Saving Us || l.h

T H I R T Y O N E

We get back to LA pretty late, both of us exhausted. "When do we head to New York?" Luke asks as we wait for our luggage. "In a couple weeks." I reply, leaning back against him. He wraps his arms around me, kissing the top of my head. "What do you want to do tomorrow?" I ask, glancing at the time on my phone. "Sleep." I nod, leaning my head against his arm. The buzz of the luggage arriving jolts me out of the light sleep I fell into, both Luke and I straightening and stretching our backs.

Luke steps forward, waiting for our suitcases. Mine comes around soon and he grabs it, handing it to me. Luke's comes a little later, and he grabs it, walking back over to me. "Let's head home." He says, leading me to the exit where a driver waits, paps surrounding the area.

I ignore them, getting in the suburban after handing my suitcase to the driver. Luke gets in next to me and we are taken to my brothers place, the drive silent since we are both exhausted.

---

"What about this one? It's pretty and not too far from everything and in a pretty good part of town. It's back from the street so we won't be bothered by paps or fans or anything." I say, showing Luke a picture of a house that we could look at to potentially buy. 

"Don't you think it's a bit big?" "It's a little smaller than Blake's, but the backyard is slightly bigger because of the pool." "What does the inside look like?" He asks, going to the next picture. It is a floor-plan of the entire house. "That's why we should go look at it. They only have the floor-plan." I say, giving him a sheepish smile. "Can we do it tomorrow? I'm still exhausted and Ashton wanted to come over and have me help him with a song." "Yeah, but you'll come with me?" "Yeah." He nods, kissing my forehead before standing, heading upstairs. "I'm gonna shower, if Ashton gets here just tell him to start without me." I nod, giving him a smile.

I continue looking at the houses on my laptop, finding another one I really like. I set up meetings to look at both of them, putting them on the calendar and sharing it with Luke. Ashton walks into the kitchen, looking around. "Hey, Ash, Luke is showering, he said to start without him and he will meet you in the studio downstairs." I say, giving him a smile. "Sounds good, what are you up to?" "House hunting." "Really?" He asks, coming over and looking at the house I am currently looking at. "That one is really pretty." I nod with a smile. "We are seeing it tomorrow along with this one." I tell him, pulling up the other house. "I definitely like the other one better but that one is pretty too but the inside could be really nice." I nod, going back to the other house. "I'll be sure to keep you updated on if we choose one tomorrow." "Thanks, Dylan." I nod, Ashton heading downstairs.

---

"Hi, I'm Sarah." "Hi, I'm Dylan and this is Luke. Thank you so much for meeting us." "No problem, so what are we ultimately looking for?" "Something with a couple bedrooms, I want a pool, an open kitchen." I say, looking up at Luke. "Definitely an open floor plan in general, a finished basement would be good and a view would be nice but not critical." Luke adds. Sarah nods, putting it into her iPad. "Well, both houses Dylan sent me are perfect with those, and if you don't like them I can show you a few others that follow your preferences." She explains. "Sounds like a plan." "Wonderful. Why don't we head to the first house, you two can follow me." She says, grabbing her car keys. 

Luke and I get in our car and follow her to the house, not getting too behind on time with LA traffic surprisingly. She pulls into the driveway and punches in the code to the gate, Luke following her in. Luke parks behind her car and shuts off his car, opening his door and getting out. I get out and follow them up to the front door, Sarah unlocking the front door.  

We walk into an open foyer, a large chandelier like light above. "So, the place isn't furnished, as it has just recently been finished which is good and bad. You can imagine your own furniture inside it but you don't know how everything will fit. If you need any measurements just let me know! I'll let you look around and then we can meet in the kitchen when you're finished and I can answer any questions."

Luke and I head upstairs, looking at all the bedrooms. We start with the master, a good size space with a pretty good view of Los Angeles. I head into the bathroom, Luke following close behind. In the master bath is a massive shower, a tub next to it and 2 sink areas, a vanity in between that is any makeup gurus dream. I pass a small room with a toilet in it, the closet the next door down. I walk in, freezing in my steps. This closet could fit a truck and still have room.

"This place is massive." Luke whispers, looking around the closet. "The second house has smaller rooms but it is more expensive because of where it's at and because it has more rooms... rooms that probably won't be used all that often. It'd really depend on kids and how often family visits and considering my entire family apart from one of my brothers lives in town and your family doesn't visit all that often because its an entire day just to fly here, it'd make more sense for us to get this place." I explain, leaning against the doorway.

"How much is this place?" "Little over fourteen million I think the website said, but after looking at it, we could probably get it for fourteen million." "I was expecting a lot more, I can deal with that. I think we should still look at the other house though and the rest of this one obviously before making a decision." "Obviously. The most I'm thinking for us to spend on a house is fifteen million, you good with that number?" "That works for me." He nods, following me out of the master bath and master bedroom into one of the smaller bedrooms.

We go through the rest of the house, finding a small movie theatre in the basement, one of the bedrooms could definitely work as a game room. The backyard was spacious, even with the pool, a fire pit off to the right, great for outdoor parties that go late. The kitchen was large and great for baking and even had a small pizza oven that made Luke excited.

"What'd you think?" Sarah asks as we come back inside. "It's absolutely beautiful. Large, but beautiful." "I've had a couple people tell me it seems big. Remember that there is no furniture here so it will seem a lot bigger but once some furniture goes in, it'll seem a lot more normal sized." We nod in understanding. "Do you have any questions?" "None right now." Luke says, giving her a smile. "Then let's head to the next house, shall we?" We nod, following her out of the house.

On the ride over to the next house, we discuss what our plan for the next few years would hopefully be. "I definitely would love to raise kids in New York but this place has most of our work and closest friends and family, I'd take that over New York any day." I say glancing over at Luke driving. "Agreed. We've been here for the past few years, it really only makes sense. Then we have family able to help and babysit if need be, it just would work out so much better." Luke agrees, turning into a neighborhood.

We pull up in front of a beautiful house, following Sarah up to the front door. "Same deal as last time, I'll meet you in the kitchen when you're done looking." We nod, heading upstairs. The master bedroom isn't as large as the last house but still pretty big. The bathroom and closet were pretty similar, just slightly smaller and didn't have the vanity.

The differences between the other house and this one bedroom wise was the other one had five total bedrooms and this one had seven. We head through the rest of the house, almost the exact same set of rooms as the other house, everything just a little smaller. The yard doesn't have as much room, and the view is just another backyard and house, Luke not getting the view like he wanted. It is an incredible house, but not quite what we are looking for.

We head into the kitchen, Sarah on the phone. "Alright, I'll get back to you soon, bye." She hangs up, turning to us. "Thoughts?" "Beautiful house, lots of rooms though." "Yeah, we usually see larger families looking at this one. Would you like to look at any other houses or take a break, what would you like to do?" She asks, giving us a smile. "Can we think on it for the night and get back to you tomorrow?" I ask, glancing at Luke. "Absolutely. Take your time. I have a free hour at two tomorrow if that works for you?" ""Works for me." I nod, Luke nodding in agreement. "Wonderful, I will see you tomorrow!"

I follow Luke to the car, getting in the passenger seat. "Second one is out for me." I say as he heads back to my brothers' place. "Same. The first one had a view, has room for kids and family, has a pool and lots of party space, a pizza oven which is something I didn't know I needed until now." I laugh, looking over at Luke. "Do you want to look at any other houses or do we want to make an offer tomorrow?" I ask him, checking the time. Almost dinner time.

"Let's make an offer tomorrow. If we can't get what we want or close or the house happens to sell between now and then then we can keep looking but I say let's make an offer." I smile, grabbing Luke's hand. "Love you, Luke." "Love you too, Dyl." "Hungry?" I ask, seeing an In N Out a block away. "Always." I point out the In N Out, Luke pulling in and ordering for us.