Summer of Loss

"I can live anywhere as long as it's with you."

Amanda lunged at me and we kissed. Not just a peck on the lip but a full, passionate kiss. Until Mrs. Kelly cleared her throat.

"Sorry," Amanda giggled. "I suppose we should look at the house."

The interior was fairly dated. According to the realtor, the previous owner had been an eighty-year-old widow, whose husband had been the one to build it. She passed away earlier that year of cancer. The house had been cleaned out since then and the heir, who lived in Europe, decided to sell it rather than renting it out.

"Wow," Amanda marveled, seeing the spacious living room.

"Ooh," she squealed, seeing the upstairs bathroom with a bidet.

"What are we gonna do with three bedrooms?" she asked.

"Well, I figured we could use one as an office and one as a gym. Or maybe Frankie gets her own room."

"Oh please, like she'd move out of our bedroom now," Amanda laughed. "Office and gym sound good. Or maybe we can keep one as a spare room for visits."

"We don't have to decide now. We'll have years. The rest of our lives."

Tears welled up in Amanda's eyes. She hugged me tightly.

"I love it," she said.

"You haven't even seen the pool in the backyard yet."

"There's a pool?" she squeaked.

"And the closest neighbors are a quarter-mile away."

"Write the damn check."

"Alright. I'll talk to Mrs. Kelly. You should still take a look at the backyard."

"How soon can we move in?"

"Depends on the paperwork. We'll still have to draw up the contract and I want to get a second inspection done. The bank has to release the money and so on. I'd say about a month?"

"A month?" Amanda groaned. "I don't even want to leave now."

"We've worked three years for this, you can wait another month."

"Yes," Amanda sighed. "I can wait another month."

"I love you so much, Mrs. Burke."

"Mmm, and I love you, Mr. Burke."

Amanda and I kissed. My heart fluttered in my chest. No matter how often we kissed, it felt as magical and wonderful as the first time.