Authors: Delia Delaney
We walked outside for a few minutes to look around. The patio connected to the rest of the yard through a gate, but it felt so private with the way it was landscaped and decoratively fenced in
, just for the master bedroom
.
The rest of the lawn was beautiful, and
there was a lot of it
.
I was in love with it.
“You wanna take a look at the bathroom and closet, or are you already sold?” Jared teased.
I smiled but re-entered the bedroom with him. Because of how much I liked the rest of the house, I wasn’t surprised that I loved the master bathroom. And of course the closet was beyond my expectations.
After studying the master wing, I stood with Jared in the middle of the bedroom, feeling a little overwhelmed. He seemed to be watching me closely, and I knew he wanted to hear my opinion. I think he
knew
my decision, but was waiting for me to speak first.
“I love it,” I finally said.
He smiled and said, “So do I. And I love
you
,” he added, leaning his forehead against mine.
It made my heart feel full and I wrapped my arms around him. “I love you
,
too.”
He kissed me, and we stood there for another minute enjoying the time alone. Finally he said, “Well, I think we could negotiate a deal for this place if yo
u
’re
positive it’s what you want. But w
e can put in an offe
r and still
look at a few more places if you’d like
.”
I slowly shook my head. “I don’t think I need to look any further.”
He barely nodded. “Cool, neither do I.
”
“What about the basement? Are you sure there’s enough room for your studio?”
“Oh yeah, definitely. I mean only if you’re okay if I frame in that farthest
twenty
feet?”
I sort of scoffed. “Jared, it’s your house. You can do whatever you want with it.”
He looked at me for a few seconds. “Is that what it’s gonna keep coming back to? It’s
my
house?”
“It is,” I smiled.
“No it’s not, Taryn. I want it to be
our
house.”
Neither of us said anything for a while. I wondered if he’d been feeling what I’d been feeling as we were looking at houses. Who was I kidding? I was house hunting
with
my
boyfriend
. How could it not feel like it was going to be a permanent situation?
We were still holding one another so I brought my lips to his and kissed him. The moment just seemed to speak to me, and I felt like my future had been
confirmed
. My heart felt so full that I couldn’t ignore it, and when Jared pulled back to smile at me he said, “I am the luckiest guy in the world.”
I honestly felt a little choked up at the moment. I don’t know if it was the happiness of the day, the house we were in, or that we had shared it all together, but it was meaningful to me and I knew it.
It was a total reassurance of my decision the night before.
“Jared…”
He waited for me to continue, but I couldn’t at first. After a few seconds he even tilted his head slightly with inquiry, but almost like he was worried. Finally he said, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
I kind of laughed and said, “Absolutely nothing. I’m just…I’m so happy with you, and to hear you say things like that…”
“Say things like what? How lucky I am? Well I guess luck probably isn’t the right word to use. Maybe blessed would be a better choice. But it’s true, Taryn. You complete my life, and I just
…feel like all of this is right.
”
“I love you, Jared,” I finally exhaled. “I love you so much and…and I
agree with you. It feels right. I
feel that this
should be our house together. But w
hat I’m
also
saying is that I don’t want to live here separately with you. I want all of it, all of this
,
with
you. I’m not living in this house if it can’t be that way.”
He stared at me at first, and then smiled with
surprise. “Taryn, are you sure
?”
“I’m so sure that you’d better agree before I send you to the doghouse for the first time.”
He laughed and gathered me in his arms at the same time. “Lady, I love you. I honestly didn’t think that I could be any happier than I already was.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him, just as Cassandra entered the room. Instead of
getting
embarrassed she said, “Ah, so this is why you two disappear for so long.”
Jared smiled and said, “How could I not with such an amazing girl. And since I want her to have this house, you can go ahead and get started on making it happen. Do what you need to, but if you have to match their asking price I’ll be completely broke.”
She smiled and left the room, but I guess I took his comment a little too seriously.
“I’m kidding,” he told me when he saw the look on my face. “But there is one thing I’m worried about…”
That caught my attention. “What is that?”
He paused for a bit, and I feared that it was something that would change everything. I was about to panic when he said, “Well, this whole time I’ve just been thinking about…”
“Thinking about what?”
“Okay, I’m gonna be completely honest here, okay? And if I totally screw this up, I’m really sorry and I hope you can just forget about it and we can go bac
k to the way things were before.
”
“Jared, what are you talking about?”
He took a deep breath and said, “Taryn, I
’m
so
in
love
with
you, and instead of y
ou being my live in girlfriend…
I’d rather
you be my wife. And with Maggie,
I just worry about the message we’ll be giving her. You know, you and me, living together and…” He sighed again. “I just prefer to make everything…I don’t know…
correct
.
Honorable.
To me that’s important, but you’re more important to me,
and
I want
you to be happy
…
”
“Did you say you want to get married? Are you asking me to marry you?”
He looked at me for a moment, and I know he was trying to read me. Finally he said, “Yes, I’m asking you to marry me, Taryn. I love you, and I love Maggie, and I want to have everything with you. I understand that you’ve got some things to work out, so that’s why I’m saying you should just think about it for now—”
“Yes, Jared. Yes
I will marry you. Yes, yes, yes.
”
I loved the look on his face, and I knew without a doubt that it was the right decision. I
was in
love
with
him, and
our
future
was with each other
. I had everything I wanted in him, and to be the person to make him so happy made
me
feel like the luckiest girl in the world.
No…
blessed
.
Chapter Thirty-Four
We left our future home (we hoped)
completely overjoyed
.
We spent the afternoon in San Francisco, visiting a couple
of
museums and sightseeing a little bit. The city wasn’t anything new to either of us, but exploring it together was different, and we checked out things that neither of us had really taken the time to see.
It was nice that Jared wasn’t recogn
ized when we were out and about
. He had on
faded
jeans and a
black jacket, and with a hat on and sunglasses he blended in with almost everyone
else meandering the streets.
However, he did get recognized when we went out to dinner that night. Everything we did was casual, but of course he left his hat and sunglasses in the car to go in the restaurant, and there were people
that spotted
him right away. He’d arranged for a private table for dinner, but first he spent
some time
indulging
a few
fans
that
presented themselves to him. He signed autographs and posed for
a few
pictures… He was very sweet and accommodating.
I was used to my role in these situations and I just stepped back and let him greet his fans. In a way it was fun to watch, especially because Jared was just a big sweetheart when
it came to interacting with people
. Many of them gushed over him in this way or that, or
told him very nice things
. He was genuinely appreciative of it all, but there was something about the way he would ask
them
a question or two that really
pleased
me. Instead of just saying, “Oh, cool,” when someone would recount w
hat show of his they’d attended
he would say, “Yeah? Who was with you?” or “Awesome, what’d you think of the opening band?” Or if someone mentioned anything about school, or sports, or anything…he would inquire more, like what school they went to, what grade they were in, or what their favorite sports team was. He
just genuinely cared about other people
.
“How old is Cameron?” he was now asking some lady. She had just told him that her son was a huge fan of his as he was signing an autograph for him.
I could tell she was a bit fascinated by her son’s idol
,
as well.
“He’s seventeen.
Biggest handful I’ve ever had,
but he has a good heart
.”
Jared kind of chuckled as he finished the message
he was writing for Cameron on an envelope from the lady’s purse
. “I was a punk at that age too.” He handed her the autograph and ad
ded, “Tell him to hang in there; he’s an important part of the world.
”
That seemed to please her, and before he could move on to his next admirer she said,
“He tried to catch you
at the Warfield to sign his CD
s, but I guess it’s impossible unless you have special passes or something?”
Jared nodded. “Yeah, pretty much. It gets kind of crazy otherwise.”
“Is there any other way he could meet you?”
I thought maybe Jared would politely
express regret
, but instead he said, “If he’s here in San Fran, get him over here. I’ll probably be here for the next hour or so.
If you don’t m
ind waiting for me in the lobby, I’ll make sure I say hi.
”
Okay, she was delighted, even though I knew Jared was trying to keep the conversation quiet so other people didn’t call their friends and family to head over
too
. As it was, I knew some of them had been on their phones excitedly anyway, along with cameras taking pictures and video most likely
rolling
.
But
Jared
acknowledged everyone that took the time to approach him, and when we finally made it to our table thirty minutes later, I was famished.
“Now you’re
gonna
have to feed me extra,” I teased him.
“I’m sorry, I just have a hard time—”
“It’s fine, hon. I’m just kidding. I’m glad you take the time to talk to people. It shows how much you care.”
“This is the best type of place to do it in because there aren’t hundreds of people.”
“Well there might be in an hour,” I smiled.
With a chuckle he said, “Possibly, but don’t you doubt my ability to strategize, Taryn.”
I guess I found out what he meant later on when he had the waiter seek out Cameron and his mom in the
lobby
, and then invited them to join us for dessert. I could tell the kid was completely blown away to be eating with Jared Miller, and I thought about my own brother and how much he looked up to him
,
as well. I was thankful for examples like him, especially when he expressed over and over to Cameron how many good people he knew that had messed up their lives because of drugs and alcohol.
“So you don’t ever party?” the kid asked him.
I smiled because I’d already heard Jared’s response to that question dozens of times.
“I
love
to party,” he replied. “But you can have one hell of a party with good people, good food, and a lot of dancing. Now that’s a party. Drugs and alcohol only ruin the
real
fun that can be had.”