Liar

On Friday I had another pleasant day at work, went to the gym, and then went to the grocery store.  I had decided that I really loved grocery shopping alone on Friday evenings, and felt like that officially meant I was an adult.  My mom would be so proud.

Brody had called me that morning and told me that the lawsuit was settled, his dad's company was officially sold, and he had a flight out tomorrow morning, at a time that put him at the airport at a perfect time for me to come get him after work.

I had texted Lauren, Kinsley, and Kendra to see if anyone was interested in doing anything Friday night, but Kendra and Christian were headed out of town to visit his parents for the night, Lauren already had plans with Alex, and Kinsley never replied.  Instead, I headed home with plans to make myself some homemade pizza for dinner.  I was a little down about spending tonight by myself.  After doing some wedding planning the night before and spending most of the week by myself in our house, I was really ready for Brody to come home.  I tried not to be pouty on the phone when he told me he couldn't get a flight back until Saturday, and reminded myself that I had to work Saturday anyway.

I pulled my car into the garage and parked, then wrangled all the grocery bags (I'm definitely one of those people that would rather loop 14 bags around each arm than make more than one trip) into the house.  I got into the kitchen and stopped dead, because Brody was standing at the counter, chopping something.  "What the hell are you doing home?" I asked as he set his knife down and turned around.

He raised his eyebrows at me and said, chuckling, "Well, that wasn't the warm welcome I was expecting!"  I untangled myself from all the grocery bags and set them down right on the floor so I could throw my arms around him.

"I'm just surprised," I mumbled against his chest.  "You lied to me!"

"For a good cause," he replied, kissing the top of my head.  "I missed you."

"I missed you too.  I was sad that you weren't going to be home tonight, which is dumb because you weren't even gone that long."

"I know, I could tell when I talked to you earlier.  So I went to the airport to see if I could get a standby seat on an earlier flight, and I got lucky.  I decided to not tell you because I wanted to surprise you."

"How'd you even get here?" I asked, finally disentangling myself from him and walking over to where I'd left the grocery bags in an unceremonious heap.

"I took the bus into town and Alex picked me up and brought me home," he said, bending to grab one of the grocery bags and helping me put things away.

"And are you making dinner?" I looked over to the counter where I saw a bunch of veggies on the cutting board.

He nodded, pulling open the fridge to put away the chicken breasts and pork chops I'd gotten.  "Yeah, I'm just going to put some burgers on the grill.  I grabbed some potatoes and salad stuff too."  He motioned with his head towards the cutting board full of veggies.  I told him I'd finish putting groceries away while he finished dinner.  Once the groceries were put away, I ran upstairs and took a quick shower, returning downstairs just in time for dinner to be done.

"I love when you cook," I said, as I got out plates.  "Actually, I just really love when you're home to eat dinner with me.  But I also love when you cook."

"Well, I can't say I love to cook, but I do love being home to eat dinner with you," he teased.  I laughed, and we sat down at the table to eat.

"So, there's something I wanted to talk to you about," Brody said, once we were settled.  I must have looked nervous, because he quickly added, "No, nothing bad.  But now that we're going to be getting married really soon, I thought we should probably decide together what to do with the money from selling my shares of my dad's business."

"Oh," I said, relieved.  "Well...how much money are we talking about?"  He told me, and I did my best to keep my face neutral.  I don't know what I was expecting, but the number he said was definitely more.  "I don't even know where you'd start," I admitted.

"Well, I figured we could use some of it to pay for the wedding and honeymoon--which we should also probably plan, by the way." I agreed.  "I would like to invest some of it, as well.  But I was curious if you had any thoughts.  Did you still want to look for a new house at some point in the near future?"

I shook my head.  "I love this house, and I definitely feel like it's 'our' house, so not really.  In fact, I'd really prefer to avoid moving again for as long as possible.  Is there anything you'd like to use some of the money for with your company?"

"I was thinking about that," he said, nodding.  "I'd like to put a little more money into doing some recruiting of staff so that we can get some new people, get them trained, and start accepting new clients again.  But we're also going to outgrow our office space soon.  I don't know what I'm going to do, though, because there hasn't been anything big enough on the market lately, and there's no good land to build anywhere I'd want to."

"What about doing a satellite office or a second location?" I asked.

He considered this.  "Actually, that's not a bad idea.  I could move some of the staff to a second location--like HR and marketing, the departments that don't deal directly with clients.  That would actually be perfect, especially if I could find a place that would be a little more 'interviewee friendly'--easier to find, better parking."  He grinned at me.  "I knew there was a reason I was marrying you."

I laughed.  "Glad to help, I guess!"

"Also, I'd love it if you at least thought about getting a new car before winter.  Something with 4-wheel drive, because, as you found out this spring, the roads can get pretty bad out here."

"That's really probably not a bad idea," I admitted.  "I love my car and my gas mileage, but I wouldn't be sad about having something that's a little better in the deep snow.  My CR-V is fine in a little snow, but it struggles in the deep stuff."

"If by 'struggles' you mean 'drives straight into a snowbank when you hit the brakes,' then yes," he said wryly.

"It did not drive straight into the snowbank," I protested.  "It spun out first."

"Yes, because that helps your cause," Brody said, making a face.

"Yeah, you're right.  Well, I'll definitely go look this fall, at least.  There's no reason to get rid of my car any sooner than that."

Brody looked like he wanted to argue but thought better of it and nodded.  "Thank you," he said.  "I'll worry about you a lot less if I know you have a good vehicle."

We moved away from money talk and he told me about his trips to Chicago and Miami, and I told him about Kinsley and Damien.  "Oh," he said, as we were clearing the dishes awhile later.  "My mom wants to have dinner with us.  She said she'd come up.  What do you think about doing that this weekend?"

"That's fine," I agreed.  "How about Sunday?"

"Okay, I'll call her."

I was rinsing the dishes off when I felt Brody's arms wrap around me from behind.  He pressed his face against my neck and inhaled.  "I missed you," he said.  I shut off the water and leaned back into him, and we both stood there for several seconds, just enjoying being close to each other.  He kissed the back of my neck before he turned me around and pressed his lips against mine.  I reached up and pushed my fingers into his hair, dragging my nails across his scalp and pulling his head closer to mine.  He shivered and lifted me onto the counter, and we were almost the same height then.

I pulled away and pressed my forehead against his.  "I hate when you travel," I said softly.

"I know," he replied.  "I don't like it either."

"I don't like being in this big house by myself," I admitted.

He leaned back so he could look at me.  "Should we get you a dog?"  He was smirking, but his eyes were serious.

I shrugged.  "I don't feel like we're home enough for a dog.  But I don't hate the idea."

"That's what doggie day care is for," he said, grinning.  "Or we could get a little yappy thing and you could train it to be a therapy dog, and then it would go to work with you too."

"I do not want a little yappy dog," I protested, laughing at the thought of a tiny little dog scampering around my office, yipping at my clients.

Brody smiled and rested his hand against the side of my face, brushing his thumb across my cheek, then across my bottom lip.  I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch.  "Okay, no yappy little dogs.  We could get a dog that's bigger than you are and would scare the shit out of the neighbors' kids."

Eyes still closed, I laughed again.  "Oh god, can you imagine the Martins' little brat?  He certainly wouldn't ride his bike through our yard anymore."

"So a big dog seems to be the way to go," Brody agreed.  He used the hand on my face to tilt my chin up slightly and kissed me.

"But who's going to vacuum up all the dog hair?" I asked, my lips moving against his.

Brody chuckled.  "Do you want my honest answer, or the one I tell you in an attempt to convince you that we need to get a dog?  I should probably tell you now that this house has been vacuumed more since you moved in than in the entire time I lived here before that."

I shook my head, and pressed my lips back to his, then said, "Got it, I'm vacuuming up the dog hair.  I'm good with that, but you get to pick up the poop."

"Do they make dogs that don't poop?  I mean, science must have figured that out by now, right?"  Brody asked.  I burst into laughter.  "What?  That was a serious question!"  He tried to keep a straight face but ended up joining me in laughter.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him back towards me, kissing him again.  "I think we'd better abandon that conversation," I said.

"Why?  It was just getting fun."

"Because I can think of better ways to use our evening."  I kissed him again.

"That's an excellent reason," he replied.