I'll Be There

Chapter 8

"We'll start looking for a place tomorrow," Jamie says, "I know a few websites that will help."

"Actually, I already have a house in mind. It's a four bedroom, four bathroom house in the suburbs with a fenced in yard so Zep can run around," she says happily.

Jamie looks at her with wide eyes. "Someone's been doing her homework!"

"Yep, and I've already contacted a real estate agent," she says, beaming with pride.

"What would you have done had I said no?" he asks with a grin on his face.

"I knew you wouldn't turn it down," she states.

"So sure of yourself, Miss Johnson," he laughs, "You know me well."

She gives him a big hug and leads him to the couch. She pulls her laptop off the coffee table and pulls up a webpage. "Here's what I'm looking at..."

"It's incredible!" he exclaims looking through the pictures. It's a red brick house with a garage on the side. The pictures show the inside of each of the major rooms- the living room, library, kitchen, dining room, bathrooms, finished basement, and all four bedrooms. The rooms were all beautifully decorated in the pictures, but the one that caught Jamie's eye was white bedroom with soft pink wallpaper outlining the middle of the room and lilac baseboard. It had a large window in the center of the outer wall. There was a flat area at the bottom of the window that was raised off the floor where a hot pink cushion with white polka dots laid with a small, solid purple pillow propped up in the corner. Jamie could just imagine an older Dulcie curled up on the cushion enjoying a good book while the sunlight comes streaming in on a warm summer day. He could visualize her loving every minute she got to spend in that room. The smallest of the bedrooms was painted a pale yellow. It had two windows, one on each outer wall. Jamie imagined a crib sitting in one of the corners of the room with Dakota rocking a swaddled baby to sleep in a rocking chair in the corner between the two windows. He could imagine the little light illuminating up the room while the stars and moon shine through the windows, adorned with white, silky curtains.

"Do you like it?" Dakota asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"It's superb," he replied, "Absolutely perfect."

She smiled and let her head fall into his chest.

"Let's not get our hopes up yet, though," he suggested. "What if someone is already in line for it?"

"I've already put an offer on it, and it's ours if we want it," she simply stated.

"My, my, you are quite the little risk-taker, aren't you?" he grinned, kissing the top of her head. "When do you want to go see it?"

"I was hoping in the next couple days we could fly out and look at it."

"What about tomorrow? What's your schedule like for the next few days?"

"I don't have anything going on tomorrow but I have a meeting on Tuesday afternoon....I can do it via FaceTime though on the computer though so as long as we're not up in the air at 4:15 at that time then the trip won't affect the meeting. Tomorrow would be perfect!" she turned around and hugged him hard, relieved that he was so easily swayed into accepting such a huge decision that she practically made all by herself.

"Well it's panned then. I'll purchase two flight tickets and we'll leave tomorrow," he replied happily.

While Jamie took over the computer to purchase tickets, Dakota sent an email on her phone to her interviewer to let her know that she would be doing the interview electronically.

"Our flight leaves at 10:20 in the morning," he happily announced.

"Great!" she replied, "I'm headed out to run a few errands. Do you wanna come?" she asked.

"Nah, I've got to work on some lines. Take your time though, I'll be here when you return," he replied.

That night after dinner, Dakota and Jamie decided to have a movie night. While Jamie was doing the dishes, Dakota was searching through the living room for a movie for them to watch. She finally chose 'Sleepless in Seattle,' which she figured was perfect for the adventure they were going on the next day.

Jamie walked in and found her curled up on the couch with a large, fuzzy blanket. She had changed into her pajamas.

"You look comfy," he remarked. "Let me go change and I'll be right back."

He walked back to the bedroom. When he returned, he was wearing a white t-shirt and gray pajama pants. He crawled in behind her and held onto her while they watched the movie together. By the time it ended, it was almost 11pm.

"I don't want to move," Dakota said sleepily, her head resting on Jamie's strong, upper arm. She was completely content to stay wrapped in his arms.

"I don't either," he replied. Turning her in his arms to plant a soft kiss on her lips. Dakota moaned into his mouth. He held his arms around her back and she held hers around his neck, pulling him closer to her.

"We need to be well-rested for tomorrow though," he said, breaking their kiss. "We can't oversleep or we'll miss our flight, and you take forever to get ready."

"I do not!" she objected.

"Baby, you're a female. You all take forever to get ready," he smiled, kissing the top of her head.

She grumbled and lifted herself to her feet, too tired to argue with him any longer. She knew he was right- morning would come fast and they needed to be punctual. She headed toward the bedroom and he followed behind after turning the tv and light off and folding up the blanket.