When they separated, Justin cleared his throat. “For the record, you’re right. I’d love to jump into this, but I don’t think I’m in that sort of headspace yet. I need to be able to feel like I’d be okay alone with the kids if something happened to us, before I can—” He stopped speaking and cursed under his breath.
“What?”
“I was about to say something that a therapist would have a field day with.”
“And what was that?” Del took hold of Justin’s hand and squeezed his good fingers.
“I need to know me and the kids would be okay without you, before I legally bind you to me. So that if I mess something up and you don’t want to be with me anymore, I know I can support them. I can’t…I can’t be a hundred percent in before I know I’d be okay without you.” The heartbreak in Justin’s eyes made Del’s chest feel tight.
He gathered Justin into his arms and held him close. “I understand that better than you probably think. So like I said, whenever you’re ready, okay? And when we’re settled in California, we figure out if the kids want me to be their other parent legally, too. If it’s something that you want me to be for them, that is. We can wait for that until we’re married if that’s—”
“No, no, that’s a different deal. You already are their parent. Making that legal sounds good. That way if something happens to me…”
“I want so badly to say nothing will ever happen to you again, but you’re right. We’ll figure out when the time comes, okay?”
Justin nodded against his chest. “So, let’s go see what kind of house your sister has picked for us.”
* * * *
They gathered on the couch and Bernie connected her tablet to the TV and she navigated to a website for, well, the perfect house.
“Are there horsesthere?” Harper squeaked, bouncing on the couch between Abigail and Justin.
Wyatt perked up on Del’s lap, and Scarlett clapped her hands excitedly on the floor where she was sitting.
“Yes and no. The horses are other people’s. There’s a stable, a riding arena, and a round pen. The facilities come with the house, and you could continue renting them out to the people who have their horses there now if you want to. That’s actually one thing I think Justin might like,” Bernie explained from the armchair. “Someone needs to take care of running the stable. You don’t have to know anything about horses, it’s mainly just ordering stuff in and collecting rent and so on, but it’s still a job. You could keep part of the income for a small salary to get your other stuff going.”
Justin hummed and leaned more heavily to Del’s side.
“Can you show us more photos?” Del asked, to take the spotlight off Justin for a while.
There was a lot of house. It also came with seven figures where the asking price was stated
“There are good schools twenty minutes away, and it’s about an hour and a half to LA. Seven acres, the house is 4,800 square feet.”
“How much is our old house?” Harper asked.
Del thought for a bit. “Maybe 1500 square feet. So the new one would be three times as big.”
Justin murmured something like “Holy shit” under his breath.
“Would we all get our own rooms there?” she asked next.
“Probably. There’s a bedroom for Del and Justin, and three others. And a separate guest room, so I don’t see why not,” Bernie said carefully.
“When we get a house, this one or another one, you’ll get to choose the paint colors for your walls and what kind of furniture you want,” Del said, and Harper’s eyes widened comically.
“I want green,” Wyatt said suddenly, making everyone look at him.
“We’ll get you a green room, buddy, no problem.” Del kissed the boy’s hair. He’d give these kids and their big brother anything they could ever want, but most importantly, everything they needed.
* * * *
Of course Bernie had contacted Paul behind Del’s back as well. While Paul had refused to actually do anything—as he should—he’d looked into things and within a week, Del had bought the house with the horse stables. He’d also promised the kids they could have a dog and a cat, once they were settled in California.
The next thing to do was to go to the property and meet the people who owned the five horses currently staying at the small stable. Because they also needed to figure out what they should buy furniture-wise for the house and what exactly was the “gourmet kitchen” promised by the real estate agent, Del suggested he and Justin would take a trip to California. Driving there seemed like a good idea, to gauge just how much of a mission it would be with the kids in tow when they made the move for real.