55. House Of Dreams

Guys, I don't even know what to say. My world got crashed just as much as anyone else's. I haven't watched CPD for a couple of months now, simply because these senseless storylines and continuity errors frustrated me too much and when I watch a show I want to enjoy it, not having the urge to throw my cell against a wall afterwards. I've followed the things that happened anyway, to check whether it's worth to watch again, worth my time again and no matter how much I told myself I wouldn't watch it again in case Linstead aren't back together by the end of the season, I know I would've started to watch it again in S5 as soon as these two dorks were a thing again.

And now it feels like a slap in the face, that after four years, this is what remains from our beloved Linstead, that is how things end with a couple that was supposed to be endgame. I still can't believe it and I'm in complete shock and denial and could rant so much more as there are so many damn things I'm mad about but I just don't feel like ranting these days because what's the worth of it anyway?

I will, however, continue to write this story. It's somehow my safe place, my escape from reality and I met so many great people here and thanks to Linstead I was finally able to post something I scrawled down. I have so many more ideas to keep this bubble alive for a little longer and I would be happy if you guys stay with me and bring this story to a deserving end though I can totally understand if you can't read Linstead fics anymore now knowing that nothing of this will ever happen.

But no matter whether you stay or leave, I just want to say: thanks for all your support, it means the world to me!

One last thing: I don't know what's going with the notifications and whether you got notified about the latest chapter with the wedding dress but if you haven't I would recommend reading it before you read this one ;)

55. House Of Dreams

″Where do we go?″ Erin asked Jay on the following Sunday morning after lots of morning cuddles with Emilia in their big bed and enjoying a delicious breakfast consisting of Jay's homemade apple crisp pancakes, when they were on the way to their car. During breakfast he'd told her he needed to show her something, had a surprise for her, this surprise-thing slowly becoming a pattern. As she was a curious person this naturally drove her nuts, especially since he didn't want to reveal any further details.

″Wait and see,″ Jay grinned, giving her his standard answer to this question. He settled Emilia's car seat behind the driver's seat and sneaked into the front seat a minute later.

″Sometimes I really hate you,″ she chuckled and buckled her seatbelt.

″Naah, you don't,″ he answered, put the gear shift into drive and pulled out on the street.

″You know me too well, babe,″ she winked, slightly shaking her head. ″But still, I'm curious.″

″Don't I know it,″ Jay laughed, hoping that their banter, that was still alive from last night, would hide his nervousness. Because what was about to come was almost as huge as proposing to her had been in December.

During their drive, the only noise in the car came from the radio but it was a comfortable silence, curiosity filling the air. Erin was staring out of the window, trying to figure out where they were about to head. They drove along the Lake Shore drive for a minute, but of course she still had no clue about any possible destination that was a bit outside of the city because they could literally head anywhere from here. Maybe they would spend this beautiful, almost summerly day at another park a bit outside of the city but they hadn't taken the stroller, the baby carrier or anything else with them that contributed to this idea. And when they left the Lake Shore drive only a couple minutes later, her suspicion, that this wasn't a Sunday family trip out of town, got confirmed. It seemed like for whatever reason they were heading to the suburbs, maybe Beverly or Mount Greenwood she assumed. She hasn't been here often, only when it had to do with a crime and they had to notify the relatives of their victims. Which didn't happen often as this was one of the really nice family neighborhoods in Chicago with good schools and lots of green places with playgrounds and a low crime rate and barely any troubled kids.

″The suburbs?″ Erin asked in confusion, when she recognized they were indeed driving right to Beverly. What would they do in the suburbs on a Sunday morning? Her detective brain for sure wasn't working at it's best in the early hours of this sunny day.

″Looks like,″ Jay chuckled nervously and kept on driving on the main road before taking a few turns and ending up in a really nice residential neighborhood, far away from the busy streets, beautiful houses with green front gardens and trees lining the street. Kids were playing outside in front of the garages, shooting hoops or painting the driveway and sidewalk with cranyons.

It was only when Jay parked the car in front of one of the houses where no kids played in front that she was able to put and two together and her mind came up with two words instantly: house hunting. They had only occasionally talked about their plan of buying a house with a garden in the last few weeks and months, this dream having always been put in the back of their minds. With welcoming Emilia into their world and planning their wedding everything had been crazy enough and there hadn't been the time to really look into it and for now their apartment did a proper job as their home. It wasn't too big but it was enough for them. Nonetheless it seemed like Jay had indeed invested quite some time to look into possible new homes for them. In Beverly apparently, the neighborhood for young families. This man didn't do things by halves.

″So house hunting, huh?″ Erin asked and gazed out of the window to take a look at the house Jay'd apparently decided could be the one house they could live in in the future. And although she definitely liked what she saw, she couldn't help but feel somewhat taken by surprise.

″Uh-huh, I got a tip last week that there's a house for sale here and Emmy and I checked it out yesterday after the baby swimming class and thought it's worth showing you,″ Jay explained and reached for Erin's hand only to feel that she was quite tense. ″What do you think?″

Erin didn't answer immediately. The detached, two-story brick house was quite big, most probably even too big for them. It was beyond beautiful from the outside, seemed to be newly built or at least completely renovated not long ago, huge white casement windows covering the fascade. It was surrounded by a garden, a double garage and driveway on the left side, attached to the house, a neat frontyard with a little tree and colorful flowers leading the way up the stairs to the porch and the white wooden front door. It was kinda scary but it was exactly what she's been dreaming of. Only that it was too big for them in her opinion.

″It's big,″ she stated honestly and turned her head to him, giving him an insecure smile. ″I mean, it's beautiful. But it's big.″

″Yeah, you know, five bedrooms need quite some space,″ he winked, trying to convince her from the benefits as he could totally see the doubts in her face.

″Five bedrooms?!″ she echoed, her eyes widening in disbelief. Her fiancé was apparently out of his mind when he thought they needed that much space. ″That's ridiculous Jay, we sure as hell don't need five bedrooms.″

″Well, we need one for us and Emmy needs one. Then we could use one as a guest room and one as a man cave for me, you know, with a 65-inch-flatscreen,″ he smirked and even got a smile in return from her. Over the last few months since he'd moved in, he's driven her nuts with buying a bigger TV so watching his beloved sports as in soccer, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, football and all the other stuff he liked to watch, would get even more enjoyable.

″And the fifth one we'll maybe need one day for Halstead number two,″ he winked smilingly, more jokingly than anything else, but the moment he'd spoken these words out loud, he knew his joke had fallen flat and that it had been the complete wrong thing to say. Erin sucked in a sharp breath, the tension in her hand making a comeback, her face full of incomprehension and anxiety.

Well done, statement of the year, Jay thought, having the urge to punch himself for his own stupidity. Sometimes he still couldn't believe they'd made it to that point where they were right now and yet he'd just took her unawares by blurting his thoughts about a second child out in front of her, like it was nothing, not a big deal. It had indeed just been a joke but he should've known better than joking about such a delicate subject. And he couldn't disown the fact that the tone of his voice had maybe been a bit too serious for it being just a joke, a bit of wishful thinking mixed into it. Sometimes I should just shut the fuck up or think before I speak, he thought but too much anticipation had probably overcome him here.

″Huh,″ Erin only shrugged in response because she honestly didn't know what to answer. This statement had caught her off guard in various ways. They haven't talked about a second child yet. Naturally, as their daughter was only three-and-a-half months old and adding another one to their brood was the very last thing on her mind as they were still adjusting to their new life although they loved everything about it. Having Emilia was enough for her. She was grateful for what they had and her life was as perfect as never before. She wasn't sure whether having a second at some point was it for her although she loved being a mother, although being a mother fulfilled her in a way she never thought it would.

″Don't you want to have a second child at some point?″ Jay asked and tried to make it sound light, suited to the joke before. Now that he'd blurted it out like this he could and should simply ask her as it was too late to take anything back anyway though a conversation about the future has definitely not been his mission of the day. But now he somehow had to pay the prize for a typical speaking-before-thinking-accident.

Erin sensed immediately that adding another one to the mix was very much on his agenda, no matter that he'd said it jokingly. Some truth was almost always behind such a statement. So she tried to choose her words advisedly as she didn't want to hurt him.

″I don't know Jay. Emilia is just three months old and she's my priority...-″ she started to explain, not looking at him while doing so.

″Hey babe, I didn't say: let's go home and make another baby,″ he answered understandingly, trying to lighten the mood somehow, tracing light circles into the palm of her rigid hand with his fingers. ″But maybe one day...″

″Jay I can't promise you something like this. Maybe one day, yeah, but as of right now I more tend to maybe not. I'm grateful for what we have and I feel like I'm complete. We're complete.″ She tried to keep her voice low and fought against the urge to snap at him for somehow presenting her with a fait accompli. She didn't want to spend the rare time she had with him with arguing and fighting. But it literally took her all her self-control to keep her tone friendly.

″Okay,″ Jay answered and squeezed her hand. He didn't want to put up a fight over this because it hadn't been the smartest move to burst something like this out jokingly in front of her instead of talking about it with her when the time was right, a couple of years down the road. But when he'd seen the house and all the rooms for the first time yesterday he'd indeed imagined that two kids would one day run through the backyard. Because in his mind Emilia wasn't going to stay an only child if possible. But this was not his decision to make. It was something they should one day decide together and he'd completely overstrained her by giving her the impression that he'd already planned their future without asking her about how she imagined their forever. ″I'm sorry,″ he murmured.

″No, I'm sorry,″ she sighed and finally looked him in the eyes again. ″Can we decide that we both keep an open mind on both options?″

″Of course,″ Jay nodded and moved his hand up to her face to cup her cheek.

Erin inhaled another deep breath and Jay knew there was more to come, more she had on her chest, that she wasn't convinced yet, the doubtful look on her face telling him all he needed to know. "Jay, are we really on the same page about that? About our future? Because if not, I don't know whether anything of this makes sense..." she said quietly, looking at the house and then down to her engagement ring, her voice trailing off towards the end.

Jay's heart sunk to his knees by her words. This had not been his intention, hell this wasn't what his words should've triggered in her, that she started to call certain things into question again, particularly them.

"Babe, you and Emmy are everything I need in my life and whatever the future holds for us, another child or maybe just a dog or staying just the three of us, we're facing it together. It wasn't my intention to take you by surpise, to pressure you. It was just some sort of joke. One that fell flat," he apologized. "This life is more than I ever could've dreamed of and I don't need anything else but you and Emmy to be happy, Erin, and I know you know that,″ he said honestly, his voice emotionally affected.

Of course she knew. "I know," she told him, nodding her head slightly, finally looking at him again. ″And just so you know, it's not that I'm completely against the idea of having another child with you somewhen in the future, Jay. You're the greatest and best father and every child that is allowed to call you daddy is blessed beyond limits. Seeing you with Emmy gets me every single time and you are truly made to be a dad,″ she said and offered him a weak smile. ″It's just that I can't imagine having more than one, that I don't feel like I can handle more than one, that I don't feel like I want more than one. Right now. And I can't promise you whether this will change two or three years from now. That's why I want to make sure that we're okay. But I'll keep an open mind and we'll see what the future holds for us.″

″So do I,″ he agreed and brushed a short, apologizing kiss against her lips. Averted disaster last-minute. It was time for a change of topic, they were here for other reasons after all. ″Do you want to take a look inside the house anyway? I honestly think you'll love it.″

Of course she would love it, she knew it already. Jay wouldn't show her a house when he wasn't completely sure she would like it. He wouldn't show her a house he wasn't positive about himself. But there was still the fact that it was big and there was no doubt on her mind that this house was going to cost a fortune. They could simply look for a smaller house with only 3 bedrooms or 4 at the maximum, one that was more their size and therefore more affordable.

″Can we even afford that?″ she asked him. Regardless the size and only from seeing it from the outside, this house had the potential to be their house of dreams so she wanted to make sure that it was possible for them to buy it before she would go in and fall completely in love with it. And there were quite some doubts on her mind that such a house in such a neighborhood was affordable for them. It wasn't her plan to pay a loan back for the rest of their lives after all.

She knew Jay had quite some savings back from the days when he'd been on duty in Afghanistan multiple times, earning good money without actually needing it overseas in a war zone. Plus his share of his mother's heritage, which wasn't much but still a little amount they could use. Although his mother had died thinking he was dead he'd been a legal heir because she'd already been too sick to change her testament. From his grandfather he'd inherited the cabin in Wisconsin while his money had been split between Will, Izzie and Nick. She herself had started saving money again after her sabbatical and they had their apartment they could sell to pay the old mortgage off and using the rest of the proceeds as equity capital as well. But regardless that they in fact had a bit of equity capital, she sensed that they were not anywhere near of having enough that would keep them from having to pay off the mortgage for this house for the next forty years.

″Do you think I would show you a house we actually can't afford?″ he asked back with the softest of voices, hearing the obvious doubt in her voice. ″Let's get out of the car, let's walk up to the porch and I'll tell you a couple more details before we go in. I know you want to see it,″ he smirked.

″I do actually,″ she grinned faintly, a soft nod signalising him that she was in although she still wasn't entirely conviced that they had the money to make this place their home.

″Okay, then come on,″ Jay smiled, opened his door to get out of the car, took the car seat from the backseat and intertwined his hand with Erin's, that was still too tense for his liking, when they made their way through the frontyard, the sweet smell of spring surrounding them.

″So, as you see this is a relatively new neighborhood and I guess the most special thing about this house is, we would be the first to live in it,″ he said, earning the most confused glance from Erin, just as he'd expected. ″A couple built it for their family of four not long ago but the father got a job offer from overseas before they moved in. That kind of job offer you only get once in a lifetime and doesn't make you think twice, even when you just built a house. This means there's no need for any renovations, just painting some rooms maybe. The family will move to Switzerland in the next eight weeks and they really just want to sell it to the right people that value it truly and make it a special place. To cut a long story short, I made quite the impression on them and maybe our super adorable daughter contributed to it just as much,″ he chuckled shortly before he continued, ″and a police officer once saved their daughter's life, so they kinda have a thing for first responders and were very impressed with both of us bringing justice to this city every day. And they would indeed sell it to us in case we want it as they think we are the right people. For a very reasonable prize that still requires quite the mortgage but is nonetheless significantly lower than what you would usually pay for a house that size in this neighborhood.″

″Quite some people you made an impression on yesterday, huh?″ Erin chuckled and raised her eyebrows. Her usual flirty demeanour seemed to make a comeback. Thank God.

″Yeah, I kinda nailed it yesterday,″ he smirked proudly. ″Surprised?″

″Not really,″ she laughed and Jay was glad the tension between them seemed to slowly fade. They reached the front door and Erin tried to catch a glimpse through the big windows and to see what laid behind them.

″You want to take a real look inside?″ Jay asked her expectantly, sensing that he had almost convinced her in at least actually going inside. And there was still one thing she didn't know yet but this was his trump card in case she still wasn't convinced after seeing the house from the inside. Because he sensed she would indeed fall in love with this house once she was inside, he knew his woman after all, but she'd maybe still struggle about what buying a house really meant for them, the responsibility that came with it probably overstraining her, because yeah, he knew his woman.

″I guess so, yeah,″ Erin smiled faintly. She already had the feeling that she would like whatever was behind that door and she tried to keep her excitement low because the thought of buying a house, of paying such a giant mortgage back kinda freaked her out.

″Okay,″ Jay nodded, pulled a key out of the pockets of his jeans and unlocked the front door a moment later.

They stepped inside a quite big, light hall, the steps to the upper level on the left, and Jay started to show her around. The first room they went into was the light-flooded kitchen with a cooking island and white cabinets and a granite top and a dark wooden floor. The kitchen was quite big, especially compared to what they had right now, and as it was an open kitchen, they could directly go to the huge, open dining and living room that was connected. The light shined through the many giant casement windows and on the wall that was the backfront of the house, next to the windows, was a French window that lead the way to the patio which was surrounded by a beautiful garden with the greenest grass, some flowers and a maple tree. They walked outside, took the few steps down from the patio and when they stood in the middle of their possible garden, Erin could totally imagine how they would have a sandbox in the shade of the tree, a swing set on the other end of the garden as well as a kiddie pool during the hot Chicago summers and maybe even a trampoline at some point. Not to forget a basketball hoop for Jay. It seemed to be so peaceful here, no noises from the city, just the birds chirping and some kids laughing in the neighborhood and Erin could absolutely envision how their life here would look like, the word perfection not doing her visions justice. And maybe, for a second, she could understand why Jay'd mentioned a second child because she sensed to know to which place his mind had traveled yesterday when he'd been here for the first time.

After enjoying some moments outside, they went back inside and Jay showed her another room on this floor, a possible guest room or the man cave he dreamed of, and a small bathroom before they took a look at the garages and the basement with the laundry room, the pantry and another big room with a carpeted floor they could use as a storeroom for various things as the house had only a small attic. The last rooms he showed her were the four remaining bedrooms upstairs and another bathroom, all of the rooms having roof slopes which was pretty neat and charming. Every bedroom was quite big, just as light-flooded as the rooms downstairs, the beautiful dark wood covering the floors as well. The master bedroom had a seperate bathroom with both, a big tub and a shower with dual steam heads that let Erin's mind go places, and it even had an access to another small balcony that also faced the garden. There was no doubt on Erin's mind that this house was worth every penny because it was modern, charming, new, beautiful and perfect and indeed her house of dreams.

″What do you think?″ Jay finally asked her after showing her every detail of the house when they were still standing in the master bedroom, the last room he'd shown her.

″I love it. It's perfect,″ she answered honestly but there was still something that held her back from being completely enthusiastic. The thought about buying a house, this house, scared the crap out of her. Could they handle all the responsibilities that came with it? Could they make it work, out here in the suburbs? Shouldn't they simply cherish the life they lived in their cozy apartment instead of aiming for something as huge as a house in the outskirts? All these questions swirled through her head though deep down inside she knew the answers to all her questions: they could handle anything. As long as they had each other. ″But it's too big for us, Jay. Who's even going to keep that house clean for example?″

″You have a pretty good house husband, don't you remember?″ he chuckled softly, being kinda relieved that cleaning problems seemed to be her only sorrows by now. How wrong he was though. He needed to buckle down a bit more here. ″It'll be a bit more work for us, but you and me, we'll get it handled. It's not your burden to keep this house clean, Er. It's ours.″

″Huh,″ she shrugged but had to grin a little nonetheless because this statement was so much Jay and she knew he would even clean this house after an endless and exhausting day at work just that she didn't have to do it all by herself. Given that he didn't have to work through the better part of night like he's had to quite often during the last couple of weeks. "What about the spare bedrooms? We don't need five rooms," she stated once more.

″It's always advantageous to have a guest room, you know, when Liv and Noah visit us or Michael and Susan," he said, trying to convince he from the benefits, bringing his ideas up again.

"Yeah well, that's true," she smiled, imagining that Liv and Noah or Michael and Susan could maybe visit them more often in the future in case they would buy this huge house. "I guess I'm okay with the guest room. But it makes two left anyway..."

"My man cave...," he winked smilingly. "You know I could have that 65-inch-flatscreen and I could paint the Cubs or the Hawks or the Bulls or the Bears logo on the wall, or maybe all of them," he chuckled and his eyes sparkled excitedly. "A playstation for when Adam and Kevin come over or Will, a dartboard, a foosball table, you know, all that stuff you wouldn't let me have in any other room," he smirked boyishly.

"That means you'll watch sports in your man cave in the future while I watch TV in the living room? So you're basically trading me for your man cave?" she noticed in mock offence, the joke in her voice thankfully being evident. She wasn't exactly super excited about his ideas of making one of the rooms his man cave as their time they could enjoy as a couple was limited anyway, so she didn't really want him to be in another room in the evenings he actually was at home. But how could she possibly deny him something when he stood in front of her, looking like a kid in candystore while talking about the vision of his little paradise?

"Kind of," Jay teased her and pulled her into his embrace, looking down into her hazel eyes with endless love. "But you'll be the only woman that is allowed to set foot in there."

"Wooow," Erin laughed. "Now I feel special."

"You should," he murmured, pecking her lips shortly and slapping his hand across her backside. "A lot of things can happen in a man cave, you know?" he added huskily, Erin getting the message instantly, her cheeks blushing a little. God, what was going on with them since yesterday evening? Their sexual tension was insane, possibly the result of not having had too much time for intimate moments for too long.

"Uh-huh," she nodded eagerly, heat still crawling up in her body, so she cleared her throat to gather herself before speaking. "Well, then a man cave for my man. That makes still one room left, right?" she asked. In her opinion one room wasted in case they never needed another nursery. And in case they ever needed an additional nursery they could easily transform one of the other two rooms into a one, so they still didn't need five bedrooms.

Of course Jay came up with another idea, because what else. He was a man with a plan. "What if Emilia gets a bedroom and a playroom? You know, one room with the crib, the changing table, her closets, the rocking chair, the baby mat and only a few toys and some stuffies and one room with all of her toys, almost like her own indoor playground?″

″We're definitely not going to spoil our daughter in such a way as giving her two rooms, Jay Halstead!″ she called incredulously, her finger poking into his chest. She knew Emilia was Jay's princess but this would just overdo things immensely. ″There's no way our daughter's going to be some spoiled princess! She will grow up down to earth, cherishing the things she has,″ she added, her voice as strict as she meant it.

″She will,″ Jay answered calmingly. ″You and I will make sure of that. But wouldn't it be amazing, if we didn't have to tidy up her nursery every evening and put all her toys in boxes so we don't fall over them in case she needs us during the night? Wouldn't it be awesome if she had a room where it doesn't matter that her toys are spread all over the floor? A room we only have to tidy up every couple of weeks?″ he asked her, a winning smile rushing over his face because he knew with this argument he had her on his side. Every room Erin could leave messy or had to tidy up less was a great one for her.

″That's actually pretty smart,″ Erin admitted and a grin spread across her face. One room less to tidy up was indeed beyond attractive, so this was definitely his victory.

″I know,″ Jay smirked, looking at her somewhat expectantly. ″So?″

Erin gazed around the room again. She loved this house and she could envision their settled family life here, but still, buying this house was huge and it filled her with a bit of anxiety. "Do we even fit into this neighborhood, Jay?" she asked, her voice suddenly being a tad bit insecure instead of teasing. "I mean, surely all the moms here are stay-at-home moms who always meet in one of their nice gardens in the mornings to drink coffee and chitchat about others and let their kids play together. Moms who have all the time to plant their neat frontyards and prepare dinner for their husbands. But I'm a working mom and...-" she sighed.

"And it's great that you are, Erin," he assured her instantly. "Each their own. They can do what they want, what's best for them and we can do what we want, what's best for us. None of their business how we're living our life and anyway, since when do we care about what other people think?"

"I do...sometimes," she shrugged.

"Yeah, sometimes I do, too. But not in this case," he answered honestly. "So?" he asked her again.

″I don't know,″ she said, not exactly the answer he's been waiting for one he'd somehow expected. This was a huge responsibility and she was possibly scared that they were rushing things, however definitely scared of the responsibility. Usually he would give her time to think about it properly, would not pressure her, but this house was available now and for sure not for too long and it was the house of his dreams and if they didn't take it, they would compare all the houses, they would look into in the future, to this one and finding one they liked would literally become impossible. Because this was it.

″It's the house of my dreams...-″ Erin interrupted his thoughts and he smiled by her statement, confirming that she loved the house as much as he did. Nonetheless he knew she needed one last push to overcome her insecurity whether this was the right choice, the right move.

″It's mine as well. And this is a chance we'll never get again,″ he said softly, pulling his phone out of his pocket to type a short message. Erin gave him a somewhat confused glance before he put it back into the pocket of his jeans again.

″You remember how I told you the most special thing about the house is that we're the first to live in?″ he asked her before she could ask him what this had been about.

″Yeah,″ Erin nodded slowly. Now he definitely has got her confused.

″Well, that wasn't quite the truth,″ he smirked, ″because there's one thing about this house that's even more special.″

If he's now telling me he already bought it, I'm going to kill him, Erin thought. She hated it when people went over her head and that he had looked into houses without asking her whether now was the right time and had detailed plans about their future has been enough already. The fact that she hadn't freaked out about it was nothing short of a miracle because in earlier days she would've given him a piece of her mind for sure.

″Is there?″ she asked anxiously, hoping that her fiancé wouldn't give her a reason to freak out completely. Or actually kill him.

″Yep, save the best for last,″ he smirked and pushed her towards the French window and out on the balcony. Before Erin could ask what they were doing here, he whispered into her ear from behind: ″I know the neighbors.″

He grabbed her shoulders softly and turned her to the left and Erin couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Justin with Daniel and a heavily pregnant Olive standing on the balcony of the house next to them.

″No way,″ she called, being completely perplex. This was something she definitely hadn't been expecting. She'd indeed needed a little push to overcome the rest of her doubts but this was the biggest push possible. ″You guys are going to buy that house and moving in there?″

″You bet,″ Justin laughed. ″Bought it already. Guess who gave Jay the tip about the house on which balcony you're standing right now.″

"I didn't look into houses, it was the last thing on my mind to be honest. But at your birthday I talked about the possibility of buying a house somewhen with Justin and last week he called me, telling me about their new house and about the house for sale right next to them. We thought you'd love it and we liked the idea as well," Jay explained from behind.

″Wow,″ Erin mumbled as words failed her and shook her head in disbelief. Justin had told Jay about a possible house for them. Justin wanted Jay to be his neighbor. What was going on here? And much more, they could move into their house of dreams, they would live right next door to her little brother and Emilia, Daniel and Henry could all grow up together. It couldn't get any more perfect than this, regardless that this house had too many rooms they would waste with a man cave and whatever else, regardless the responsibility. This was too perfect to be true and Jay hadn't gone over her head by looking for houses without telling her or asking her. It was a simple, perfect coincidence, possibly exactly meant to be like this.

″You down?″ he whispered into her ear, knowing the answer already.

She startled from her daze, from her daydreams about the three cousins growing up together and spun around, her eyes sparkling joyfully, the softest of smiles surrounding her perfect face.

She brushed her lips against his lips. ″I'm down.″

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review and let me know what you think :)