When Isabelle and Simon got home from their honeymoon, they promptly moved out of the apartment. Jace had been trying to talk me into moving out to the beach house since then, but I just wasn't ready. It's not that I wasn't ready to live with Jace because he basically lived with me anyway, but I wasn't ready to leave the apartment. Isabelle and I had lived there for five years and it was my home. I had also just opened my studio and didn't want to be so far away. It was generally a sore subject between us.

Jace kicked his training into high gear as soon as Simon was back in the gym. It had been a month since the wedding and I was adjusting to life without Isabelle in the next room. We still had our weekly girl's nights, but they mostly happened at Izzy and Simon's new house, which was half an hour away. I was extremely happy for Isabelle, but I was beginning to miss having her right there, next to me every day. When I wanted to hang out with my best friend, one of us had to get in a car and drive instead of just walk down the hall. I didn't know every detail of her life and she didn't know mine. We weren't Clary and Isabelle anymore. We were Simon and Isabelle, and Jace and Clary.

One night, Isabelle had invited us over for dinner and Jace and I decided to stay at the beach house for the weekend. I just knew that he would try and use this opportunity to convince me to move out there for good. We went up early Friday morning so we could enjoy the day before going over to Simon and Isabelle's house. As I was cooking lunch, Jace's arms wrapped around my waist from behind. I leaned back into him and breathed in the scent of him.

"You look good in this kitchen," he said as he rocked back and forth.

"Jace, don't start," I warned. He turned me around in his arms holding onto my waist. I leaned back against the counter so I could angle my head up to look him in the eyes. "I told you I wasn't ready to move out here, which is not to say it will never happen. I just need a little time."

"And I just can't wrap my head around that. It makes absolutely no sense to me."

"It doesn't have to make sense, Jace. It's just the way I feel right now."

"Is it the house, because we can sell the house and buy a different one. I just want to start our lives together and I figured this was the first step."

"I think the first step would be getting married, but we shouldn't even be thinking of getting married right now. You have your training and in case you haven't noticed, your deadline is six weeks away. I have more shoots than ever at the studio and it's just not the time for us to take this step. We basically live together anyway, so I don't understand why this is such a big deal for you. Plus, you're training like crazy right now. You already don't get home until almost midnight and now you want to add a commute on top of that?"

"Dammit, Clary." He pushed away from the counter to begin pacing while running his hands through his hair. "We live in the apartment you have lived in for five years with your best friend. Excuse me, if I want to start our lives in our own home, even if it means for the next couple of months I get home a little later than usual. I never said I didn't want to marry you, either. In fact, I've said the exact opposite, but you're right. We have too much going on right now to think about getting married. That doesn't mean that we have to stop progressing in our relationship, though and I feel like that's what you've done. You've pressed the brakes."

"I'm really sorry you feel that way, because the last time I checked we were progressing just fine. You're the one who wants to go warp speed. You forget that I've been burned in relationships before. You can't blame me for being cautious."

"Have I ever given you a reason to be cautious?" We were standing on opposite sides of the kitchen. I crossed my arms over my chest and shrugged my shoulders. "Exactly. I have given you every reason to believe in this relationship and until now, I thought you did."

"I did." I took a tentative step toward him. "I do, Jace. I believe in you more than you could possibly know."

"Then why does it feel like you're pulling away?" I didn't want him to feel that I was pulling away, so I darted into his waiting arms. I wasn't pulling away, I needed him more than he knew.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me. I love you so much and I want nothing more than to spend my life with you." He held me tight, like he was afraid I would pull away, so I squeezed him tighter to reassure him. He dropped a kiss on the top of my head. "This house is amazing and I promise we will live here one day, but I'm not ready to leave everything about my old life behind. My best friend just got married and moved out of our apartment. She's not there anymore and I guess I just don't want to leave the one thing about that life that I still had behind. It's stupid."

Jace ran his hands up and down my arms before pushed me back so I could see him.

"It's not stupid. I just wish you would have explained this to me before. I would have understood, Clary."

"I know, I'm sorry." I closed my eyes and a tear slipped from my eye.

"It's okay. We're okay." I nodded as he wiped my tear away. "Now, kiss me and make it all better."

I started to laugh, but his lips cut me off as he brought his mouth to meet mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck and grasped the hair at the nape of his neck as I stood on my toes. Jace bent his knees to lower himself to my level. Finally, he gave up and lifted me into his arms and I wrapped my legs around his waist. He started walking in the direction of the couch and sat down. I settled myself on his lap and held his face in my hands. When he removed his mouth from mine and started kissing along my jaw and down my neck, I noticed the time.

"Hey, we are supposed to be at Simon and Isabelle's in half an hour," I said as I tried to push him away.

"Who cares," he said with a growl. "Do you realize how many times we've waited for them while they were getting busy?"

I chuckled and gave in for a few more minutes until Jace's hands went for the hem of my shirt.

"Jace, no. Come on, let's go." He made a noise of disproval before standing and lifting me with him. I lowered my feet to the ground and reached up to kiss his cheek.

We ended up being twenty minutes late because Jace couldn't take no for an answer. When we knocked on Simon and Isabelle's door, I knew that something was up. First of all, Simon and Izzy answered the door together and couldn't get the ridiculous smiles off of their faces. They seriously looked like they were going to murder us. Isabelle took my hand and led me to the living room while Simon and Jace headed to the kitchen. It wasn't lost on me that Simon was cooking and Isabelle wasn't. That girl couldn't make toast. She handed me a glass of wine as I sat down on the couch. I took a sip and noticed that she had a full glass on the table that didn't look like it had been touched.

"So, how's married life," I asked breaking the silence.

"Oh, you know…" She trailed off as her gaze was redirected toward the kitchen. Simon and Jace appeared in the doorway, carrying plates to the table. I was yanked up from the couch and taken into the dinning room.

I sat down in the chair next to Jace and he leaned over to kiss my cheek and place a hand on my knee under the table. Simon loaded up all the plates with food and passed them around the table. Once we were situated and eating, I couldn't help but notice that Simon couldn't stop staring at Isabelle. It was weird, even for them.

"Okay, what's going on," I asked setting my fork down and folding my hands. Jace leaned back in his chair and threw his arm around the back of mine, resting his hand on my shoulder. He gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Well, we invited you here tonight because we have something to tell you," Isabelle said calmly as Simon held her hand on the table. I nodded and Jace leaned forward as Isabelle continued. "I'm pregnant."

"I knew it!" I jumped up from my seat to meet Isabelle, who was already on her feet, on the other side of the table. I hugged her tightly and tried to stop the tears in my eyes from falling. Screw it. I let a few tears fall before pulling away from Isabelle and swiping at my eyes. Jace and Simon were shaking hands and patting each other on the back. "This is amazing! I'm so excited for you guys."

"I know," Simon said as he walked up and kissed Isabelle on the cheek, resting his hand on her nonexistent pregnant belly. "We're pretty excited, too. We went to the doctor the other day and heard the heartbeat. She cried her eyes out."

"Oh, like you were any better," Isabelle said looking up at Simon like he was the only person in the room.

Jace and I left soon after we ate dessert and made plans to have them over for dinner soon. I was already planning the baby shower in my head, hoping they were having a girl so I could let all of my girly tendencies out on this baby. I was silent for most of the ride home, lost in my thoughts and happiness for our best friends. Jace reached over to hold my hand and rubbed his thumb along my knuckles before bringing it to his lips to kiss the back of my hand. That broke me out of my spell and I looked over to him to see the far off look in his eyes. I wondered what he was thinking, but decided to lean over and rest my head on his shoulder instead of asking him. The moment was too peaceful to give it up.

I dozed off before we made it back to the beach house, but I knew what I needed to tell Jace. I just needed to find the perfect way to do it, especially after our argument earlier that day. When Jace pulled me from the truck and carried me to the house, I woke up and nuzzled into his neck, placing a tiny kiss on his pulse. He held me tight as he carried me through the house, out the back door and onto the beach.

When we were situated on the sand with me sitting between Jace's legs and my back against his chest, I took a deep breath.

"What are you thinking about, Red," he asked as he kissed my temple.

"When did we grow up," I asked rhetorically. "Isabelle and Simon are married with a baby on the way. I have my own photo studio and am in a meaningful relationship. Why can't I walk away from that apartment?"

"Because it's the last thing that makes you the old you," he whispered insightfully. "But you're not the old you. Even I can see it, Clary. You're not the scared and shy little girl who lived in that apartment with Isabelle. You're brave and confident and beautiful and I think it scares you to know that you've changed. You felt safe and protected in that apartment and now that Isabelle is moving on with her life, you don't want that feeling to go away."

I let his words sink in before I turned around to sit on my knees and take his face in my hands. "It's not the apartment that makes me feel safe anymore, Jace. It's you and I'm sorry that it took me so long to realize that, but when I heard Isabelle say she was pregnant today, I knew that it was time to let the apartment go. Those were some of the best years of my life, but I was also hiding behind the comfort of Isabelle always being there. I've learned that I can be there for myself and sometimes I can even be there for you."

"You are there for me in ways you can't even imagine, Clary. I wouldn't have been able to get through the last year without you."

"Jace, I love you and I want to make this house our home."

"Really? You'll move in here with me?"

"Ye —" He cut me off and pulled me to him, fusing our mouths together. He lay back in the sand, taking me with him. It was dark and there was no one else around. Just the sounds of the waves crashing filled my ears and I felt completely content in that moment. I was ready to live here and have a home. I was ready to walk away from my old life and live the life Jace and I wanted to live. If every night ended like this for the rest of my life, I would be completely fine with that.

Jace and I stayed on the beach for what felt like hours before finally peeling apart and heading up to bed, our bed, in our bedroom, in our house.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a while, but like I said before it's almost impossible for me to write when I'm on a break from school, which is completely counter intuitive. I tried, I really did! Anyway, we're getting close to the end, but I don't want it to end because I really love this story. Since I'm getting close to finishing the story, I don't think Jonathan will make an appearance. Perhaps there will be something about him in the epilogue, but I feel as if I've put the Jonathan part of the story to rest. Now it's about Jace and Clary moving forward in their relationship, careers and lives.

I'm also going to need to start thinking about my next fic soon and I've decided to keep going with the sports theme. I try to write about sports that I have a knowledge about and sports that are different from the usual ones people usually write about. If you have any ideas or have a sport you would like me to write about, let me know!

Sooo, there's me spiel. Let me now what you think and leave a review! I love you all! :)