The Crush by Ward Penelope (best book recommendations txt) 📕

parents died. I want to create that idyllic life with you again, one day at a time.”

She turned around to face me. “Am I supposed to be moving in with you?”

I chuckled. “Well, I hadn’t gotten that far. I didn’t want to throw this on you and put you in a position where you felt you had to say yes. Of course, I want you here with me, but it doesn’t have to be today. For now, this can be our sanctuary, a place where we can finally be alone without anyone breathing down our necks. One of these days, when you’re comfortable, I figure...maybe you just won’t leave.”

Farrah moved her head back and forth. “I can’t believe it.”

Feeling like a giddy kid, I took her hand. “Come on. I haven’t even shown you the best part.”

The one thing Dickie never had was a pool. I wasn’t going to buy a house without one, so over the past couple of months, I’d had one installed.

Farrah’s mouth dropped when she got a load of the inground, screened-in pool.

“This looks just like the one Nathan and I had...”

“I know. That’s why I designed it like this. The pool is completely new. It’s the one thing that didn’t come with the house.”

Beaming, Farrah walked around the perimeter. She suddenly lifted her dress over her head and jumped in, causing a deluge of water to splash me. What the hell? I tore off my shirt and yanked off my pants before jumping in after her. We spent the next several minutes playing in the water like we used to. This was going to be my new happy place.

When we finally emerged from the pool, Farrah squeezed the water from her hair. “I can definitely get used to this.”

I ran inside to grab a couple of towels.

After I returned, I handed her one. “Maybe if Nathan is good, we’ll invite him over for a barbecue. Dad, too. The beauty is, we get to choose who comes here and when—no one intruding on our space anymore.”

Farrah wrapped the towel around her waist. “It’s honestly the first time in my life I’ve ever had privacy.”

“We can fuck as loud as we want. Do anything we want. Make Dickie roll around in his grave.”

“That dirty old man will probably enjoy watching us.” She giggled.

“The ghost of Dickie…”

She sighed and looked out at the pool. “This is going to seem like an odd comment after all of this talk about our new fuck den, but I feel like my parents are with us right now. And your mom, too. They’re blessing this house.”

I hoped that was true, but still wondered if I’d have Farrah’s parents’ approval. But it didn’t matter. Despite my lingering self-doubt, I no longer let guilt rule my life.

Farrah’s mentioning our parents reminded me there was another thing she hadn’t seen yet.

“Get dressed. I haven’t shown you the bedrooms.”

On the way inside, I stopped in the hallway to show her a photo I’d had framed on the wall.

It was the one picture I knew of that had Farrah, Nathan, and both of our parents all together. It was taken the day Nathan and I graduated high school.

“Wow,” she whispered as she traced her finger along the frame. “That was, like, the saddest day of my life, because I knew you were leaving for college soon.”

“Hanging this up wasn’t easy for me. It’s part of my therapy. The more I stop to look at it, the more I just see the happiness of that day, rather than the sadness of two years later.”

“I’ve never seen that photo before.” Farrah continued staring at it. “I love it. Thank you for framing it.”

Wrapping my arm around her, I squeezed her side. “Let me show you the bedrooms...”

“Is there an ulterior motive to that?”

Kissing the top of her head, I said, “Only if you want there to be.”

I showed her the master first, which had an attached bathroom. The other two rooms were smaller. I’d made one into a guest suite, and the other into something I hoped she’d love.

Her eyes widened when she got a look inside the final room.

Two yoga mats lay in the middle of the floor. I’d strategically placed plants and candles around the space, along with some wall mirrors and hanging bohemian decorations.

“This is your private oasis, yoga room—anything you want it to be.”

She covered her mouth. “This is amazing. How did you put all this together?”

“Literally ripped a page out of a magazine on how to design a yoga space and copied it to a tee.”

“I’m gonna use the shit out of this room!” She reached up and planted a long kiss on my lips. “Seriously, this is the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me.”

I lifted her into the air. “Maybe we can try that spine yoga again together—the kind you had me do that one time. What was it called?”

“Kundalini.” She laughed.

“No. I don’t think that was it. I think it was…cunnilingus, wasn’t it?”

She covered her face. “I was so mortified that day.”

“I loved it. And I loved you in your hot yoga pants, too—a little too much. Wasn’t supposed to be feeling that way then. That was why I had to escape to the bathroom, if you know what I mean.”

She cackled. “No way! I remember that. I thought you actually had to go.”

“Nope. Couldn’t contain my excitement.” I pulled her close. “Anyway…I prefer cunnilingus yoga.”

“You built a special place to go down on me, didn’t you?” She winked.

“I can’t think of a better use for this room than pleasuring my beautiful, vibrating vagina.”

Farrah buried her face in my chest. “I can’t believe you remembered that.”

“How could I forget?”

Farrah looked up at me. “It doesn’t vibrate anymore, by the way.”

“Give me five minutes to change that.”

She lowered her hand, cupped my package, and laughed over my lips. “Things are definitely looking up.”

Epilogue

Farrah

Jace and I were headed home after dinner out one night when he surprised