Page 18 of Agony of Our Regret (Sorcerer’s Society #11)

EIGHTEEN

Baby Lemon was now a coconut, and I felt it.

Unfortunately, the weather turned into true fall, where you couldn’t deny the cold any longer, and buttoning or zipping my coats was impossible.

We were meeting at my house to go through what we needed to do to sell it, but I was stuck in front of the hall closet at the apartment, glaring at my traitorous clothes.

“You can just wear one of mine,” Gavin offered.

“I tried,” I moaned. “I can’t fit in yours either.”

He glanced over my shoulder at Luca. “Do you have anything that could work?”

“No, everything he wears is tailored and structured,” I grumbled. “I’ll need one of Vince’s at this rate.”

“It will go to your knees,” Gavin laughed.

“Perfect.” I slipped on my warmest wool coat and left the front open, then draped a thick scarf from around my neck. “We’re only going to be outside for a few seconds, getting in and out of the car.”

“We’ll stop somewhere on the way home and pick up some new ones.” Luca grabbed the keys off the counter as I waddled past and into the hall.

“How am I supposed to last another nine weeks?” I whined in the elevator and put my hands over my ever-growing belly. “There’s no more room for you in there.”

Luca put his arm over my shoulders. “Take your time, Lemon. Momma is just grouchy today.”

I elbowed him in the ribs and took a step closer to Gavin, who immediately wrapped me up.

“Coming early would give you a lot of bonus points with mommy, too,” he mock-whispered, as the doors opened to the parking garage.

“Not too early,” Luca warned.

I wasn’t ready to do the labor and delivery thing yet, but I was rapidly approaching what I’d seen of other women when all they wanted was for the baby to come out. My hips ached. My back hurt. My feet swelled. I had heartburn and indigestion anytime I even looked at food that wasn’t bread.

I understood all the old wives’ tales of women trying to get their baby to vacate the premises.

But I could wait a bit longer.

Maybe a week.

After that, the fruits on the chart were enough to haunt me. There was no way a cantaloupe, let alone a pumpkin, was coming out of me.

I settled into the backseat of Luca’s car and immediately closed my eyes, sliding into a welcome sleep for the drive over.

When I woke, we were pulling onto the street, and I sat up, excited to see the rest of my guys.

While the guys and I squeezed in more time together throughout the week by either going to lunch or dinner together, Vince was traveling again, and Sky had more missions with Luca. This was the first time we’d all been together in almost two weeks.

I hopped out of the car as soon as we parked and hurried to the front door. It swung open when I reached the steps, and Noah rushed out for a hug.

He kissed my temple, then my lips, before stepping back.

“How is it you look bigger than two days ago?”

“Because I am.” I tugged on my coat. “I can’t close this anymore.”

He laughed and led me inside. Gavin and Luca joined us. Vince was in the living room, and Sky walked out of the kitchen with a mug he held out for me.

I accepted it and looked inside. “What’s this?”

“White chocolate and peppermint.” He winked at Vince. “He made sure we bought the ingredients last time we went to the store.”

I blew him a kiss. “Thanks for remembering.”

He shrugged. “I got a few varieties for everyone else, too. I forgot how much worse the Midwest cold is from the west.”

“Yeah, every year at this time, I miss Arizona,” Gavin added.

“You hated it there,” Luca argued.

“Exactly.”

Sky laughed. “I think I was the only one who didn’t mind the heat, but I missed the real winters here.”

Noah shook his head. “I could do without either.”

“So that’s why you kept traveling.” Gavin smirked. “You were following the weather.”

Noah grinned and nodded.

Teasing and laughing with no one getting upset was all the proof we needed that we’d all officially moved on from the past.

I sipped my drink and closed my eyes. The creamy, warm, yet coolness from the mint taste took me back to that first date. Maybe one day I could go back to those memories without the sense of dread of what was coming for us.

“Noah?” Vince called, and I blinked open my eyes to see Noah slumped over.

“Vision,” Sky announced, and we waited for him to come out of it.

After less than a minute, Noah sat up with furrowed brows.

“What?” Luca asked.

Noah stared at the rug in silence for a long moment before speaking, “It was similar to one I’ve had before, slightly different this time.”

“The one in front of the building with flags?” Gavin clarified.

“Yeah.” Noah met his eyes. “Something’s going to happen there.”

“Have you found the building yet?” Sky asked.

“No, none of the pictures online look right,” Noah told him. “It’s classic architecture, like Roman with columns, but I only see a sliver of the building.”

“Flags, like country or state?” I asked.

He shrugged, “Not my area of expertise. It’s just a street of them.”

“I’ll keep looking,” Gavin promised.

“Yeah, we’ll keep working,” Luca added.

Sky stood and clapped. “What room should we start in?”

I watched Noah, waiting to see if he was ready to move on or needing to think about the vision for longer, but he turned to Sky.

“There isn’t much to go through. We did most of that back when Ave first got the house.”

“And everything I had in storage has been sold or donated. All we have to decide is what we want to keep and what we want to sell from what's left,” I explained.

“Shouldn’t we look for a house first?” Luca asked. “We don’t want to get rid of stuff too soon.”

“I’ve already started looking,” Vince admitted. “Ave told me what she wants, and I set up a search with notifications when something new comes up.”

“Any luck so far?” Gavin asked.

“Not really.”

“I doubt what we need already exists.” Sky dropped onto the couch.

“I set a minimum square footage, not a number of rooms. I figured we could tear down walls and make changes, but adding size is a lot harder,” Vince explained.

Gavin tossed his hands up. “That’s your world, not mine.”

I smiled at Vince, who sat up taller.

“That’s a good approach,” Luca agreed. “We’ll need a realtor at some point when we want to look at houses. I’ll ask Mom if there’s anyone with the Society who can help. That will make explaining our situation easier.”

“Will we need a loan?” Noah asked. “That might be complicated. Who gets listed?”

Luca turned to me. “It could just be you. You’d qualify for more than enough.”

“But don’t they like there to be higher income? I don’t make as much as you in salary,” I replied.

“I doubt it matters when you’re worth as much as you are,” Gavin answered. “But using a Society realtor will help with that too. They can take us through the whole buying and loan process.”

“Plus, we’re selling this and the condo. We’ll have more than enough for a large down payment.” Luca turned to Noah. “We can figure those things out when the time comes.”

“Are you sure you want to sell this place?” Sky asked. “You don’t have to.”

I nodded, “For so long this house represented the only connection I had to my mother and her family. Now I was creating my own and it felt right to move on.”

Gavin held my gaze, “We can wait.”

“No, it’s time for this house to be a home for another family. It’s too beautiful to sit vacant any longer.”

It felt right. I wanted a clean slate, a future built around us rather than the past. For years, I thought of this place as a safe space. A house to run to when the rest of the world was too scary, but I was done running away. It was time to let go and move on.

“There was one,” Vince hedged. “At first, I dismissed it because it’s only four bedrooms and didn’t check all our boxes, but something about it keeps pulling at me.”

He pulled out his phone, but Noah grabbed a laptop from the kitchen and handed it to him. “If you’re going to show us pictures, use this.”

“Thanks.” Vince took it and sat it on the coffee table, so we could all see the screen.

“It’s like I said, the space is there. It’s nearly eight thousand square feet.”

“Damn,” Sky whistled.

“Yeah, you’d think that would be plenty, but it's one of the worst layouts I’ve ever seen. It’s so poorly planned that most of the house is wasted space. Like two formal dining rooms, but no eat-in kitchen. A room that could be host balls if we lived a few centuries ago, but only one half-bathroom downstairs.”

He went through the images once to show what was already there, before starting again to explain what he thought it could be.

The listing even had the general blueprints of the house, and Vince had already gone through to make his changes. “We can replace most of the walls after we move them. I’m not trying to create an entirely open floor plan, so I think it's possible structurally.”

Luca leaned closer and asked a few questions while Gavin studied his proposed plan.

“That’s a hell of a pantry.” Sky rubbed his stomach. “More than enough room for all my snacks.”

I laughed. “Okay, we all get to ask for one thing. That has to be yours.”

He nodded.

“I thought I had all the requirements.” Vince’s face flashed with panic.

“Those are the minimums.” I smiled sweetly. “But if we’re going to be renovating our dream home, our forever home––”

“Yeah, moving sucks. Let’s only do it once,” Noah agreed.

I nodded. “So, let's get this one perfect.

Vince groaned. “Fine. What do you guys want?”

“That pantry is definitely big enough, but some built-ins would be great.” Sky dropped his head back. “And some of the appliances being in there would be sweet. Like a pebble ice machine, or coffee machine, or…” He snapped straight. “A kegerator!”

Noah shook his head with a smirk. “Classy.”

Sky wagged his brows. “Vince can make sure it is.”

“I’m making sure there’s a fully equipped home gym,” he said.

We all exchanged looks before I laughed. “I thought that was a given.”

“Twist my arm,” Luca teased. “I guess we can have that.”

“With a bathroom attached,” I added. “All the stinky can be isolated.”

“Oh, and have it open to the backyard so we can use that bathroom when we’re in the pool and avoid tracking water everywhere.” Gavin pointed to Vince. “That can be my one thing if necessary.”

“It’s already in the plan.” Vince went to the altered floor plan and showed the door leading to the outside.

“If Vince already made sure one thing was there, it doesn’t count as your thing,” Sky told Gavin.

“I just knew you’d all want one,” Vince replied.

“Exactly, so it doesn’t count,” Sky shot back.

“There’s already a huge pantry,” Noah commented

“Not with cool stuff hidden inside,” Sky smirked.

Vince scoffed. “Oh, now the keg is hidden?”

Sky’s eyes widened. “It better be now!”

Vince shook his head but laughed.

“I know what I want.” Gavin beamed. “A library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on at least one wall.”

I sat up and nodded. “And a reading nook.”

Vince contained his eye roll. “Fine.”

He leaned forward and stared at his design while Gavin and I air high-fived.

“There was always one thing I wanted my house to have growing up,” Luca began.

“What?” Sky laughed. “Your house had everything.”

“A secret room or passageway from one room to another.”

“Oh, my gosh,” I shrieked, making them all jump. “A room behind a bookcase!” I reached across Luca to get in Vince’s face. “Please, please, please!”

He chuckled and pushed me back. “It’s your money. You can waste it however you want.”

For the first time, I didn’t correct him that it was our money and took the victory.

“We can figure out where we want it to go later.” Luca looked at Vince. “I’m counting that as mine.”

“What about me?” I asked.

Luca kissed my temple. “Stop trying to steal everyone’s.”

“I haven’t.”

“No, you’ve just added to each of ours,” Gavin pointed out. “You still need your own.”

“And Vince and Noah,” I reminded them.

“If the gym doesn’t count, then I want a workspace, either in the garage or maybe a shed outside,” Vince admitted.

“For tools and stuff?” Noah asked.

“Yeah, a place to build things or tinker where I don’t have to worry about making a mess.”

Luca nodded. “If there’s room to add on to the garages, that would make it easy to run power. Then you can also have a heater and AC and work year-round.”

Vince grinned. “Good idea.”

“Noah?” I asked.

He hesitated. “I have an idea, but it’s going to require agreement from everyone?”

“A sex dungeon?” Sky blurted.

“No.” Noah blushed and pushed him away.

“Although…” Luca winked at me, and I shook my head, grinning.

“We can always convert one of the bedrooms down the road. That doesn’t change the floor plans,” Vince responded as if it wasn’t a ridiculous request.

Noah waited for everyone to stop laughing. “No, like Luca, there was something I always wanted growing up.”

“Yeah?” Luca asked.

“A dog or dogs,” Noah focused on me.

“I would love that.” I grinned. “I always wanted one, but my parents said no.”

“Definitely,” Gavin agreed.

“We’d need at least three so the kids can all get pets, and none of us feel left out.” Sky was always thinking of the important things.

“Yeah, one isn’t enough,” Luca confirmed.

“Okay, but what does that have to do with this?” Vince asked.

“Well, I’ve seen bathrooms with raised bathtubs, so you can easily wash your dogs,” Noah stated.

“Oh, my gawwwdddd,” Sky dragged out. “How many dog videos have you been watching?”

Noah shrugged. “I told you I’ve always wanted one—or more.”

My heart swelled. This wasn’t something I knew about him. “We’ll get them as soon as we move in.”

He smiled, a huge, adorable grin. “Okay.”

“So, dog spa room,” Vince noted.

“That leaves you, princess.” Luca rubbed my leg.

“What can we possibly add that isn’t already there?”

“I’m sure you can think of something you’ve always wanted.”

I closed my eyes. “I want a big shower with sprays coming from all angles.”

“Obviously,” Vince scoffed. “Don’t even bother mentioning a huge soaking tub. I got that.”

Well, there went that plan.

“A bedroom-sized closet?” I tried.

“Duh,” Vince sounded unamused. “I thought through the basics. A high-end kitchen with a big enough island for all of us. Updated bathrooms. Huge closets. Come on, we need the little details.”

“Like a dog bath,” Sky teased.

I grinned at him, and he smirked.

A memory resurfaced that sparked an idea. One of our favorite things.

“A balcony off our room,” I began, and Vince opened his mouth, but I knew there was already one planned. “With a hot tub.”

Noah whistled. “Good idea.”

I grinned. “Like at the hotel in Park City. Only I want it attached to the room, so we don’t have to trek through the house when it’s cold out.”

Luca squeezed my thigh. “Love it.”

“Perfect,” Gavin pointed to Vince. “Got all that?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Vince pulled the laptop toward him and stared.

“While Mr. Builder gets working, let’s start upstairs and work our way down since there’s not as much up there.” Sky stood and offered me a hand.

We headed up the stairs while the guys took their time following. I continued to sip my hot chocolate, taking in the subtle changes they’d made since moving in. They didn’t add anything. These three weren’t into decorating, but I noticed a few things missing.

“You didn’t like the picture that hung here?” I pointed at the space at the top of the stairs. It was a floral arrangement I wasn’t particularly attached to, but it had been there since I first inherited the house. Since it fit the odd size space, I didn’t bother moving it or finding something to replace it.

“We just put away a few things that we could. We’ve already packed a few boxes down in the garage.”

“And you want to keep that one?”

“No.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he stepped into the bedroom he was using, which had been my grandparent’s room. “Those were the donation ones. We kind of guessed at what you wouldn’t want, but we can always pull it out if you like it.”

I shook my head and sat on the edge of his bed. “I’m pretty sure I have everything I want from this place that was originally here. I’m more concerned about the new things we’ve brought in and whether they’d be useful in the new house.”

“Well, this bed is super comfortable, so I vote we keep it, but the dresser isn’t very functional.” He opened the top drawer. “They’re deceptively shallow.”

It was a black dresser we bought from a big box furniture store and not remotely sentimental or valuable. “Okay, we’ll donate or sell it.”

He stared at his phone and typed before looking back up at me. “Got it.”

“Taking notes?”

He nodded. “That’s it for this room. Not much in the bathrooms. We can take the towels and toiletries and replace them after we move, so it doesn’t become an immediate priority.”

“Good idea,” I agreed.

I moved into the hall and heard the guys still talking downstairs. “So much for helping.”

Sky smirked. “We’ll get this done faster without them.”

“Good point,” I giggled, and moved into the bedroom Vince was using. “Same dresser. Make a note of that.” I sat on the bed and cringed. “This is hard as a rock. Unless he likes it, we can get rid of this too.”

He typed, then stepped backward. “One more.”

Noah’s room was my mother’s and had her furniture with a new mattress.

“He’s made comments about how comfortable this is.” Sky tapped the bed. “We can keep it, but what about the bed frame and dresser?”

The vanity and nightstand matched the other two items and were made of white wood, genuine stuff that was hard to find these days. Fortunately, it wasn’t obviously outdated since they went with a timeless, simple design. But did I want to bring the past into our new home?

Yes. It belonged to the mother I never knew, and without her, I wouldn’t have the guys in my life. However, she also abandoned me. She felt she had to keep us both safe. Knowing these items were once hers and that she might have even planned her escape with her cousin on that very bed wasn’t a reminder I needed every day.

“Sell.” They would be useful to someone else without the heavy memories.

“Then we’re done up here. We already double-checked that the attic is clear.” Sky started down the stairs.

It should be after the initial clean-out I’d done in high school. One less thing to worry about now.

“Thanks for the help, guys,” Sky teased, as he walked into the living room.

I laughed and followed him, rubbing my belly and stretching my back as much as I could. “Yeah, at least I had him to help me move the dressers into the hall.”

“You didn’t!” Vince nearly jumped up.

“Holy shit,” Noah’s words silenced everyone.

“What?” Luca demanded.

Noah pointed at me. “This is it. My first vision of you.”

I looked around. Behind me was the stained-glass window. The only identifier he’d had at the time. I grinned and winked. “Told you that you’d all be here too.”

He finally cracked a smile. “Yeah, you did.”

“This was it?” Gavin asked, staring at me as taking in every detail would allow him to see it too.

“Yeah.” Noah grinned, lighting up his eyes. “I’ve waited years for this.”

Doubt, weight, anticipation. Something subtle disappeared from him as it sank in. The future he was so fearful of missing out on was right here.