Page 77 of Live Like There's No Tomorrow
She laughed. “I’d much rather do other things than talk, especially when you look like that, but I’ll be good.”
“I’ve been thinking—”
“Uh-oh, that sounds ominous.”
He laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ve been thinking good things. You always said you wanted to live in a house down by the water.” He looked around. “This place is nice, but I don’t think it’s really what you had in mind, is it?”
“No, but it’ll do for now. I do like it.”
“I meant what I said last night, Charlie. I think it’s time for us to get on with our life. If you agree, if you’re ready, I’d like us to start looking for a place of our own.”
She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him. “You know I’d like. More than like, I’d love that. What are you thinking? Where are you thinking?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t gotten that far yet. I thought we should decide together. Explore what’s out there.”
“Well, I can live anywhere. I’ll be tootling all around the area visiting clients, so it doesn’t make much difference to me. But you need to be close to the resort.”
He smiled. “Not necessarily.”
She laughed. “Come on! You know you do. No matter how much time you’re spending at home with me now, we both know that will wear off. And even if it doesn’t, I don’t want you having to drive a long way every time you get a call to come in and solve a problem.”
He nodded. “I just don’t want to tie us to the area around the resort. There’s not much up for sale down there. And there are a lot of great spots farther out.”
“Let me go grab my laptop, and we can see what kind of listings there are.”
“I think we should search the whole area to start with. We don’t want to focus in around the resort just yet.”
Charlotte went inside to get her laptop. She couldn’t wipe the big silly grin off her face. This was it! They really were making a start on their life together. When she came back and sat down beside him, Ben looked serious. “What is it?” she asked. “You haven’t changed your mind already, have you?”
“No, silly.” He reached out and touched her cheek with a smile. “I guess I’m just being dutiful Ben. I’m thinking about our parents. I think we should call them.”
“What, now? And tell them what?”
He chuckled. “Yes, now. We need to tell them that we’re back together. We’ll probably have to deal with my folks coming back here, which I imagine will be nice for you, but not so much for me. And I don’t want to hide from your parents. They obviously didn’t want us to be together, for some reason. I think I’ve managed to forgive them for what they did. I don’t understand it, but I choose to believe that they had their reasons and thought they were doing the right thing for you. But they may still not want us to be together, and they’re just going to have to deal with the fact that we are. I’d like their blessing; I doubt we’ll get it, but I refuse to hide from them.”
“I hadn’t thought about it like that. I haven’t been trying to hide from them, hide us from them. I was just tired of them trying to tell me how I should live my life. It’s none of their business, they don’t get a vote. But you’re right, they should know we’re together, I want them to know. I’d like to think they might be happy for us, but either way we should tell them.”
“And we should tell them now, get it over with.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes and gave him a grudging smile. “You’re right, as always. I know you are, but do we have to do it right now? Just when I was getting excited about houses?”
He chuckled. “We may as well get it over with. Then we can enjoy our house-hunting without that dark cloud looming over us. At least there’s a bright side to it for you. I know you enjoy my parents and they love you.”
Charlotte smiled back at him. “And I know how you feel about them. I used to have a secret hope when we were kids, you know.”
“What was that?”
“I always hoped that somehow, someway I could build a bridge between you and your parents. Help you find a way to understand each other. I know you love each other, you’re just so different from them.”
Ben nodded slowly. “If you’d told me that back then I would have told you not to bother. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older, and more importantly they are, or if seeing our friends have kids of their own is giving me a different perspective on family, but what I will say now is that I hope somehow, someway you might be able to do that. But I’m not going to hold my breath.”
Charlotte smiled. “We’ll have to see what we can do, then, won’t we?”
“Yep, but quit stalling. What we can do right now is make the phone calls and get it over with.”
“Okay,” she sighed. “I’ll call mine, if you call yours. But you have to promise me that once we’re done we can get online and look at houses, and maybe even go see some this afternoon?”
He grinned. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
