To the right of the hall was a sweet living room that had a fireplace with built-in bookshelves on either side of it.
“It’s just like Miss Trudy’s library,” Gael said excitedly. “Do the books come with the house?”
“Not usually,” Jenny told him gently.
“Good,” Gael said. “We can fit a lot of comic books on these if all those other books aren’t there.”
Jenny looked like she was trying to figure out how to remind him that this wouldn’t be his house. Erik wished he could tell her to let the boy dream a little, but it wasn’t his place. Besides, he had an ulteriormotive in letting them see how nice things could be here.
While he was watching her, Jenny’s eyes landed on the big window seat overlooking the front porch and the yard and her whole face lit up.
“Oh, wow,” she said, hurrying over. “Look, Gael, there’s room for two people to sit here and read.”
Gael joined her in a flash, and the two of them climbed up without another word and gazed out the window, looking like characters in a fairytale.
“I really like this house,” Gael told her quietly after a moment.
Erik stepped back a little, not wanting to hear her remind the boy that it wasn’t really for them.
Why can’t it be?
“I’m so sorry about that,” Sloane said as she headed down the hall, tucking her phone back in her pocket. “How’s it going here?”
“We love this one,” Gael said excitedly, launching himself off the window seat and running to her. “It has bookshelves and a window you can sit in.”
“A window seat,” Sloane said, her face lighting up. “Yes, that’s one of my favorite things about this house.”
“What’s your other favorite thing?” Gael asked.
“It’s in the backyard,” she told him.
“Can we see?” he asked.
“Of course,” she told him. “First, you can see the dining room and the kitchen on the way.”
“Okay,” he said politely.
What a nice kid,Erik thought to himself, trying not to laugh out loud.
The dining room was very nice—not anything grand, but it fit a table that seated eight just fine and had walnut wainscoting and a view of the rose bushes in the side yard.
“The kitchen has potential,” Sloane said as she led them back.
It was certainly a cheerful space with its white wooden cabinets, even if the formica counters were a little worse for wear. Bright Christmas towels were proudly displayed, and a couple of pretty aprons hung from a hook by the back door.
“There’s a small back porch,” Sloane said, opening the door to it. “And a nice backyard.”
Cold air rushed in as they all followed Sloane out to a nice little back porch with a hammock as well as a wrought iron café table and chairs. The yard was fenced, and also surrounded by arbor vitae that Erik thought would look beautiful with Christmas lights in them.
“There it is,” Sloane said dreamily, pointing to the big maple at the center of the yard. “The perfect tree for a treehouse.”
She wasn’t wrong. Though its branches were bare, it was easy to see the big tree was in excellent health. And it did have a pair of thick branches thatwould make the perfect anchor for a treehouse foundation.
He glanced at Jenny, but her eyes were on Gael.
The little boy was gazing at that tree, practically trembling. Erik could see it all through his eyes, and it was so much sweeter to imagine what it would be like to be a child here, secure in a treehouse fortress, looking out over the yard and the house, feeling at home.
“I can really picture us here,” Gael said, his eyes still on the tree. “We would be really, really happy in this house.”
