© Carey MacLean, 2012

 Chapter 13

He had just driven up his driveway, parked, and was sitting in his jeep still, pondering over the events of the day.  Xavier couldn’t believe the recent turn of events.  The only thing to report to Saunders had been that each and every wife to the victims had been wiped from their suspect list.

Saunders had demanded that he and Connor got to work on the medical team.  He had been outright livid to find out that the duo hadn’t actually been looking into them.  Xavier knew when to keep his mouth shut and at five thirty, he did just that despite the fact he knew he was right in making sure all his possible loose ends were tied.

Shaking the ever growing frustrations away, he smiled at the possibility of what could be waiting for him beyond his home’s front door when Mika got home.

She couldn’t wait to get home to Xavier.  Throughout the day, she had mentally listed the reasons for and against moving in with one another.  Aside from the possibility of it all being quite quick and perhaps learning a bit more from one another, there had been no outstanding reason for her to be opposed to Xavier’s idea.  If she were being honest with herself, she knew that this move would altogether be great for her.

Watching the clock had been much like waiting and watching for a pot of water to boil.  It seemed to have taken forever.  When six o’clock rolled around, she didn’t even think of changing from her scrubs back to her street clothes; she simply grabbed her belongings from her locker and ran for the exit that would lead her to her car.

She was delighted to see that Xavier was home.  Letting herself in, she found him on the back patio with a beer and a flipper in hand.  Before making her presence known, she headed upstairs and quickly changed into a pair of her favourite shorts and an off-the-shoulder t-shirt.

He felt the squeeze of her arms from behind him while he pondered his latest idea.  Sure enough, work had invaded his brain again, up until he felt Mika’s presence.  That woman was magic in the way that her simple presence could take his mind off of work when any other time, the case at hand would plague him.

“Why hello Gorgeous,” he turned to greet her with a kiss.  “How was your day?”

“Better now that I’m home,” she smiled.  “What’s for dinner?”

Dinner was served shortly after Mika’s arrival; in a simple yet wonderful manner.  They had sat down at Xavier’s bistro set, their steaks, along with the side dishes and wine in hand.  The conversation flowed as usual and Xavier needed an answer to the question that was burning through him all day long.

“So, I have to ask,” he started.

She knew what he was getting at.  She barely had to think about it.  She knew it was quick and she knew that she’d most likely get some flack from friends and family members with regards to her recent impulsive behavior but she no longer gave a damn about them.

It’s time to live for me, she had thought to herself numerous times over the last few days.

That was what exactly had propelled her deep into this relationship with one, Xavier Ryans.  She smiled broadly at him.

“We’ll shack it up,” she told him with amusement in her voice.

She saw the momentary look of confusion spread across his face and then he clued in to her play on his earlier words from that morning.

“Really?”  He beamed at her.

“Yeah.  I’ve always hated that obnoxious house,” she snickered at the memory of it.  “I want to live where I’ve been happiest in God knows how long.”

“Are you sure?”  He asked her.

“I really am.  This house has seen much love.  It was your parents’ and now it’s yours.  I can’t make you give up those memories even if I wanted to, Xav.  Besides, I can have my garden here too and the kitchen is amazing as it is.  It’s all I liked from my place,” she explained.

“Then it’s settled.  But one more thing,” he paused.

“What’s that?”  She gave him a questioning look.

“It’s our house now,” he smirked, got up and pressed his lips to hers and took her plate back to the kitchen.

He sat in his car, observing it all.  It appears like something was going on with Mika’s house.  When he noticed the realtor’s sedan park itself in the driveway, the knotting in his stomach began to tighten.  He wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.  A pang of jealousy for letting some other man have his woman along with one of possession toward Mika was slowly bringing him to a breaking point.  He had told himself that he could wait and waiting is what he’d been doing but somehow, he wasn’t happy with that any longer.  He wanted her now and forever – there was no more waiting.

The shrill of his cell brought him out of his reverie.  Taking a look at the screen, he cringed in frustration.

“Where are you?”  He heard her whiny voice.

“Hi Sweetheart,” he tried to say with the faked smile plastered to his face.

His mother had always told him that if you spoke with a smile, people could hear it in your voice so he hoped it was the same thing for a faked one.

“Answer me dammit!”  She demanded.

He no longer knew what he ever saw in that woman.  Aside from a striking resemblance to Mika’s features, there was nothing Mika-esque about the woman.  So similar the two women were that anyone off the streets could have sworn that they were direct relatives; siblings even.

“My love, I’m on my way home from work,” he announced.

“I doubt that.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen,” he told her and promptly hung up, threw his phone on the passenger seat beside him and started the vehicle.

In that moment, he wished she was one of those men that his beautiful Mika had offed.  One of which he handled himself, in her name.  The problem was, he never believed in harming a woman.  He looked forward to the day where he upped and left her on her lazy ass.  The day he left her for Mika; the one where Mika herself would realize they were made for each other.

It was Saturday – moving day.  Xavier woke up early and went through his work email and attempted to sort out some last minute stuff pertaining to the case.  He hadn’t seen much of Mika since Tuesday night with the exception of sleeping in the same bed together.  She had wanted to go to the house and sort through everything before meeting with the listing agent to put the house on the market.  He never realized how much he’d miss the few short hours he had gotten used to spending with her in the evening.

Xavier had requested that she rent the place out but she had refused under the guise of the simple fact that she didn’t want to have to go back to that place again.  He missed his woman but was comforted by the simple fact that after the weekend, she would be all his.

“Good morning,” Mika came into the kitchen, barefoot and wearing a nightshirt.

She slipped her arms around his neck, from behind and kissed him in the side of his neck.

“Hey Doc,” he smirked.

“Are you ready for today?”  She asked excitedly and he couldn’t help the chuckle.

“Keep parading around dressed like that and we’ll never leave this house,” he told her, and pulled her around so she sat on his lap.

“Control yourself Handsome or I might be forced to change my mind,” she tried her best to keep a straight face but he knew her better than that.

“You wouldn’t.”

“You’re right.  I wouldn’t but it was worth a try,” she kissed him on the lips and quickly got up to pour herself some coffee and he sat there observing her as she got started on their breakfast.

Breakfast was completed and she sat at the table with Xavier as he ate and read the sport section of the morning’s paper.  She found herself replaying the series of events from the last few days.

She had convinced the Chief that she had personal matters to tend to.  In fact, she wasn’t that far from the truth.  Heading off a few hours early, she made her way to the house she and Carter once shared.  Mika and Xavier had decided that the weekend would be their time for moving.  She had three days to rid her property of any evidence that pointed in her direction or would arouse suspicion in her direction.

Her first mark had been her closet.  She pushed the button that led her to her secret closet of goodies and began sticking everything but a few pairs of her favourite shoes in a large black garbage bag.  She remembered of the colored contact lenses she had used that were still sitting in their individual containers in the bathroom and hurriedly went to collect them before she put it off and somehow forgot to rid herself of those as well.

Heading downstairs and out the side door to the garden, she was finally thankful for the large wood-burning outdoor fireplace her late husband had built.  She dumped everything in there and lit the fire.  Feeding a few logs, she stood there and watch the incriminating evidence ignite and quickly turn to ashes as the smoke began clearing.  She let the fire do its job and when she couldn’t see any trace of her alter-egos’ wardrobe, she headed inside and began packing the rest of her clothes away in boxes she had collected from a moving company.

Something needed to be done about the secret hatch of sorts.  She decided that it would simply be better to have the door and its electrical circuitry removed so to simply make it look like it was structured as an appealing design to any fresh eye.

Thursday and Friday was all about packing the rest of her belongings that she couldn’t part with as well as cleaning.  The contractor came by and did as she requested with regards to the closet.  The thing now looked like it had been designed with esthetically pleasing architecture in mind.  Friday morning, the realtor had come by to appraise the property.  The woman had been thrilled to find out that Mika wanted to leave all the furniture and appliances with the home.

Friday evening, she had managed to do a full walk-through of her soon-to-be ex property and made sure she hadn’t missed a thing.  Taking a deep breath, the feeling of freedom washed over her.

Xavier watched as Mika seemed to have floated away in her own world.  He had asked her if she was ready to get ready and get going as he finished reading his paper which prompted him to look at her over the pages.

“Babe?”  He beckoned her with no response.  “Gorgeous?”  She shook her head and looked up at him.

The deer in headlights look was a good one for her.  She looked adorable to him in that moment.

“Are you ready to get dressed and get going?”

“Yeah,” she quickly smiled and got up to collect their dishes but he stopped her.

“Go get dressed.  I’ll take care of this,” he told her and kissed her cheek.

He was shocked to see that all Mika wanted to bring with her was mostly clothing and a few personal items.  All in all, she had a dozen boxes or so, no more than that.

“Everything else you already have or I can replace,” she told him sheepishly when he asked her why there was such a lack of stuff.

“I don’t think this house was ever for you,” he chuckled as the two of them and Connor finished loading their respective cars with her boxes.

"What do you mean?”  Mika asked him.  “I mean, you’re right about that but what makes you say it?”

“Because you’re simple,” Connor interjected and Xavier nodded and she arched her brow at both of them.  “I don’t think I’ve ever met a woman that would just up and leave all of this behind for something less.”

“I think what Connor meant was that he never expected you to be a humble person.  I mean, I was leaning towards convincing you to live here but knowing you wanted to leave the nightmarish past behind, I never pushed,” Xavier explained to her. 

It was true.  It was a beautiful home and they could have been happy there but the fact that she wanted to leave the place as well as the fact that living in his house meant so much to her, as much as it did to him, he never bothered to change her mind.

“I don’t need a big house,” she told him.  “I just need you.”

They kissed and Xavier looked at Connor with a grin and witnessed his best friend rolling his eyes as he leaned onto the driver-side door to his car.

“You two are made for each other.  No one can tell me any different,” Connor blurted convincingly.

Her clothes were put away and her other personal belongings which were in the form of decorative pieces and artwork were slowly finding their home.  Xavier laughed as he watched that beautiful woman of his walk through every room of their house after they had returned.  He could tell that those tiny wheels in her head were turning.

“I can’t believe you barely have anything on your walls.  There’re no photos except for the few on your mantle,” she told him.

“That’s because we men don’t need all that esthetic stuff,” he chuckled.  “But it’s our home now and I’m looking forward to what you do to it to make it ours.”

She smiled at him as she placed a glass decorative dish on the table by the front door and set their keys in it; that being the first piece of hers to personalize their house.

“I don’t want to be doing anything on my own, Sweetie,” she pointed out.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he pulled her into him for a hug.

“I hope you’re handy around the house,” she smirked up at him.

“Oh.  You have no idea,” he eyed her playfully and captured her lips with his.  “Welcome home Gorgeous.  It’s official.”

He picked her up, helped her wrap her slender legs around his waist and twirled her as she buried her face in his neck and squealed like a giddy school girl.  He never knew he could be this happy.

                                          *************************************

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