Page 159 of Severed Heart

“Oh!” she exclaims, eyes lighting as she grabs it and springs from the truck straight to the porch. Easing out of the seat to follow her, I’m at her back by the time she opens it. The smell of fresh paint hits us both as she takes it in. Each one painted in varying shades of light and dark blue.

“Tyler,” she admonishes as she walks in, stops at the hall, and does a one-eighty to stare into the kitchen before walking back to where I stand in the empty living room.

“This house is so beautiful, but,” she laughs nervously, “there is no furniture here.”

“Well, that’s because the owner hasn’t furnished it yet.”

“Oh, but ... where will we sleep?”

“Let’s ask the owner?” I give her a pointed look.

“Okay,” she stalls, weighing my expression before it starts to sink in. “Wait, what is this, Soldier?”

“Thisisyour house, Delphine,” I whisper. “So you wake up every day smiling.”

She jerks back a few feet before scanning the kitchen with the newly installed baby blue old-school Frigidaire, matching new gas stove, and other appliances. Whipping her head in every direction, her gorgeous silver eyes dart to an old-fashioned iron wood stove fireplace, to the large living room window, which gives the best imaginable view of the orchard—a view she hasn’t yet seen, hence the reason for our trip. I wanted to see her wake up to it. That is if she accepts the house.

“Soldier, you’re joking,” she says, her eyes shimmering with tears.

“I’m not joking,” I tell her. “It’s yours.”

“No!” she booms. “No, it’s really ... mine? This house ismine?”

“You kicked the bottle,” I tell her, “so you get to live the dream.”

“Tyler,” she exhales so harshly, I know there’s no breath left in her, “you are my best friend, but if you are bullshitting to me, I will kick your ballsso fucking hard.”

“Well shit,” I chuckle, “I was hoping to room with you for a while, but now I’m just scared.”

“This is really my house, and you will live here too?” She searches my face frantically.

“Well, when you put it like that, I was hoping to. I can’t handle living in that townhouse a day longer, and I thought I’d room with you for a while anyway to be your sober companion.”

“Oh,” she says, lowering her eyes. “I would love that so much, but, Soldier,” she shakes her head, bewildered. “Awhole house?”

“It’s atinyhouse,” I say, “for a tiny general. But it’s got three bedrooms.”

“This can’t be right.” She cups her mouth, her eyes spilling over. “This can’t be mine!” Her face erupts, and she begins to cry, to rebuke it all as she keeps a hand on her mouth, and I crowd her, knowing these tears are utter happiness. “No.” She pushes my chest again and again as I watch her unravel in front of me.

“It’s your dream, Delphine. I saw it the minute we drove here before you even spoke a word. You deserve it, and I want you to have it.”

She sniffles, keeping her mouth covered, her lashes soaked. “Tyler, who did this house belong to?”

“To me,” I tell her honestly. “It was my granddad’s starter home and came with the land I inherited.

“Then it’s yours,” she says, holding out the key.

“I don’t want to live alone out here.” I bulge my eyes. “Who will protect me from the crickets?”

“Shut the fuck up!” she bursts into a heap of emotion again, crying as she turns in circles again and again.

“You shut the fuck up,” I chuckle as she melts onto the refinished hardwoods and cries for solid minutes, slumped in an adorable weepy heap, her legs in a V on the floor as I crouch down and grin at her. “This is not very general of you.”

“Oh, Soldier, I don’t care, I can die now. This can’t be real life.”

Her reaction makes the aches worth it, every single one. “You haven’t seen the rest of the house yet.”

“I don’t care,” she says before her eyes bulge. “I mean, I do, of course, but I don’t. I’m so happy. I don’t care if the rest is a shack. These two rooms alone. So beautiful.” She palms my jaw. “You painted it bluefor me? You did all this for me?”