Off The Market (3 page)

ETTA

Two amazing sexual trysts within an hour of each other, I couldn't believe my luck. It was like something out of a dream, or a really good romance novel. I had to pinch myself to make sure it was real.

Andrew now leaned against my desk with his magnificent upper body still bare and his rock hard abs glistening underneath the fluorescent lights of my office. Normally, I would find a sweaty guy disgusting, but the way his body glistened it was like he was a Greek god and made me want to jump him. It took everything I had to finish the last of my paperwork for the offer on the house instead of staring at the way his hip bones looked and
following them down to the top of his faded blue jeans.

"Okay, Andrew, I've filled out all the paperwork for the offer and all I need you to do is sign your X on the line," I said, pointing a pen at the line on the freshly printed piece of paper.

"How about," Andrew started, meeting my gaze with his bedroom eyes. My legs instantly turned to gelatin just from his gaze. "We put two signatures on this line, one for me and one for you."

I blinked once
, then twice. I didn’t think he could be serious. Did he mean what I thought he meant?

"Beg your pardon?" I asked.

A large grin spread across his lips, softening the face that moments ago was buried in my chest. "I mean that we should move into that house together."

He walked around the desk, pulling me up and out of my cha
ir so that I was facing him. His lean body towered over me and my legs were shaking from more than just his eyes at that point. "Think about it, Etta. I could do all of the structural work and you could help me decorate and do cosmetic work. I know you love decorating and I’d even find a place to get all of your romance books out of the office.” His eyes lit up like a kid that saw his gifts on Christmas morning.

"It can be our home, what do you say?" he asked.

I fluttered my eyelashes, looking up and then down before biting my bottom lip. "I don't know, Andrew, we just got back together. And I’m not even sure what this together is. How do we know it's going to work? You are kind of putting your ex on the line here. And I'm speaking in terms of girlfriend, not the symbol."

Andrew

I took a deep breath. Moments before Etta was whispering that she loved me and now that moment was gone. I had to get it back. The only way I could ever imagine living in my old home was with Etta by my side, bringing it back the life it used to have. The moment she opened the door and I saw her standing in the foyer, that was the moment I knew that I wanted to see her in it every single day. That her and the house were a package deal and I wanted them both.

I put my fingers under her chin, forcing her beautiful eyes up to mine. There was a look to them that I had only seen once before. It was a mixture of confusion and sadness. The same look she had when she broke up with me before leaving for college. I didn’t want that happen again. I
didn’t want to lose her. "How about I give you some time to think about it? But for now, since you kind of burst my bubble, you can join me at my parents’ house for Christmas Eve dinner?"

"Your parents?" Etta asked, her eyes growing wide.

"Yes, my parents. It would make me the happiest man in the world if you would join me. If you won't commit to buying their old home, the least you can do is join me for dinner with them."

She took a big gulp and then slowly nodded. "Okay, Andrew, I'll go with you."

I moved my hand from her chin, letting it fall flat at my side. "Really?"

"Really," Etta agreed.

I grinned and laced our fingers together. “Let’s go.”

ETTA

Sometim
e after high school the Lawsons sold their old home and moved into a condo closer to the city. Less maintenance for the mister to deal with was what I guessed. I still couldn't believe that not only had I rekindled my romance with Andrew, but now he was asking me to move in with him. After only a few hours of seeing each other again!

I couldn’t deny that I still loved him. I wondered if I ever really stopped. Can you ever just stop loving someone?
Watching him with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on my knee as he drove down the curvy Missouri roads to his parents’ condo was pure bliss. It was better than any movie or reading any romance novel. I was now living the story of all the romance novels. The one that got away was back. I wouldn’t want to put down this real story forever.

But I was nervous. I
never lived with another man, besides my dad, but he didn't count. This was something that was real, with a man I had loved since the first day I met him. I didn't want to ruin anything. I was so afraid when I whispered it while we were in the middle of sexual throes that he would forget about it. Ignore it and just move on. Then he said it back. He loved me too. And wanted me to move in with him.

"I guess I better call my sister and let her know that I'll be late coming home tonight,"
I said, staring down at my cell phone with several missed call notifications glaring at me.

"Are you living with Missy now?" Andrew asked.

It should have been an easy question for me to answer, but I always hated to talk about it. I hated to admit that even though I found myself doing well in the falling real estate market, I couldn't bring myself to buy a house of my own. I couldn’t even rent my own apartment. Andrew's offer was the first time I ever even considered something other than my current living situation.

"
Actually, I’m living at my parents’ for now," I answered quickly and typed my sister's number, pressing the send button. I could have just sent a text, but I didn’t want my brother-in-law to be the one to answer and she would probably just keep calling anyway.

"Etta, where the hell have you been? You better have sold a house because otherwise the
re is no excuse for not calling." Missy's voice rang from the other end of the phone. My older sister wasn't known for being quiet. She also had to yell over the sound of a baby crying, a toddler begging not to go to bed, and her husband's television.

"I did sort of sell a house, well I got an offer put in
on the old Lawson house, from Andrew Lawson himself," I said, looking directly at Andrew's gorgeous smile. He kept his eyes on the road ahead, but I knew that’s not where his focus was. Especially the way his fingers climbed up my thigh.

"Seriously?" Missy squealed at the other end. "How does he look? Is he still as good looking as he was when you two dated? I bet he's even better looking since he's been doing all that construction."

ANDREW

I couldn’t help but laugh. I
wasn't expecting to be able to hear Missy through the phone, but I shouldn't have doubted being able to hear the older sister with a lack of volume control.

"Yes, he is quite handsome," Etta said and glanced over at
me. I noticed her cheeks had turned a rosy pink and I would bet it wasn't from the cold temperature. “And I am joining his family for Christmas Eve dinner, so I will see you afterward. Don’t wait up." Her eyes briefly flitted to mine at that last part and I squeezed harder on her thigh, feeling the bulge in my pants grow. God her eyes had a way of getting to me.

After a few more squeals Etta hung up the phone and turned her attention back to
me. "Sorry about that, you know how Missy is."

I
took Etta's hand, bringing it up to my lips, and grazed them along her knuckles. "I know and don't worry. I don't mind you telling your sister that you are having dinner with your handsome ex-boyfriend and his family."

Sh
e laughed, playfully shoving my shoulder. Her laugh was contagious and I couldn't help but reciprocate. It was just like she had never left and things never changed between us. All those Christmases we spent together, even as kids when we would sit in my living room, staring out the big picture window and hoping we could catch a glimpse of Santa Claus. Hopefully we could keep the flame of the old Christmas magic burning through the night and into the next year and hopefully, if I was lucky, the rest of our lives.

ETTA

Andrew pulled his truck into a tree-lined neighborhood filled with rows and rows of condos that all looked the same on the outside, but I could have spotted the Lawsons’ from a mile away, even though I had never been there. Mr. Lawson was notorious for his lights display and in the neighborhood their home shone the brightest with lights of all different colors strung along the side of the house and a giant Santa in a Technicolor sleigh waved from the rooftop.

"It looks just like the house did on Pine H
ill," I squealed, staring at the bright wonder.

"Yeah, Dad's not supposed to be doing all of that, but every time we tell him not to it just gets him even more motivated to do it," Andrew said, a smile still on his face like he was speaking about a small child.

Andrew parked in the driveway and let me loop my arm in his as we made our way down the freshly shoveled path to the front door to be greeted by a giant wreath that smelled of pine and cinnamon.

Mrs. Lawson opened the front door and looked like she hadn’t aged a day
; a little on the heavy side, big brown curly hair, and a smile that could light up the whole room.

"Etta Davis, is that you?" she said in her slight southern accent, opening the door so
we could glide past her.

I shrugged off my jacket and shoes
. Andrew took my coat and hung it on a nearby rack next to his. Like that’s where they belonged. Together. "Yes, Mrs. Lawson, it's good to see you."

"Oh my Lord, this really is a holy night!
" She threw her arms around me, pulling me tightly against her scratchy red sweater. The hug may have been tight, but it felt like coming home to me and I relished every minute of the woman who I loved almost as much as my own mother.

"Did I hear right? Is that Etta Davis?"

Mrs. Lawson let go of me and I turned to see Mr. Lawson coming down the staircase that trailed up from the foyer. He looked a lot like Andrew, except quite a bit older and without the body that Andrew had accumulated. I smiled remembering all the mothers in the neighborhood used to love to watch Mr. Lawson do yard work, but he never looked back, he only had eyes for the Mrs.

"Yes, Mr. Laws
on, it's been a long time." I smiled at him before he wrapped me in a big hug of his own.

"It's been a very long time. What finally brings you
here?" Mr. Lawson let go of me, but still kept his soft blue eyes on me.

"Well, Dad," Andrew started. "Etta is now in real estate an
d was showing me our old house in Pine Hill."

"Really now?" Andrew's dad crossed his arms over his barrel of a chest.

Andrew nodded, placing an arm around me and pulling me close to his side. "I'm thinking of possibly buying the place, fixing it back up to the way it used to look. I think I can do it."

"Well that's wonderful news!" Mrs. Lawson clasped her hands together. "Come, come, let's get into the living room and we will pour some champagne to celebrate!"

ANDREW

It was like we had never broken up. I watched as Etta sat near my dad, laughing at his ridiculous stories that probably never happened, but she humored him anyway. She always smiled and acted very surprised that he could lift an entire house up from its foundation all by himself. (He couldn’t. But it was his favorite story to tell people. I think he lifted the door frame and declared it a miracle). I loved the way Etta's eyes shone as she listened with great attentiveness and how my parents looked at her lovingly and told her how much they missed her too.

This was what I wanted in a future. I wanted to spend every Christmas for the rest of my life with Etta listening to my father's outlandish tales and my mother pouring her glass after glass of her famous egg
nog. Just like the Christmases all those years we spent together. Etta was my own Christmas angel, brighter than the one on top of my family Christmas tree.

"So are you two back to being an item?" Mom asked. Obviously someone had spiked the punch or
Mom was getting braver as the night went on. I didn’t know the best way to answer. I wanted to say that we were, but I didn’t want to jump the gun. She seemed unsure about moving in together, so I wanted to see how she would answer my mother.

I felt my face get hot and I had to take a sip of my punch. Hoping maybe Etta would just think I was
warming up from the fire my dad kept replenishing. Even though it was a blunt question, I still saw a small smile creep on Etta’s lips. My mother always had a way of bringing things out in the open and I was glad that someone asked it. I wanted to know myself.

"I'd like to hope so," Etta
said, taking my hand and squeezing it lightly. Her tiny hands fit so perfectly in mine. Like they were made for each other.

"He could use a girl like you,"
Mom said, pointing a wrinkled finger in her direction. "He needs someone to settle him down. All he ever does is work, work, work. He needs time for play."

I squeezed Etta’s hand gently
. Little did my parents know how much playing we’d just done. I knew that Etta must have been thinking the same thing the way a small blush crept up her neck and dotted her cheeks. It made her smile shine even brighter and I had to look away so that I wouldn’t get even more turned on. The old house and the office were one thing, but there was no way I could get away from my parents that easy.

Despite how much I was turned on and couldn’t do anything about it, I
loved everything about the moment: the large, flocked Christmas tree shining its bright lights over the room, the way my parents smiled with genuine happiness, and the fact that I had Etta sitting back next to me. It was like coming home again and I hoped we would be able to have more nights like this. I hoped to spend every Christmas with her in our new home in Pine Hill.