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Chapter 10

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"Uh, hi! Can I help you?" Hanna said with confusion after someone had knocked on the door sometime after lunch. She had opened it to find an unfamiliar man who was looking at her expectantly… and hiding one of his hands behind his back. By instinct, Hanna stepped back from the door and stayed hidden behind it, letting only her face show in the door crack.

"Yeah, hi! Are you Hanna?" the stranger asked, and after she wouldn't confirm, added, "I'm Garner Wills. I work with your husband." He extended his hand to her, smiling friendly.

Hanna opened the door a little wider. "Oh, I've heard a lot about you. So nice to finally meet you." She shook hands with him, adding, "Caleb's not here right now."

"I know, I know," the quickly said to her. "I just came by to give you… this!" He handed her a bouquet of purple wildflowers that he had been hiding behind his back.

"For me? Why?" Hanna asked, feeling like she had missed something in the conversation. Garner was just standing there, smiling at her naturally.

"It's a thank you. Caleb has helped me out a lot lately, and when I'd asked him if there was something I could do to make it up for him he said he didn't need anything," Garner eventually explained. "And he said that if I felt like wanting to make up for something, I should be gifting you."

"I don't understand," Hanna voiced her thoughts and looked at the flowers before her gaze traveled back to him.

"For being so understanding when he's working long hours for our project. Or when he has to leave early in the morning to help a wasted guy get his keys back and sober up when he actually had plans with his wife." His face had taken on a guilty expression, and he was hoping his explanation would make her accept the flowers at long last.

"Well… thanks… I guess." Hanna allowed herself to smile at him. "And I'm sorry your girlfriend broke up with you. Maybe you two can get back together one day?"

"Yeah, well… I don't think so." He smiled back at her warily. "We're just too different."

"Speaking from experience… Trust me, that doesn't have to be a bad thing," Hanna said quietly. She watched him backtrack slowly, looking sad and lonely. "Do you want to come in and have a… a… um, tea, maybe?"

"No, thanks," Garner declined her offer. "I think I should get going now anyways. I have a few errands to run before Henry will be home. He's letting me crash at his place for a few days, just until I've figured out this whole mess."

"OK. Well, I hope you can work things out," she said while closing the door behind him. The next second, she opened it again, calling after him, "Wait! Do you think you can give me a ride?"

Garner stopped in the middle of the hallway, debating with himself whether to let himself be seen with that beautiful blonde in a car together.

"My car is in the shop, and if you're planning to drive to Henry we kind of have the same direction anyway," Hanna pushed a little further.

The guy finally turned around and grinned at her. "OK, I can give you a ride. But do you happen to have a cup of coffee for me? I could really use one after the day I've had."

"Uuuh," Hanna stalled while trying to will away the bout of nausea the thought of coffee alone had brought up in her. "No. But I was planning to stop by at the Brew anyway. My treat but… you're the one getting our orders. I can't go in there myself."

"What? Why?"

"Long story," she fended off his question, rolling her eyes. "Deal?"

Garner chuckled, shaking his head with disbelief. "Damn, girl. You are really something else."

Hanna looked at him, suspicious. When she finally heard him say "Deal!", she broke into a broad smile. "Let me just grab some stuff and I'll be ready in a minute."

XX

"It's the light blue one over there," Hanna instructed Garner who, as a consequence, slowed down and pulled to the curb.

"Whoa, this is your new house? I think I need to renegotiate my stake of the software deal with Caleb and Lucas," he said with appreciation as he took in the sight of his business partner's new home.

"Don't get your hopes up," Hanna laughed, "His mom's stinking rich and she's trying to prove a point by paying for half of it."

"Caleb hardly ever talks about his parents. All I ever hear are stories about you," he countered.

Hanna smiled, slightly intimidated. "Yeah, well… That's kind of a long story."Avoiding his gaze, she opened the door and got out.

Garner rounded the car and joined her at the tail where she had started unpacking. Looking into the trunk he finally saw the things she had thrown in there in a hurry while he had been sitting inside the car, calling his ex-girlfriend to try and win her back. Laughing, he said, "I see. So you only gotta pay half for that sassy shack, but there was no money left to afford proper furniture?"

Hanna gave a short laugh. "It's just this thing that we do whenever our lives are about to change big time," she tried explaining her unusual luggage of choice with her cheeks turning a light shade of red.

"Alright. Whatever works for you two..." He threw his hands up in defense before proceeding to help her hoist boxes to the sidewalk.

„Hi, Hanna!"

Startled, Hanna almost dropped the bag she was holding and jerked around to face the person who had approached her from behind and who's dainty voice had sounded oddly familiar in a place she had only been to once before. "Hey! Whoa, you scared me."

"Sorry!" Annie quickly said. She detached her kid-sized walkie-talkie from the belt loop of her ski overall and spoke into the receiver, "AlI-clear here. It's just the lady who came to see Mrs. Ferguson's house yesterday."

Hanna set the bag aside and knelt down on the asphalt, Caleb's words from the day before still ringing in her ears about how he had been treated as a little kid. "Who are you talking to?"

"My friend Molly," the girl said and secured her walkie-talkie again. "We saw an unfamiliar car driving along the street."

"Didn't your mommy tell you never to talk to strangers in the street?" Hanna asked her.

"But... you're not a stranger. We've already met. Have you forgotten already? I'm Annie!" she smiled at Hanna, flashing her toothy grin. "Besides, I always stay nonnimess."

"You what?" Hanna frowned.

"I stay nonnimess. Mom said real detectives always stay nonnimess, too," Annie proudly explained.

Hanna tried stifling a grin, but to no avail. "See, I did not know that. You're a very smart girl, Annie!" she told her, pressing her index finger to the little girl's belly.

"Are you buying Mrs. Ferguson's house?" she continued the inquiry.

"Uh, yeah. Actually, we are," Hanna smiled back at her.

"You and Caleb?"

"Yup."

"Then who's he?" Annie pointed her chubby little finger at Garner, who was standing by the car, sorting out his own baggage and Hanna's stuff in the trunk.

"Oh, um. Just a friend," Hanna answered.

The girl furrowed her brows as she looked back and forth between Garner and Hanna. "Are you a cheater?"

"Oh my god, Annie! No!" Hanna defended herself and burst into a laugh at the girl's absurd thoughts. "You know, actually, I was planning to surprise my husband tonight. And Garner..." she pointed her head in his direction and went on, "... was nice enough to take me here so that I can prepare my surprise."

"Oh, okay," Annie contented herself. Then, she dug into her pocket and held out her hand to Hanna. "My mom said I'm not allowed to take money from people for watching their car because I wasn't a ballet or something. So... here." Two shiny coins lay in her palm: the money Caleb had given her the day before. He had paid her a second quarter before they had left the perimeters.

"Will you accept the money if I told you I needed some information from you?" Hanna asked, ignoring the gesture.

Annie scratched her nose for a moment, thinking about the offer and then nodded at her business partner.

"I mean I guess I could ask Google but I would have to pay money for using my data anyway. What do you say?" Hanna took the quarters and shoved them back into the pocket of Annie's ski overall.

"What's a google?" the little girl frowned at her again.

"It's like an information desk somewhere in… India... I think," Hanna commented. Then she got up from her knee and looked at her watch. As much as she enjoyed getting to know her little next-door neighbor, it was about time she got started.

The creases on Annie's forehead deepened. But seeing the adult look at her watch, she got the notion and so she quickly grabbed her walkie-talkie and handed it to Hanna. "Here, take this. If you need any information, you can reach my information desk anytime except for when I'm sleeping."

Dumbfounded, Hanna took the receiver from her. That wasn't what had been on her mind when she'd asked for a favor from the little girl. "Thanks, Annie!" Craning her neck, she reached for her sling bag that was hanging over her shoulder, fidgeting to open the zipper.

"Annie?" a female voice suddenly yelled from an open window close by.

"Oopsy-daisy! That was my mommy. I have to go. Bye, Hanna!" the girl said and turned to leave.

When the toy had been stored away, Hanna looked up to say goodbye, but Annie had already taken off, running towards her home. She gazed after her for a long moment until her neighbor had disappeared inside her own house. Yup, she was going to like living here…

"Here you go." Garner came back from the driver's door and handed her the two items she had forgotten inside the car before he started carrying the heavy box from IKEA for her.

"Thanks." Hanna lead the way on the graveled path to the house with Garner tagging along behind her, then walked up the stairs. Juggling her two cups from the Brew in one hand, she fumbled to retrieve the key from her purse with the other while Garner was waiting with her at the closed front door. "I told our realtor that I needed to take some measurements and asked if she would lend me the key for one day," she told him, feeling like explaining her white lie to him would help shake off the feeling of sneaking into a house that wasn't theirs yet. However, there was a hint of pride in her voice for having come up with that idea. She turned the key in the lock and opened the door for them.

"Well, you have got to be a trustworthy woman if she believed you." Garner entered the house behind her and dropped the box in one corner of the foyer.

"Right now and above all I'm just a very desperate woman who almost broke out in tears in a realtor's office if I didn't get the chance to get my feng shui figured out before signing the escrow papers," she countered, leaning against the banister.

"And you need all this stuff to figure that out?" Garner laughed and looked around, not really expecting an answer. He let out a whistle, "Nice digs, Hanna!" But when he noticed that she didn't make a move to give him a tour of the house, he shyly shoved his hands into the pockets of his winter coat and fell silent.

"Thanks for the ride," Hanna said to him after a beat.

"No problem," he replied. "I hope you two will have a good time here tonight. "Tell Caleb I said hi and… tell him that he's very lucky." At that, he turned on his heel and quickly walked outside.

"So am I," Hanna called after him before she closed the front door. When she was alone inside, she leaned against the wood and quietly added, "Lucky enough for two even."

XX

Two hours later, it had gotten dark outside, and Hanna was standing in front of the vintage mirror in the dimly lit living room of a house that she and Caleb had decided to buy less than twenty-four hours before. It was almost unreal… the speed at which everything in her life seemed to change.

She was all alone in a sixteen-hundred square-feet house and she wasn't afraid at all. The excitement in the pit of her stomach had taken over the moment Garner had left, making her feel inebriated and nervous. Earlier, she had sent Caleb a text, telling him to meet her at the house after work. He had agreed to her proposition without asking any questions.

Expecting him to arrive any moment now, she checked her surroundings one more time. All around her, she had placed scented lavender candles, her favorite, and there were the two cups from the Brew next to a sleeping bag built for two underneath an impromptu tent assembled from ropes and curtains right in front of the bay window. A picnic basket with a bottle in a cooler was waiting to be unpacked.

Satisfied with her works, Hanna looked at her reflection in the mirror, unable to grasp the fact that the person she saw was about to become a mother later that year. She pulled up her hoodie and the t-shirt she was wearing underneath. Placing her hand on her flat abdomen, she enjoyed the remaining minutes alone with her little secret.

Crackling, the walkie-talkie, which she had placed on the mantelpiece earlier, cut through the silence.

"Did everything work out?" came Annie's whisper through the receiver.

Hanna grabbed her handset and answered, "Why are you still up? Yes, it did! Thanks. And say thanks to your mommy too from me, okay?"

"She wants to meet you in person tomorrow," Annie muttered.

"She will, I'll be coming by to give you back your detective gear. Now go to sleep. I'm turning this thing off now," Hanna said with more seriousness. When she couldn't find a switch, she removed the batteries… just to make sure… and put it back on the mantelpiece. No more interruptions from now on…

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door, followed by the sound of Caleb's voice calling her name. Hanna quickly adjusted her clothes and walked to the door to let him in.

And there he was. "Hi!" she greeted him, adding with exaggerated hospitality, "Welcome home, honey!"

Caleb stood on the stoop, holding out a bottle of champagne to her. "Hi. I thought you might want to celebrate something with me."

Her husband. Co-house owner.

Hanna stayed rooted to the spot and let his drop-dead gorgeous smile wash over her.

Father of her unborn child.

"Are you gonna let me in or are we having a porch party?" Caleb turned sideways, checking if he missed some clues. "Because if we do I need to get my sweater from the car." Finally, Hanna took the bottle from him and stepped aside to let him pass.

As soon as he had entered the foyer, he noticed the candles in the next room. "Mrs. Ferguson didn't pay her electricity bill?" he joked. "Hey, this looks…," he stopped when he realized the candles weren't the only thing Hanna had changed in the living room. "Whoa. We're glamping?"

Hanna laughed about his last word. "I figured since it's winter and our tent got ruined the last time we went camping, why not take it to the next level and christen the house the proper way?"

"No fire?" Caleb asked, his curved mouth and the sparkle in his eyes telling Hanna that it wasn't really a complaint.

"I couldn't find any firewood around here, so the furnace and the candles will have to suffice today," she stood with her hands at her hips, unsure what to do next. Fortunately for her, Caleb picked up his discovery tour of the room.

"Hey, good thing I bought the champagne. You only brought along coffee. Couldn't find anything for us to toast with at home, huh?"

"Would you just stop nagging?" Hanna poked him in the sides, prompting him to turn around to face her.

"Seriously, I love it," he relented before leaning over to kiss her. "And do you know what I love even more? That you brought our pillows." He quickly strode across the room and let himself fall back into the thick sleeping bag, his head landing on a soft pillow. A long sigh slipped from his lips, proving his contentment.

Hanna felt a small part of her nervousness fall off herself and smiled vaguely as she followed him to their sleeping arrangement. She replaced the water in the cooler with the champagne bottle and sat down on the sleeping bags right next to Caleb. "I'm so glad you got to finish work in time for dinner."

"Yeah, me too. This was a crazily busy day." He sat up again and peeled off his coat, revealing a black t-shirt underneath. The orange glow of the candles made his skin look even more tanned. "Hey, how did you get here? I didn't see your car parked in the front."

"I had help," Hanna quickly said and winked at him. That wasn't the right time to tell him about the little dent in her car that she had caused while out and about, nervously running errands after a crazy morning.

"What? Who? Spencer? So far, she's the only one who knows about this place," Caleb tried to resolve the secretiveness.

"Nope," Hanna stayed terse. But when she saw the puzzled expression on his face, she quickly added, "Garner came by today. He says hi, by the way."

"Garner was at our apartment?" Caleb exclaimed. "I let him crash at the computer lab and sent him home after lunch. What was he even doing there?"

"He brought me flowers," Hanna said matter-of-factly.

"He did what?" Caleb looked bewildered.

"He said he owed me something," she stated. "And then he told me he was on his way to Henry. And I remembered that Henry lived somewhere close by and so… I asked him for a ride."

"Well that was nice of him. Finally a chance for him to make good for all the favors he got from me in the past months." He reached behind himself and picked up the champagne bottle and some glasses that Hanna had deposited in the picnic basket. Caleb kept the bottle and handed the glasses to Hanna. Then, he gently popped the top off, careful not to spill it all over their sleeping bags. He poured the champagne carefully into the glasses that Hanna held out to him, and then set the bottle aside to take a glass from her.

He looked into her eyes as he tried to think of a proper toast, and for once Caleb was completely speechless. Instead of speaking, he leaned forward and touched his forehead to hers, just enjoying being close to her in their soon-to-be new home.

Hanna closed her eyes, knowing that if she continued to look into Caleb's warm brown eyes she'd start crying. Tears of happiness, to be sure, but tears nonetheless. And Caleb didn't like to see her cry. Heck, she didn't like to see herself cry. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. When she opened them again, her gaze was calm. She whispered, "This is nice, isn't it?"

"What is?"

"This. You and me. Here. In our house."

Caleb just smiled. He raised his head and looked around the mostly empty room. "Well, technically it's not ours yet, but my mom made a very generous down payment, so we should be safe."

Hanna chortled suddenly, her glass of champagne threatening to spill. "I never thought I'd feel so..." She tried to think of the right word.

"Domestic?" Caleb prompted, amused.

She stared at him. "No, actually, I think the word I'm looking for is... happy. I'm really, really happy right now."

"About starting over in a new town?" Caleb asked quietly.

"Yeah," she said and almost felt compelled to spill the beans. But simply blurting out the words wouldn't have done justice to the significance of the moment, Hanna thought. She had scrambled all morning to come up with a memorable way of giving Caleb the most important piece of news in their lives, and the perfect moment wasn't quite there yet.

He looked warmly at her. "Making you happy makes me happy, and that means in every sense and everyplace," he said, his voice becoming that ice cream tone that she loved even more than the real thing. "Here's to the start of a new chapter in our life. Here's to the wonderful years I hope to be spending here in this house with you," Caleb said before they finally clinked glasses.

"I love you," Hanna added quickly, stalling the inevitable moment of having to decide whether she should drink the alcohol or tell him right this moment why she couldn't.

"I love you, too," Caleb said back.

"There's one more thing Garner told me to tell you," she muttered.

"And what's that?"

"He said that you were lucky," Hanna told him quietly.

"Well, he's right." Caleb smiled at her, sincere. "I feel very, very lucky," Then, he leaned over and kissed her. "Now let's drink on it, shall we?"

Hanna gulped and then gasped for air. "Yeah, sure," she said warily before taking the tiniest sip from her glass and swallowing it before she quickly put the glass aside. "You know what, this champagne is not tasting all that good to me. And it also doesn't really go that well with the food I brought for us."

"Why? I always thought it went with everything," Caleb wondered out loud. "So, what kind of food did you bring? Do not say cold fries. I hate cold fries."

"No!" Hanna said and laughed. "There's pizza in the kitchen. I put it in the oven so it stays warm." She scrambled to get up, but Caleb gently nudged her down again.

"No, you stay. I'll get it for us." He set his glass down and got up. On his way to the kitchen, he stopped at the old mirror above the fireplace to quickly sort out his hair which he hadn't been able to do in the morning when he was getting out of the apartment in a hurry. Watching him, Hanna held her breath.

"Fuck, Hanna! Did you see this?" Caleb exclaimed with horror as he looked at the glass plate. Immediately, his eyes started searching all corners of the room.

In the semi-darkness of the room he had almost missed it.

"YOU'RE NOT ALONE. – B."

to be continued

I know, I know, I know... that wasn't what you came here for today. Please, bear with me... XO, Zip.