Author's note: I put more of Sydney's mom in here because I like her. She's the reasonable voice in Sydney's life and is always her cheerleader in my mind. I write her kind of like my own mom, actually.

Happy reading!

Chapter Twenty-Six

"So you're starting to look for a house?" Mom asked as we leaned inside the hood of a large farm truck. We were changing out the water pump.

"Yeah. We figured out the wish list and he's going to look for a few online."

"What's on your wish list?"

"A good space for Adrian's studio and a couple extra rooms for Jill's visits. I don't have a whole lot of needs. I've been living in my tiny house for a year. Anything is better than that."

She laughed. "I know what you mean. Your dad and I lived in some pretty tiny places at first. You're lucky you're marrying someone who's loaded."

It was my turn to laugh. "Yep, I'm pretty lucky. In a lot of ways. I guess I'll know when we see it."

She stopped working and looked at me. "There's something different about you."

"What something?" I asked. My hand went to my face. I probably had a ton of oil on my face.

She shrugged, a knowing smile on her lips. "Just something."

"I didn't think I was so obvious." I mumbled as I leaned down once more. "There's nothing you need to worry about."

"I'm not worrying. You're an adult. You know how to make good choices."

"I'm still…" I looked over my shoulder to the others working nearby. "I'm still a virgin."

"It wouldn't be the end of the world if you weren't. Just be smart about it, Sydney."

"I know that you want to be a grandmother, but we're not going to have any kids. At least not anytime soon. We're going to take every precaution. I can't afford it. And, well, with who he is…I don't want to think about that for a while."

She nodded. "I understand. Don't feel obligated. I would love a grandchild, but you're the ones who have to raise it. I won't be doing much more than spoiling your children. Spoiling them rotten. Not that your dad would let them in the house." She sighed.

We lapsed into silence. We asked each other for tools, but nothing else for the rest of the project.

Mom looked up at the clock as we finished up. "I think we can fit in one oil change each. Want to race?"

I chuckled. "Okay. But don't start until I get this monster outside." I hurried into the driver's seat and pulled it out of the building.

The race was a close one. Mom finished up just a few seconds before I did. He high fived and then took our cars outside. The day done, Mom went about sending everyone away and closing up. I lingered.

"Mom?"

"Yes, baby?" She sat down at the computer to look over the day's sales.

I leaned over the counter. "Do you think Dad would change for his grandchild?"

She looked up, taking her reading glasses off and examining me. "I don't really know. Being what your husband is, and what your baby would be because of that, I doubt it. But I would hope he'd change his mind. I always hoped he would. Three daughters later…" She sighed. "I really don't know, Sydney."

"It hurts." I admitted, feeling the sting of tears in my nose.

"I know it does. He asks about you sometimes. He pretends you're too far away for him to see you."

"I feel like I am most of the time. From him." My phone went off in my pocket.

"Go home. Be with your fiancé. And when you find a place, I'm throwing you a giant housewarming party."

"Thanks." I answered my phone as I walked out to my car.

"Hey, sexy lady." Adrian crooned on the other end.

I giggled. "Hello, handsome. What are you up to?"

"Well, I talked to a realtor. Do you feel like you could look at a couple houses today?"

"I'm pretty tired. But I guess."

"We don't have to, honey. We can do it this weekend."

"Let's go tonight. I'll come get you."

"Okay. See you soon."

I drove to Adrian's and he met me on the porch. He leaned over and kissed me. He smiled.

"What?"

"Your face is grease-smudged. Do you want to go in and clean up?"

"Probably would be smart. I'll be right out." I washed my face and changed my shoes. I didn't mind my clothes looking the way they did because most of the time I wore coveralls while I worked. But I didn't want to walk on the floors of potential homes and track garage gunk all over them.

When I got back into the car, I took the necklace Adrian gave me out of the center console. I took my engagement ring off the chain and slipped it on before I put on the necklace.

Adrian smiled. "I see you like to keep them close."

"Very close. If I worked anywhere else, I'd wear them all the time." I pulled out of the driveway and headed toward where he directed me.

I pulled in front of a house on the opposite end of the city from where we were currently living.

"I already don't like this place." I said as I got out of the car.

"And why is that?" He slipped his hand into mine.

"Because I was kind of hoping to stay close to where we are now. It's a nice area."

"This house is first because it's the farthest. I asked the realtor to keep in mind the neighborhoods where we both already live."

A car pulled up behind the Mustang and a man got out. He walked toward us.

"Dave O'Donnell." He held out his hand.

"Adrian Ivashkov. This is my fiancée Sydney." We all shook hands.

"First impressions?" He asked us as we walked toward the house.

"It's cute." I said.

The single story brick house was just that. I had nothing else to say.

"It's a three bedroom. A little dated, but with plenty of options to fix it up."

We walked through. The bedrooms were rather small, but it didn't matter much to me personally. There was an office Adrian could easily turn into a studio. I could tell Adrian wasn't a huge fan of the size of the office. The kitchen/dining room wasn't even that great. Mr. O'Donnell had said dated. It was just a nice way of saying non-functional.

When we were done looking at the rest of the place, Adrian and I exchanged a look and shook our heads simultaneously. We moved on to the next place more central to the city.

"This one is a little bigger. Four bedrooms this time, but no office. So one of the bedrooms could be made into your studio." He explained a bit more about it, but I didn't pay a lot of attention. The road out front was quite busy.

Adrian looked over to see me scrutinizing the road and nodded. I guess he understood my concern. Whenever we had children, we would have to make sure they couldn't escape into the front.

The inside of his house was quite a bit larger. I could see the small things we could do to make it better. But in the end, it didn't seem right. We were left alone to discuss.

"I don't hate it." I said as I walked around the kitchen.

"But you don't love it."

I shook my head. "What do you think?"

"The road makes me nervous."

"I could tell."

"He as a few more ideas. We could look at a couple a night if you want."

"Yeah, that sounds good."

We walked out and told Mr. O'Donnell our opinion. He nodded and we set up for the same time the next day. He gave us the address of the first house he planned to show us so that we could meet him there. The next houses were much closer than these had been. I looked forward to seeing them.

"I say we get some fast food burgers and go home." Adrian said as he buckled his seatbelt.

"I like that plan."

As we ate later, Adrian brought up the wedding. "What do we have next in line?"

"I'll have to look up the checklist, but we need to get the invitations out soon."

"I think I might know someone who can make them."

"Good. Will you make a call?

"Sure, honey. No problem."

"Well, I guess we could think about the food. Do we want to have a sit-down dinner or just finger foods?"

"It will be the start of the Moroi and dhampir day, so I don't know how many of them would want to have an actual meal."

"That's what I was thinking. Maybe we can do breakfast. That would be a nice twist."

He smiled. "It would be. Breakfast and wedding cake. What a way to start a life together."

I chuckled. "Yeah. Well, I hardly eat breakfast normally."

"I know that." He reached across the small table and took my hand. "So traditional American breakfast or do we want to get fancy?"

"I say traditional American. Pancakes and waffles made to order. Giant amounts of sausage patties and links and bacon. All the bacon. I love bacon."

"Good to know the way to your heart." I joked.

"The ideas are endless. I'm kind of excited about this now."

"Me too, actually." I squeezed his hand. "I have a couple more fittings for my dress. We still have quite a while, so some of these details can wait. But it feels good to have an idea now."

"Yeah. Quite a while." He sighed.

"Hey, what's that about?"

"I just want to be married to you."

I kissed his hand. "I call bullshit on that one."

He chuckled. "Well, that and I just want to have real sex with you."

"What we do is real. And you'll be okay."

"I know." He sat back. "So what do you think about the houses. What will sell you?"

"I don't really know, actually. Get your computer, let's look at some and get an idea."

For the rest of the evening, we looked through the site for Dave O'Donnell's realty company.

My eyes caught on a two story white house. It had four bedrooms on the second floor. On the first floor, there was a large living room and kitchen as well as a formal dining room and sitting room.

"I have a good feeling about this one." Adrian said.

"Yeah, me too. Send Mr. O'Donnell an email and tell him we want to look at that one tomorrow."

"Yes, ma'am." He smirked and opened his email.

We headed to bed not long after that. It had been a long day, so I reluctantly turned Adrian down as soon as he started touching me. He swore it was fine. I could tell it really wasn't. We fell asleep wrapped up in each other's arms.