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Cilla used Sunday azines, scout the Internet for ideas and vendors and tear out or bookmark possibilities and potentials She could hardly believe she’d reached the stage where she could begin considering furniture

Weeks away, of course, and she needed to add in trolling antique stores, even fleathe ti sofas and chairs, tables and la, she s All those fun, picky little details to fill in a house To make a house a home Her home

Her first real home

The closer it came to reality, the more she realized just how much she wanted home All she had to do was step outside, look across the road and see it

Sitting here now, at Ford’s counter, with her laptop, her ht of just how far she’d come since March No, well before March, she corrected She’d started this journey on that long-ago trek through the Blue Ridge, one she’d taken specifically, deliberately to see, firsthand, her grand from, and maybe to understand, a little, why he’d come back, and left her

And she’d fallen in love, Cilla thought noith the hills that bumped their way back to the mountains, the thick spread of trees, the little towns and the big ones, the houses and gardens, the winding roads and streams Most of all, she’d fallen in love with the old far behind a stone wall, closed in by its desolate, overgrown gardens

Sleeping Beauty’s castle, maybe, she mused, but she’d seen home, even then

Nohat she’d dreamed of, yearned for, was very nearly hers

She sat at the counter, sipping coffee, and i and hopeful dawn, and of living a life she’d chosen rather than one chosen for her

Ford gave a sleepy grunt as he walked in

Look at hi-toward-gawky body dressed in navy boxers and a tattered Yoda T-shirt All that sun-streaked brown hair ruy and just a little cranky

Wasn’t he just unbelievably adorable?

He dus suck through a straw," and drank as if his life balanced within the contents of the

Then he turned, to prop his elbow on the counter "How come you look so lucid?"

"Maybe because I’ve been up for three hours It’s after ten, Ford"

"You have no respect for the Sunday"

"It’s true I’ents also have no respect for the Sunday Vicky just calledyou,when I was so rudely and annoyingly interrupted Anyway, the sellers caer paints?"

"And as an artist I can say it was the beginning of a masterpiece

We’re only ten thousand apart now, as Vicky the dream killer pointed out So"

"No"

"Damn it" He looked like a kid who’d just been told there were no cookies in the jar "I knew you were going to say no, which you did not say when I irling cobalt blue around your belly button Couldn’t we just-"

"No You’ll thank me later when you have that ten k to put into ily dump noant it for my own I love it, Cilla, like a fat kid loves cake" He tried a hopeful smile "We could split the difference"

"No We hold firm No one else has made an offer on the property The seller isn’t interested inany of those repairs and iroggy eyes narrowed into a scowl "Maybe he’s just as pigheaded as you are"

"Okay, here’s this" She leaned back, an expert at the negotiation table "If he doesn’t cave, if he doesn’t accept your offer within teeks, you can counter with the split But you hold tight for fourteen ain "Do you ever think about scra about so, soft sofa over there-as I’ve been in the sofa-hunting , ould happen if I stretched out on that big, soft sofa"

She slid off the stool, ai a smile over her shoulder as she strolled to the sofa "And I’ will I have to lie here all by myself, all alone with hts"

"Okay, lascivious did it"

He skirted the counter, crossed, then pounced "Hi"

With a low laugh, she scissored her legs, reared and rolled until their positions reversed "I think I’ll be high this tiht his bottohtly

"This is how I respect the Sunday"

"I was so wrong about you" He ran his hands down her, over the loose, white tank "Cilla"

"You’re all rumpled and sexy and" She peeled Yoda off, tossed hier paints" He pushed up, locking his ar his mouth to hers "I miss you As soon as I’m awake and you’re not there"

"I’ to let him strip the white tank away And, oh, those hands, those slow, steady hands "Here Here" She cupped his head, guided it down until hiscoiled and curled inside her, and opened again

She wanted, wanted, with those hands pressing, that led out of her shorts, gasping as he touched and teased,as she rose up, eased down, and filled herself with hi"

She took hi down, her hands braced on the arm of the couch Slim, hard muscles, burnt honey hair, iced blue eyes so clear they were a mirror into his heart

No dream, no fantasy came close to the truth of her No wish, no wonder coht; her heart skipped beats Her body bowed, and the arrow it shot struck hoht in He loved the way they fit, line to line, the way her hair felt against his skin

"So where exactly do you buy finger paints?"

He grinned, lazily walked his fingers up and down her spine "I’ll find out, lay in a supply"

"I’ll provide the drop cloth Where did you get this couch?"

"I don’t know Soood size, shape, nice fabric Cofurniture, and I have that great big living roo and art I’ve never done all that before It’s a little intilanced over when Spock wandered in, took one look at theether naked on the couch and walked away Just jealous, Ford thought "Never bought furniture before?"

"Sure, you’ve got to sit on sos with the idea of keeping theth of time It’s always been temporary " She brushed her lips over his collarbone, nuzzled at his shoulder "And I’ve worked with stagers on flips Staging a property can help it sell So I know, or have opinions, about orks in a space But this is different Staging’s like a set Load it in, break it down"

"Didn’t you have a house, an apart in LA?"

"Steve had a place After our five-e I lived at the BHH awhile"

"The BHH?"

"Beverly Hills Hotel Then I traveled some, or stayed at Steve’s when I picked up soe stint, and I had an apartht the property in Brentwood to flip, I ca in the flip houses It gave me a sense of theht She’d never had what he and everyone he knew took for granted She’d never had ho rooined a long-ago holiday party

She was reaching back to find her future

"We can ive her so "You could see how it looks in place and have so to sit on besides the ever-versatile bucket"

"That’s a very nice offer" She gave hi up to hunt for her clothes "But it’s more practical to wait for furniture until after the floors are done Of course, now that I’ve gotten trapped into giving a party, I’d better find some suitable outdoor furniture"

"Party?"

"Didn’t I tell you?" She pulled on her tank "Ito Cathy Morrow that I’d like-ive a party around Labor Day, but the house wouldn’t be finished or furnished She junored the second Now I’ve got Patty callingto reat stuff"

"No doubt The proble while I’ doors, refinishing floors and hitting a very long punch-out list, not tothe world of sofas, couches, divans and settees"

"You buy a grill, a bunch of es "

She shook her head at him "You’re a man"

"I am A fact which I’ve just proven beyond any reasonable doubt" And being Sunday, he should get a shot at proving it again "A party’s a good thing, Cilla People co with You show off what you’ve done You share it That’s why you took down the gate"

"I" He was right "What kind of grill?"

He sesture, she crossed her hands over her heart "Words et dressed I could pick up paint while we’re out, and hardware, take another look at kitchen lighting"

"What have I wrought?"

She tossed a smile at him as she walked out of the rooed on his boxers, but stayed where he was, thinking about her She didn’t realize how much she’d told him She’d never once rown up

He, on the other hand, could describe in perfect detail the house of his childhood, the way the sun slanted or burst through the s of his rooreen sink in the bathrooallon jug of apple juice

He reh he’d been in New York, even though he’d h they’d only moved a couple miles away Years later, he could still drive by that old brick house and feel that pang

Lovingly restored triain All of that, every step and detail, were links she forged herself to make a chain of connection

He’d do whatever he could do to help her forge it, even if it carill

"Hey, Ford"

"Back here," Ford called out when he heard Brian’s voice, and unfolded hi?"

"Tough choice," Brian said without any need for explanation "I ith the Weber, as you know, but a "

"How about a worill That’s my stand on it" He bent down, picked up Ford’s discarded T-shirt "This is a clue It tellssex Damn that second cup of coffee" He tossed the shirt at Ford’s face, then leaned down to greet Spock

"You’re just jealous because you didn’t have anysex"

"How do you know?"

"Because you’re here Why are you here?"

Brian gestured to the counter and Cilla’s research pile as he crossed over to open Ford’s refrigerator "Where’s Cilla?"

"Upstairs, getting dressed so we can go out and debate between Weber and Viking"