Prevailing Love

Chapter 22

"Wow," Steffy says as we enter the cliff house. "You live here?" Steffy asks in shock.

"WE live here. There is our home. We've created a wonderful life here, and we have had so many memories here. There is no place else in the world I would want to live then right here."

"It's like a dream house," she says as she looks around.

"It's our dream house. We've talked about on and off about moving throughout the years, but we always come back to wanting to stay here. It's our place," I smile.

I look over at the kids who are standing next to me watching Steffy walk around. "Guys, go clean up in the bathroom and then you can go play in your rooms for a while until it's time for bed," I get down to their eye level and bring them closer to me. "Also, remember what we talked about regarding Mommy. Please, don't push her or aggravate her. If you need anything come and get me. We want Mommy to feel better and not feel overwhelmed by a bunch of silly little stuff."

"Yes Daddy," they say together.

"Come here," I motion, as I pull them closer to me wrapping my arms around them. "I love you both so much and I'm very proud of you guys and how well you've handled all this crazy stuff going on. Both of you are amazing." I kiss each of their heads, "Go play." I pat them each on their behinds in a loving way before getting up from off the floor.

"This is really wonderful," Steffy says walking to me. "Truly, absolutely stunning. I can see why you'd never want to live anywhere else."

I take her hand, "The cliff house is okay, you are what is stunning," I say squeezing her hand.

She clears her throat.

"Sorry," I apologize. I'm still getting used to this and how to react around Steffy and what she thinks is appropriate. She has sent me a number of mixed signals. I've noticed sometimes I am able to get away with taking her hand and getting close to her and other times I can't even get within a foot of her. "Let me show you our room—I—I mean your room," I sigh pointing my arm in the direction of our room.

She follows me as I open the door to our bedroom. "Here, this is your room. There is a fantastic view of the backyard out the French doors with a small patio. The bathroom is that door over there, and the other doors are closets. The last one over there is my closet, as well as half that dresser over there. Everything else," I chuckle. "Everything else is yours. Those dressers over there, those two closets, and most of the drawers in the kitchen are yours." I start walking into the bathroom, and Steffy follows. "Towels are in that closet. Please, feel free to rummage around for whatever you need. I'm not 100 percent sure where most of your items are, but I can tell you where the stuff you normally use daily is." I look down at the shower that is in the bathroom. "Be careful when you turn the shower on it does get hot pretty quickly. If you want to relax there is a jacuzzi tub in the first bathroom on the right upstairs."

"You have a jacuzzi tub upstairs?" she asks with surprise.

"Yes, I put it in for you one of the many times we got back together. You love relaxing with a glass of wine and a magazine in the tub, especially when you've had a long and hard day at work."

I smile inwardly to myself, thinking about when and why I ended up putting the tub in. Steffy notices my facial expressions change. "What is it?" she asks.

"Nothing was just thinking about when I put this tub in for you when we reunited in 2016."

She smiles slightly at me, "Can you tell me about it?" she asks genuinely, catching me off guard.