maybe…if you think it’s rushing, you can just stay living there and I’ll keep my apartment, but maybe one day…I could move in with you there. When you’re ready.”

Her heart expanded, ready to burst out of her chest. “Oh, Jase.”

He pulled his hands out of his pockets and took one giant Jason-sized stride toward her and set his hands on her waist. He kissed her, a slow, gentle kiss. “I want to marry you. I want you to have my babies. I want to live together even though I know I’m asking a lot of you. My life’s not easy—lots of travel, lots of stress—”

“Lots of injuries,” she murmured, remembering how nervous she got for him every game. Would she ever get used to that?

He made a dismissive face. “And on top of it we’re going to have a child who’s not always with us and you’re going to have to put up with my ex being in our lives but…god, Remi, that’s a lot to ask. But it’s what I want.”

“Lots of women do it,” she murmured. “People divorce, have blended families. It’s not easy, but it’s not like we’re the only ones it’s ever happened to.”

“Yeah.” He breathed out a long slow exhale. “After all you just said, though, I don’t want to pressure you or rush you. I understand. I’ll wait until you’re ready.”

“Thank you, Jase. I would like to wait a while before we live together. And I know it won’t be easy sometimes. But we’ll make it work. Right?”

“Right.” He hugged her close. “I feel bad dragging you into a mess like this. You didn’t ask for this. All you wanted was fun.”

“No,” she said, smiling up at him through her tears. “All I wanted was you.”