“Good luck out there,” Ward said.
“Have fun,” Trudy told them.
“We always do,” Gael said happily, heading for the door.
They all stepped outside, but Jenny waited for a moment when she reached the top of the steps.
As Gael dashed down the snowy walkway to the SUV, Erik couldn’t help watching after him, moved by the perfect portrait of childhood.
Jenny looked up at Erik with a faint smile on her face, as if she were wordlessly telling him she had been thinking the same thing.
His heart surged with emotion, and he was grabbing her hand before he realized what he was doing, squeezing it lightly in his and praying she didn’t pull away.
But Jenny’s smile only grew softer, and she squeezed his hand back.
How am I supposed to hold back when she looks at me like this?
11
ERIK
Erik headed for the SUV with Jenny’s hand still in his. It was a cold, bright morning—his favorite kind—and he was with his two favorite people.
He was going to have to be very, very careful today.
I can do this,he told himself.I can go look at houses with my pretend fiancée and my pretend son-to-be and not lose myself…
“The sky is so big here,” Gael remarked, looking up at the swirl of gray overhead.
“That’s because there aren’t any tall buildings,” Jenny told him. “Usually, those block our view, don’t they?”
“Looks like more snow today,” Erik remarked.
“Are you okay to drive in it?” Jenny asked worriedly.
“Definitely,” he told her. “You know how it is. Wehave to get used to that around here, though normally not much until January. But we’ve had a couple of years in a row with early snow.”
“It’s nice to have snow for Christmas,” Gael said.
“I agree,” Erik told him.
He walked Jenny to the passenger side, his hand feeling empty as soon as he let go of hers.
When they had all piled into the SUV and buckled in, Erik started the engine.
Anticipating Gael’s request, he turned on the radio. Elvis Presley was in the middle of crooning “Blue Christmas” and Gael started singing along right away. It was so cute that it was hard for Erik not to chuckle, but he didn’t want the boy feeling self-conscious.
“The first one is out here in the countryside,” Erik told them. “We’re meeting the agent there.”
“Is that what you’re hoping for?” Jenny asked him. “A big country house?”
“I’m not really sure,” he admitted. “I asked Sloane to set up a range of houses, so we could get a sense of what was available. Lydia and I had never really discussed a house, so I thought it would be good to see different kinds of things.”
“Oh,” Jenny said, seeming surprised.
Thinking about it, he realized itwaskind of odd that he and Lydia hadn’t dreamed about houses. They hadn’t really talked about kids either.
Maybe we both knew that what we had wasn’t the real thing…
