The following morning, I woke up to not only sunlight streaming through the windows, but to arms wrapped solidly around me. Arms I never thought I would be back in again. I couldn't stop smiling.

I was still naked from multiple romps between the sheets last night, until we had both fallen asleep exhausted, yet finally satisfied. I didn't care that I was naked. I didn't feel self conscious about my body anymore. Ryan had kissed and marked every inch of me as his.

As much as I would love to stay in bed, I had things to do. I gently detangled myself from Ryan's arms, careful not to wake him. Judging by the generator still running, we were obviously still without power. As I was getting dressed, he woke up and gave me a smile that made me want to strip back down and crawl back into bed.

"What are you doing?" He asked, his voice still raspy from sleep.

"Need to let the dogs out and see if there's any damage from the storm." I replied.

Ryan got up and dressed and we left the bedroom together hand in hand. As soon as I walked into the hallway, I stepped into a puddle of water. I looked up and saw a rather large wet spot in the ceiling. Great. I pointed it out to Ryan, who frowned. Hopefully that was the only damage I had.

I did however smile when I saw Stormy curled up against Sturgill in the dog bed where they were both asleep.

"He's such a good big brother." Ryan said, then reached down to scratch behind Sturgill's ear when he looked up at us.

Ryan's comment made me sad however. "He'd be such a good big brother to human siblings, but I can't give him that. Ryan, are you sure about me...us?"

"Of course I am, baby. We have options. There's adoption...surrogacy. We could be foster parents. We have so many different possibilities we can look into."

I knew he was right, but I just couldn't help but think of what he was giving up.

"Don't even think about it Bree. I'm not letting you go again. We can still have a family. Blood or not doesn't matter. And if for some reason none of those options work, we still have each other. You can't convince me otherwise." He said sternly.

Before I could even come up with a response, I saw his eyes widen as he looked behind me into the kitchen. A huge chunk of ceiling was missing. It wasn't a complete hole, like I could see the sky through it, but the roof had leaked enough to have allowed enough rainwater to seep through, and the drywall just couldn't handle it. How the hell had we slept through that? Or were we too busy having sex?

I was now cursing myself for putting off having my roof replaced. It had been on my to do list a year and a half ago when I thought I was going to sell my house and move into our dream house with Ryan. Then things happened and I left town for a year and a half. "I was supposed to get the roof replaced." I said to Ryan, and then for some crazy reason, I burst out laughing. It was either that or cry, and frankly at this point, I was over crying.

"You've got insurance. It'll be fine." He kissed my forehead.

"C'mon, let's get these dogs out." I said, pushing the situation to the back of my mind.

As soon as I stepped out the door, I was blinded by the sunlight, and it took me a moment to realize why: the metal awning covering my front porch was gone. To my horror I saw it in a twisted heap wrapped to the front of my car, and my storage shed next to my car was completely collapsed.

I'm not gonna cry.

"It's okay baby." He wrapped his arms around my midsection from behind and kissed my temple.

"I guess insurance is gonna have to cover that too." I forced a smile. "Now the question is, is that going to fall on auto or homeowners?" I tried to make it a joke. Hopefully it was just cosmetic damage to my car. It could have been much worse and I needed to focus on the good that came from the storm, like reconnecting with Ryan.

We both looked around my storm ravaged yard, and once again, I was grateful I had no trees. There were a lot of shingles littering the lawn, which was obviously the source of my roof problems. Luckily the house was built up so flooding was not an issue. The pumps must have been working overtime because there wasn't nearly as much water as I had thought there would be.

Ryan and I were able to move the awning from my car. As expected, there were a few dents and scratches, but purely cosmetic. The ladder was still salvageable from the shed, so he climbed up and looked at the roof, which looked to have suffered quite a bit of damage in several areas. Yep. Thank God for insurance.

"Alright, good news. The storm wasn't nearly as bad in Huntersville. I have power. The bridge still has water, but it's drivable. Pack a bag and let's get out of here. Let's go home Bree."

"Home? You mean your house?"

"No. Our house. I bought that house for you. For us. It was always meant to be our home."

Was he serious? Granted, I couldn't stay here. No telling if the roof was going to completely collapse at any given moment, and the repairs could take a while, but he was asking me to move in already.

"Isn't it a little soon to be talking about moving in together? We did just get back together last night." I said.

"And I told you I didn't want to spend another moment apart from you." He reminded me. "We have a lot of time to make up for."

He was right. We did have a lot to make up for and I wasn't going to waste anymore time.

"Alright. Let's go home."

********

The house was even more beautiful than I remembered, but something was off. I realized a lot of the decor screamed Laken, mainly the mural of the New York skyline. The black lacquer end tables and dozens of black, silver and gold throw pillows were all Laken too. Flashy with not a lot of substance. More suited for a New York penthouse than a modern farmhouse. This look was not Ryan at all. Ryan liked a clean, neutral, warm look, not this cold, ultra sleek shiny shit.

"This will all be gone soon. Laken will be here this weekend packing up her stuff, then we can decorate this place together, like we planned. Which reminds me, I need to change the code." Ryan said, setting my suitcase on the floor.

I looked around at the charcoal grey couch and white and grey rug that covered the hardwood floors. These were nice, and looked more Ryan's style, but we also had two dirty dogs, especially Stormy. No way could I let her near that white rug.

"We really need to bathe the dogs, Sturgill can probably just be brushed out for now, but Stormy is a mess." I said, trying to change the subject. I really didn't want to talk about Laken.

"There's uh...a lot of Laken's things in the bathroom, and the bedroom." He warned me.

Ugh Laken again.

"I know. She lived here for several months. As much as we wish we could just snap our fingers and poof, it would all be gone, it just doesn't work that way. I'm fine Ry. I'm a big girl. I can ignore it." I kissed his lips softly.

I picked up Stormy and went into the bathroom, and as expected, it was full of makeup and hair products. Skin creams and styling tools. For someone who was supposed to be such a "natural beauty" she really relied heavily on beauty products. Okay that was a bit of a snarky thought, but I felt entitled to think it.

Deciding the shower was probably the easiest choice, I stripped down to my underwear and got into the shower with Stormy. She was actually very well behaved, she didn't try to get away from me at all.

After finishing up with Stormy's bath, I opened the shower door to see Ryan placing all of Laken's things into a large box.

"You didn't have to do that baby. I don't care." I said to him.

"I just want all traces of her gone." He sighed.

"And they will be soon, but if you insist, I'll be happy to give you a hand." I grinned, wishing I was a malicious person because I would love nothing more than to throw all of her expensive designer clothes into the street. Unfortunately, I just wasn't built that way. I was not a vindictive person. I was better than that."

"Nope. I've got it covered." He grinned back, and I felt like he was up to something, but nah. He wasn't vindictive either.

Instead, I shrugged and sat down on the floor with Stormy, determined to blow dry, brush and hopefully get some of the knots out of her fur.

"You're killing me sitting there in wet, see through underwear I hope you know." He said, his eyes raking over my body.

"Good. Hold that thought until later." I smirked at him.

By the time I finished with Stormy, she looked like an entirely different puppy. Granted it was dark last night and she was wet and dirty so i didn't get a very good look at her. Now clean, the majority of her fur was snow white with little patches of light and dark grey on her back and tan and black around her face and ears. I was able to get most of the knots out. Some I was able to comb through, some I had to cut out. Tomorrow I would need to take her to the vet, have her scanned for a microchip and get her checked out. Maybe next week, I could get her to a professional groomer. All in all, she looked so much better and was so damn cute. I had to remind myself not to get too attached. She might have someone out there looking for her, but my heart told me she was a drop off. I hope my heart is right.

When I got to the bedroom, I noticed the closet door was open and nearly empty. Two large boxes were there, overflowing with clothes and Ryan was in the process of putting sheets on the bed. My heart exploded with emotion. He really didn't have to do all of this, but I was actually glad that he did.

"Thank you baby." I said, setting Stormy down and wrapping my arms around him. I took a deep , cleansing breath and inhaled his scent as I laid my head on his shoulder. My heart overflowing with love. I really was home.