My Hockey Alpha

Chapter 302

Bonus 2: House Hunting

Nina

The whisper of the wind and the distant hum of the campus came as a backdrop to our conversation. Enzo and I were sitting on the steps of our university dorm, a stack of housing catalogs spread out around us, dog- eared and underlined with no luck.

Enzo ran a hand through his hair, frustration clear in his furrowed brows. “Nina, none of these places feel right. They’re not…us.”

I looked at the houses in the brochures, all perfectly manicured lawns and cookie-cutter designs, and I had to agree with him. There was nothing that I hated more than a white picket fence and a perfectly mowed back lawn.

For the past couple of weeks, we had been house hunting almost nonstop. Neither of us wanted to continue living in our campus dorms once we were married. We craved the true privacy of a home, and we planned on staying in Mountainview for a long time, so we figured that now was as good a time as any to officially settle down and buy a home.

But the movies and TV shows made house hunting appear to be much easier than it really was. I always thought that it would just take a few houses and a good real estate agent before we would find the house of our dreams, but that wasn’t the case.

Everything that we looked at felt too cramped between other houses, too bland, and nothing had enough character to suit our unique lifestyle.

We both wanted space to run in our wolf forms, trees outside our windows, and the feeling of the ocean breeze on our skin; but it seemed that all of the houses that were available in the area were the exact opposite of that.

left with no choice but to either stay in the dorms or get an apartment downtown,

up because I knew that it was a soft spot for Enzo, but now, it seemed as though

I started, my voice almost tentative, “have you

stiffen at my words, and I could almost feel the pain radiating from him. His father had passed away hardly more than a

back since, not after finding it ransacked and

there on the cliff, dark and empty. It was like a coffin. Even just thinking

know how the house looked last time,” Enzo replied, a hint of despair in his voice. “I haven’t had the strength to fix it up. Plus, I don’t love

it our own,” I suggested, meeting his brown- eyed gaze. I was

shook his head, causing a stray brown curl to fall into his eyes. ” No, Nina,” he replied, his voice soft and low. “I’m sorry, but… The wedding is so close, you know? We won’t have any

fingers felt warm and comforting laced between mine. “Let’s go look at it, just once. Maybe it’s not as

us standing in front of the towering beach house. With its gray and square exterior and massive

when I looked at it, I saw

property, describing my vision for each room, how we could play with the natural light, the open spaces, and the amazing view of the ocean. I explained my ideas for renovations, for turning the old- fashioned architecture

the large archway to the kitchen. We can paint it a bright color. Something rustic and cozy. We can replace all of these metal cabinets with nice wooden ones, and we’ll

I continued, and led

table. With benches, maybe, instead of chairs… And over here, in the living room, we can get rid of all of this awful gray furniture and replace it

loud, but there was a tiny voice in the back of my head that wanted me to picture this place filled with a family, too. Kids… Lots of them. A whole little pack of pups. The thought of it made me blush, but I