"Stop doing all that Thalia." Heath speaks, holding on to the handle with two fingers.

"Doing what? This?" I step on the breaks again and he snaps his head towards me.

"Please, you're such a drama queen. My driving isn't that bad. I'm better now." I tell him and proceed to drive properly.

Heath still thinks that I'm going to speed and crash us into a tree because dad put that in his head by telling him I ran over a squirrel once. Twice but still.

"Now let me do my thing. You just sit there and look pretty." I glance at him and he seems to have relaxed.

"My little passengers princess." I smile at him before focusing on the road ahead of me.

"You just passed a red light." He grunts and I guess it's possible that I did.

"Didn't look red to me."

"Then you must be fucking colorblind." He tells me but I won't have it.

"Hey, don't use that kind of language in my car." I've been using anything to mention how this is my car. All that hard work of wiping off tables and tips plus savings since high school payed off.

I brought myself a little red car, just for me. It's Just what I wanted. Look at me being independent now.

"Your used car. The damn engine sounds like it's going to give up any second." He continues to insult me and my precious car.

"Just because it was the only car in the shop that I could afford doesn't mean it isn't any less special. You should know that." I let out a sigh.

"I've taught you better than to judge something based on looks." I add.

"Looks is the last thing I'm judging on. I'm judging the way it sounds." He says.

"Don't get smart on me Heath." I'd point my finger at him right now but I'm too busy trying to not let us crash.

He falls silent after a while and the both of us listen to music all the way to my dads house. Apparently dads been doing just fine without me, Ciara moved in with her son which I have to say I'm pretty okay with. They're cool people.

I pulled into the driveway, parked crooked but still, I parked. I grab some of our shopping bags from the car after our quick stop at Target earlier.

"You grab that bag, and don't drop it. The candles are in there." I tell Heath, he does what I say.

I grab two of the shopping bags from the back seat and then start walking towards the door with Heath by my side.

"Can you not walk straight either?" I hear Heath speak but I'm too busy trying to follow the pattern of leaves on the ground to step on.

"I'm stepping on the crunchy leaves. I love doing that." I stare down at the fall leaves everywhere. Hearing the crunch is the satisfying part.

I hear him mutter something under his breath before stopping right at the door and becomes frozen. He looks back at me as if he was waiting for me or something.

"You can ring the door bell it's okay, I give you permission." I joke but even then he doesn't reach for the bell.

"You do it." He argues even though he's the one with the free hand, my hands were full.

I reach for the bell and push it, right away Dylan opens the door with the same sulking look on his face that appears like he doesn't want to be here but I've come to realize that's just his resting face.

"Yeah?" He asks, without a care in the world. His hair was messy and he was wearing a patterned dressed shirt that I know his mom made him wear.

"Hello!-" He slams the door in our face.

Or so I thought because Heath had his foot out to avoid the closed door. He places a hand to the door and with force opens it.

"Move" Heath says with a serious look on his face and that's all it takes to get Dylan out of the way.

"Dad! Your favorite child is home!" I shout, looking around everywhere. I make subtle eye contact with Dylan for a split second.

"Dylan's home?" I hear dad say and I turn around to see my little old pops. I've missed him to say the least, I cried myself to sleep for two days after moving out.

"No. Me obviously." I frown and he moves in for a hug, one of those bear hugs he likes to give. I learned from the best.

"Back already? Did you miss me that much? Ready to move back in? I've got your room set up just as you left it." He rushes into conclusions once again. Typical.

"You invited us." I said, trapped in his hug still.

"Right. How's it going living together? Any regrets?" He crosses his shoulders.

"Only when he starts to snore but no." I move closer to Heath who was standing to the side.

"I don't snore." He gives me those eyes that tell me he's annoyed with me.

"He's in denial." I pat his shoulder.

"But I brought you presents! Where's Ciara?" I ask, ready to drop everything I was holding.

"In the kitchen." Dylan answers me and leads the way there.

I followed everyone there until hearing the sound of my phone ringing. I stumble a bit trying to holding everything still, Heath turns around seeing me struggle.

He takes the bags off my hands and I smile up at him. What a gentleman.

"You go ahead, I have to answer this. It's Noa." I tell him and he listens.

"Hello, Noa?" I ask worriedly, usually she texts before she calls so I worried something happened.

"I'm having girl problems." I hear the panic in her voice.

"Sorry, I tried texting you but you wouldn't answer and I needed some advice so I just called. Are you busy?" She asks, ranting.

"Uh. No." I lie, I try to make myself available for my friends.

"Sorry I'm calling but anyways getting to the point. What does it mean if a girl sends a Purple Heart emoji? Like is it purple because we're friends or are you flirting with me? I need to know, Thalia. I need to know." She explains and I'm a little lost.

"Uh yeah, she definitely wants you. That's what it means." I go with her flow, In reality I actually had no idea what the heck that meant. I only ever text Heath.

"Good. That's what I thought too. Alright I'll get out of your hair, see ya." She hangs up and I shake my head at her. She must be in love to be worrying that much.

I put my phone in the back of my pocket and walk into the kitchen to walk into a heart warming sight. Dad and Heath were having a heart to heart moment because I walk in at the perfect time to see dad go in for a hug.

Heath never let anyone else but me hug him so I'm a little surprised that he allows dad to but I loved seeing them get along.

"What's going on with you two? You didn't turn against me and fall for my dads charm did you Heath?" I said getting both of their attention, Heath quickly moves back away from him.

"No, no, nothing like that. Just needed to get a feel of what you liked hugging so much." Dad brushes off but obviously I don't believe it. I'm not dumb.

I look back at Heath to see him looking at me, I reach for him and he pulls me into his chest embracing me against his warmth.

"Thalia, Heath! Sorry I wasn't there to greet you at the door. Foods still in the process but feel free to grab anything you'd like from the fridge." Ciara sends a friendly smile as she walks back from the pantry.

"You've decorated the house nicely." I compliment, there's picture frames and flowers in every corner. She's got taste.

"Ah, I even got the chance to do some bonding with Dylan. Wanna show them the thing we made?" Dad seems to have an understanding with Dylan.

He walks into another room before coming back with two frames.

"We did portraits of each other, here's Dylan's." He holds up a stick figure painting with glasses and a few lines as hair.

"And here's mine." Dads obviously looked a whole lot better being the artist here, he really captured the frown on Dylan's face.

"I don't look like that." Dylan mutters with arms crossed.

He looks exactly like that. At this pace he'll have frown lines by fifteen.

"You do." Heath adds fuel to the fire from behind me before someone else changes the subject.

Eventually Ciara's finished with her cooking, I didn't realize dad had a professional chef as a girlfriend because she knows how to cook.

"This is delicious, you even got Heath to finish it all and he's a real picky eater." I tell her, eating the pasta up.

"Well I'm glad you enjoyed. I'll serve you a plate to go." She smiles.

Heath nods and patiently waits until Im done eating too.

"Heath and I brought you two something. Consider it a welcome gift since you're now apart of my dads life and mine too." I tell Ciara, sweetly.

"I picked this one out and Heath picked out the vanilla scent out for you dad." I had both of them each their own candle.

Heath and I dedicated a whole half an hour to smelling each and every scented candle at the Target. That's a priority. He enjoyed that too much.

"Thank you, I've been meaning to light up some candles for the new season." Ciara opens up my candle and gives it a nice sniff.

"Did you get me anything?" Dylan asks.

"No." Heath quickly answers him and I let out a chuckle at his quick annoyed responses at Dylan.

"Heath didn't think that was necessary but I brought you something anyway." I reach for the other shopping bag and take out a smaller pine scented candle.

"Here ya go. You're welcome." I place it in front of him just for him to look at it in disgust.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" He snaps.

"Dylan! Be nice. I'm sorry about that guys, usually he's nicer." His mother tells him.

"Sure let's go with that." Dad whispers under his breath until Ciara gives him a look.

Once everyone was done with lunch Ciara and my dad go back into the kitchen to clean up and I let them because two people should be enough to wash and dry dishes.

Just as Dylan was about to stand and do whatever it is he does, probably sulk in his room Heath steps in front of him.

"Sit." He told him with a serious look on his face, his jaw clenched and with one look Dylan sits.

"You're going to be grateful she brought you this because I wouldn't have brought you anything with this attitude you got." Heath points at me, I watch this whole thing unfold without a peep but I'm staring hard.

"Now go up to your room and light this up." He puts the candle in his hand and Dylan stares down at it.

"But I don't even like the smell of pines.."

"Did I ask if you did?" Heaths voice slightly raises as he leans forward.

"no.." Dylan sighs before standing up and going upstairs.

"Fuck." Heath mutters once he's gone before looking at me.

"You done?" I ask and he nods.

"He's a little shit." Heath

"He may be. But he's family now, my dad seems to be so in love with Ciara." I cross my arms.

"That makes me want to cry happy tears." But I won't as much as I want to.

"You cry a lot." He's wrong but not, I've cried more times alone than with someone else in the room.

"I don't even cry that much so don't start with me Heath." I point my finger at him, I forgot he likes when I do that so I quickly put it away.

I realize he's gotten closer in the time I've been talking and he's smirking which is never a good sign.

"What?" I quickly glance up at him.

He sucks his teeth and looks away before shaking his head.

"Nothing" He says but I don't believe it's nothing .

"You're so weird sometimes, Heath." I shake my head at him.

"But that's why we're perfect lovers." I wrap my arm with his and walk with him to the kitchen.

"Oh, also maybe don't mention anything about your tattoo to my dad just yet. I'm waiting to tell him that." I whisper to him.

In reality I don't think he would be too upset over that anyway, I just wanted to be the one to tell him first.

We spend another hour at my dads house before we finally go home. Heath reminded me of a kid asking if we could go home every five minutes. He can really be Whiney when he wants to be.

Finally back home, Heath and I hang out just the two of us in the living room with the dogs as we make our plans for next summer. Apparently Canada was out of the picture when Heath brought up Italy.

I remember alway wanting to visit Italy ever since I discovered Pinterest. I can't wait to see Heaths Italian side come out once where there. I think Canada can wait. Italy is much more romantic anyways, wherever we went I'd be happy just being by his side.

"I promise you'll like it." He leans down to kiss my hand.

"I'll like wherever if you're there." I smile so hard in his face that my cheeks feel sore.

He turns his head as he shakes it lightly, sort of cringing.

"Yeah, I cringed a little too." I shake off my shudder.

"Good. You're self aware." He nods once before turning on the tv and wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

————————————————————-

A/N

Hey guys....

How's life going for u

I hope u enjoyed this chapter. I realize that I have no idea how to end a story so if it's a little messy that is my bad. ✋🏼😣

Anyway thanks for reading as always

11/22/22