It was mid June when Hugh got the call that there was an old house in the rural countryside of Boston that was available to be worked on. It would a summer project for him and Liv, a place where they could spend the summer as a family.
It was a wide property and had more than enough space for the kids to run and play. And the prices that were being offered for the job made it seem like a godsend.
"Thanks Roger i'll give you a call back once i've run it by Liv but I don't see her turning down the offer." Hugh spoke into the phone.
"Alright, take it easy, bye bye." Spoke the elderly man on the other end of the phone.
Hugh hung up the phone and started to make his way towards the office he shared with Liv.
She'd been sketching out plans for their forever house for the past three weeks. He's never seen her so passionate about a project before, and this new offer could potentially make that project a reality.
He gently knocked on the slightly ajar door as he poked his head inside, not wanting to disturb his wife's concentration.
Liv's head shot up at the sound of him knocking and smiled as her eyes fell upon her husband.
"You busy in here?" Hugh asked with a smile as he slowly walked towards his awaiting wife.
"Just brainstorming away." Liv smiled up at him from her seat behind the wooden desk.
"I can see that, it's really coming along huh?" Hugh asked as he moved to sit next to her in the chair adjacent to hers.
"Yeah, the ideas just keep coming to me, one after the other, flooding my brain like a waterfall." Liv explained as she gazed down at the mess of blueprints occupying the large wooden desk.
"I got a call about a offer on a house to flip, over in Boston. A big one, one of those mansions from the early 1900's, uh Hill House I think it was called. They got staff already hired and everything. We'd only really have to be there for the summer, eight weeks at most." Hugh rambled.
"That's amazing but what about the kids? Would we have enough time to get them ready for school next year?" Liv asked.
"More than enough time." Hugh answered, taking her delicate hand in his own much larger one, bringing it up to his lips to leave a kiss there.
"How much are they offering?" She asked as she watched him stroke the soft skin of her palm.
"More than enough to build our forever house." Hugh smiled as he lifted her into his lap, causing her to laugh her beautiful laugh that sounded like heaven to his ears.
"Oh is that right?" She asked rhetorically as she wrapped her arms around his neck, stroking a hand along the side of his face.
"Yes it is. They said we could start as soon as the kids are finished with school." Hugh answered.
"Well I guess we should get packing then." Olivia said as she stood up off of Hugh's lap and headed towards the door of the office leaving Hugh to gaze at her as her long summer dress flowed elegantly around her long legs.
-Later that day once Hugh finalized the deal on the house, him and Olivia got to packing. The kids would be finished with school in less than a week and they wanted to be on their way to their new home as soon as possible.
A few minutes later a big yellow school bus pulled up in front of their house and a pack of five dark haired children bounced out.
Luke and Nell darted forward, racing each other to the front door causing Theo to roll her eyes.
Steve and Shirley waved goodbye to their friends on the bus and caught up with the rest of their siblings.
The five of them bursted through the front door, setting their school bags on the floor and walked further inside to see their parents walking down the stairs to greet them.
"Hi Mommy!" Luke and Nell exclaimed in unison as they threw themselves into her waiting arms as she littered their faces with kisses causing them to squeal and squirm.
"Hello my loves, how was school?" Liv asked the youngest of her children.
"Good, today we got to let our pet butterflies go! We brought them outside and we got to watch them fly away into the clouds!" Luke explained to his mother with wide eyes.
"Well that sounds fun, did you have fun too Nell?" Liv asked her daughter.
"Yeah! Me and Luke got to let them go together and everything!"
"I'm glad you had fun my darling." Liv said as she kissed Nell's head.
"What about you Theo? Anything exciting happen today?" Hugh asked as he walked over to Steve and Shirley, stealing a cookie from Steves hand, causing him to roll his eyes as he suppressed a smile at his fathers attempt to be funny.
"No." Theo answered from her seat at the bar stool, spinning herself back and forth. "We got assigned our summer reading, I have to read some book called 'The Lottery'." Theo said in a monotone voice.
"Oh I read that in school, yeah it's about that-"
"Town that kills people to keep the economy going? Yeah it's fucked." Theo said as she cut off her Dad.
"Language!" Yelled Nell, causing Theo to roll her eyes once again.
"You're sister is right." Liv said with a slight laugh as she looked up at her husband who was attempting to suppress his own laughter.
"Sorry." Said Theo half heartedly as Liv brushed a hand through Theo's dark hair, knowing she wasn't one for all the hugs and kisses she usually gave out freely.
"So we've got some news gang." Hugh announced, catching all the kids attention.
"What is it?" Shirley asked curiously.
"We're moving to Boston for the summer, there's this big old house that your mother and I are going to be working on for the summer." Hugh explained.
"Do I get my own room?" Theo asked.
"Uh well yes." Hugh laughed.
"There's a huge yard, plenty of room for you guys to play, and you can find a whole bunch of new things to picture hey Shirl?" Hugh asked his daughter with a smile.
"Y-yeah, that'd be cool." Shirley said perking up at the prospect of getting to use her new camera that she'd been gifted the Christmas before.
"How long will we be there for? Will we have to go to school there next year?" Steve asked.
"No Sweetheart, we should only be there for a couple weeks and then once we sell it we'll finally be able to get started on our home, our real home." Liv explained with an ethereal smile.
"The forever house?" Asked Luke innocently as he looked up at his mother with admiration.
"Yes Love, our forever house. And we'll never have to move again, we'll all be together. Forever." Liv explained as she smiled down at all of her children, seeing the excitement in their young innocent faces.
"Well let's get packing guys! We've got no time to lose!" Hugh exclaimed as he walked over to the twins, scooping them up and slinging them each over a shoulder, causing them to scream with laughter.
'This is gonna be good.' Olivia thought to herself as she watched her family beam with excitement. It nearly brought tears to her eyes to see them so happy together.
That's all she's ever wanted, to see them happy.
Happy and together.
'This is gonna be good.' She thought again.
She took a deep breath and smiled before she started up the stairs in the direction of her family.
She knew this was gonna be good.
She was sure of it.