Shattered Girl (Emmy)

“Up or down?” I asked, stopping at the staircase,

“Let’s go up and check out the bedrooms, then see what’s downstairs,” Jake suggested. With that, we headed upstairs to the main bedroom.

“Damn,” I said as we walked into the large bedroom. The bedroom was quickly three times the size of the one at the lake house. This room is big enough to get one of the beds I’m always reading about on my e–reader, 1 grinned.

“Oh, and what kind of bed is that?” Josh asked.

“One that’s big enough for all of us. Like when we put the mattresses together at the lake house, but only more comfortably, and there will still be enough room for dressers. And look over there; that’s the perfect spot to set up a reading nook.” To the guys amusement, I was hurrying from one part of the room to another, pointing out where I would put things.

“She reminds me of a kid on Christmas morning, Mike said as the others laughed, but I ignored them, excited to explore.

“Oh, my, God,” I shrieked. There were two separate bathrooms. The bathrooms also had two massive walk–in closets with shelving and built–in shoe racks. I ran back to the bedroom and motioned for the guys to follow me, and they all trooped after me, making appropriate sounds of approval as I pointed out what I was the most excited about

We left the main bedroom and walked down the hallway to the rest of the rooms. They were all large with attached bathrooms, and we would only need to repaint one of them. It must have belonged to a child because it was pink with a rainbow mural on one wall. We began making our way back downstairs, and when we got to the bottom floor, the guys perked up. There was a good–sized room full of gym equipment and a changing room complete with showers. There was also a theater room with an old–fashioned popcom popper and a large mud room with a door that led to the backyard.

do you think?” I asked the others once we had looked at everything. All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.

“What

k there is plenty of room for us. The only problem I see is that the laundry room is down here.”

“I like it,” Drew said immediately. I think t

“I think I saw some hookups in the garage, Mike said. “It would be better than walking up and down three flights of stairs with laundry baskets.

“I think that could work. Let’s look into it,” I said. We returned to the main floor and gave it one more look before heading outside. As soon as we opened the door, Susan, the realtor, came hurrying toward us, smiling. When she tried to lay her hand on Patrick’s arm, he took a step away from her.

“Thank you for unlocking the house for us. We will be in touch once we decide what to do, Patrick told her, trying to keep his voice neutral. With that, we turned as a group and made our way back to the SUV.

“Patrick, wait,” the realtor called after us. We all ignored her as we climbed back into the SUV. I stopped just as Patrick was helping me into the car and kissed him deeply. He returned the kiss with equal heat, and I giggled when he turned after helping me up. We all could see the sour expression on the realtor’s face, and when Patrick climbed back into the driver’s seat, Josh slapped him on the back, chuckling.

“I can’t stand that woman; she’s the same age as my mother. I don’t know what she is thinking, Patrick complains, shuddering. “You can bet I’m going to say something to my mom this time; she was completely unprofessional and inappropriate today, I don’t want her to recommend that woman when she acts like that with ellents.

“Now, where are we going?” I asked as we pulled back onto the main road.

we got into town, Patrick

“I was thinking about heading into town and grabbing some lunch, Patrick said, and the rest of us quickly agreed. When we got in drove down the main street, and we checked out our options.

That place looks pretty good, Jake said, pointing at a local pizza place advertising a lunch special.

“We can keep that in mind. Let’s drive to the end of the street and see if anything else sounds good. We passed some fast food drive–throughs, a Chinese restaurant, and a family diner before coming to the end of the street. As Patrick found a place for us to turn around, the others began debating where to eat. I just sat back, waiting to see if they would come to a decision. After several minutes I was pulled into the debate and sided with lake saying the pizza place sounded good.

Patrick found a parking place about a block from the restaurant, and we all climbed out and walked up the street. We got a few looks, but I ignored them, and no one said anything. We walked into the restaurant and stopped at the podium. A waitress walking by with a pizza tray told us to sit wherever, and someone would be right with us. We found a booth big enough for all of us, and an older woman came by a few minutes later, passing out

As I looked through the options, I realized this place had a lot more than just pizza, and I was having trouble deciding between pizza or one of the

homemade pasta dishes. A few minutes later, the waitress returned with a pitcher of iced water and glasses and asked if we were ready to order. We all

nodded, and Drew began by ordering a meatball sandwich. The twins got pizza, and Mike and Patrick chose lasagna when she looked at me and

panicked for a minute, still trying to decide.

Love, you can try some of my pasta if you want pizza, Patrick offered. I nodded thanks and ordered pizza, only blushing slightly as the waitress promised our food would be out soon.