My sip of wine went done the wrong tube. I coughed.

“You okay?” Levi put a hand on my back.

I held up a finger to tell Levi to wait. After another moment, I was ready to talk. “You bought us a house?”

“Yes. It’s currently in Levi’s name. When you publicly take his name this summer, you can add yours as well.” If I had any doubts before, I now knew for sure it was a bribe to get me to go along with the wedding.

Levi glanced at me one more time before returning his attention to Robert. “That was generous, Dad.”

“It’s nothing. You two deserve a proper home. After all, you’ll be starting a family before you know it.”

It’s lucky I hadn’t taken another sip. “Not anytime in the near future.”

“Not until after the wedding, of course.” Robert refilled his wine glass.

“Of course.” What I wanted to say was, not until I’m at least twenty-one. Considering my nineteenth birthday was well over a month away, we had plenty of time.

Levi squeezed my hand under the table. “Would you guys mind if we left? I’m sure Allie is as excited as I am to check out our new home.”

Helen removed the napkin from her lap, placing it on the table. “Of course. We took the liberty of furnishing it, but you can change anything you don’t like.”

“We?”

From the guilty expression on Helen’s face, she was definitely in on the surprise. As long as there wasn’t a nursery, complete with a crib, I would stay reasonably calm.

Chapter Five

“He bought us a house? Isn’t that a bit excessive?” I didn’t even wait for Levi to start the car before jumping in with the questions.

“Excessive for my dad is different than for other people.”

I could relate. My dad was the one who bought me a Land Rover for high school graduation, but still a car was different from a multi-million dollar house.

“Do you want to at least look at it?” Levi pulled out onto the street.

I chose my words carefully. He actually looked hopeful. “We can look, but I’m still moving back into the dorm when it opens.”

“Sounds good to me.” He slowed down as he turned onto a beautiful tree-lined street. There was a wide median down the middle with large oak trees covered in dangling moss. We were only a few blocks from campus, and I’d gone for a walk in the neighborhood before, but I definitely never imagined I’d have a house there.

“Oh. My. God.” My jaw dropped as Levi drove into the driveway of the large white house. It looked a lot like the Laurents’ house, eerily like it, but at least it was several blocks away. Two huge southern oaks, and a large magnolia dominated the well-manicured lawn.

I didn’t wait for Levi to open my door. I was out before he’d gotten around. “Wow, this place is huge.”

“It’s over 6,000 square feet.” Levi watched for my reaction.

“A little over the top, don’t you think?” I may have said it, but I was currently admiring the incredible exterior. Tall columns, extending both levels, gave the house a southern feel.

“Wait until you see the inside.” He took my hand and walked up onto the front porch. I touched one of the large white columns while I waited for him to unlock the door.

The inside was nothing short of spectacular. Tall ceilings welcomed you into the foyer. I stopped to take off my boots, not wanting to mess up the gorgeous wood floors or the rugs waiting for us in the living room.

“I think all of the bedrooms are upstairs.” Leave it to Levi to already be worried about the bedrooms.

“We haven’t even seen the kitchen yet.”

“Details, details.” He smiled; probably glad to see me enjoying our house. Our house… crazy.

The kitchen was beautiful—all dark wood and light granite countertops. “I might actually cook if I had this kitchen.”

He laughed. “Good to know—since you do have this kitchen.”

I kept exploring—discovering several closed off sitting rooms and a study. The part that got me was the dining room. It had a table that could seat sixteen, but that wasn’t the coolest part.

“Wow, is that a pool?” The huge windows taking up the entire back wall of the room provided a view of the backyard.

“Yes. And there’s also a hot tub.” He arched an eyebrow. “I’d love to check that out.”

“Don’t you want to go upstairs first?”

“Definitely.” He took my hand again before heading up the grand staircase.

We peeked into a bedroom. “Is this ours?”

He grinned. “First of all, I’m so proud that you actually called a room ours, but no. If I remember correctly from the virtual tour, that’s a guest suite.” He continued down to the end of the hall and pushed open the door. “This is the master.”

“Wow.” The room was enormous with a four poster king-sized bed in the middle. The quilt and sheets were both in various shades of red. “I have to see the bathroom.”

I ran my hand over the marble lining the edge of the soaking tub. “Okay, I change my mind.”

“About?”

“I want to stay in the dorms during the week, but we can stay here on weekends.”

He laughed before pulling me into his arms. “Does tonight count as a weekend since we don’t have class tomorrow?”

“We don’t have any of our stuff with us.”

“My mom helped set this up. Do you really doubt she took care of the details?”

“Wait, like in the safe room?”

“Take a look.”

I opened the door to the gorgeous shower that had more than enough room for two. Stepping in, I found my usual shampoo and body wash. “She’s unbelievable.”

“This was just their way of welcoming you to the family.”

“Are you sure you weren’t in on this?”

“No. I wish I had been. I can’t take any credit.” He put his hands on my hips.

“How did they do this so quickly?”

“You know my dad, it shouldn’t surprise you.” He ran his hands down my arm. “So what do you say?”

“About?”

“Want to stay here tonight?”

“I think I could be persuaded.”

“Oh, I’ll persuade you.”

He picked me up and set me down on the counter. My skirt rode up slightly, and the cool marble countertop made me shiver. “You won’t be shivering at the end of this.”