Page 18 of One Good Puck
“That is so cool!” Emma squeals. “I can do the backstroke. And butterfly.”
“Very impressive,” Gavin says. “It took me a while to master the butterfly stroke. I bet you’re way faster than me.”
“We should have a contest,” Emma says.
Gavin laughs.
She turns to me. “Mom, can we go outside and check out the pool? Please?”
“In a minute, honey. Gavin was going to show us the upstairs rooms first.”
We follow him up the staircase to the second floor.
“I’m in the master bedroom on the far end,” he says. “And I use the guest room on this side as my office. But these three guest rooms are all free to use.”
He stops at each one so we can look at them. They all have a bed, end tables, and a plush armchair in the corner. Emma runs into each one and hops on top of every bed, making Gavin laugh again. I shake my head.
“I get it. You have to try them all out before you make a decision,” he says. I chuckle.
“There are five bathrooms total in the house. Two downstairs, the master bathroom, and then two up here.”
He walks over to both of them so we can have a look.
“So you wouldn’t have to share a bathroom. You’d each have your own,” he says.
“I get my own bathroom?” Emma’s voice is hitched up in excitement. Gavin nods.
He and I stand in the hallway and watch as Emma goes back and forth between the bathrooms, checking out the mirrors and pulling out the drawers.
He crosses his arms over his chest, an amused look on his face. “She’s thorough. I respect that.”
I chuckle. “Sorry, she just gets so excited sometimes about new things. She’s so curious and wants to explore everything.”
“Don’t apologize. I think that’s great.”
Emma pops her head out of the doorway. “Mom, can I have my friends over for a sleepover? They can use this bathroom while I use the other one.”
Gavin grins.
“We’ll talk about that later, honey.”
She goes back to check out the bathroom. He looks around. “Anyway, that’s pretty much it. That’s the house.”
I laugh. “You make it sound so unimpressive. Gavin, this is the nicest house we’ve ever seen.”
He rubs the back of his neck, a shy smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. “I don’t have much to do with it. It’s all thanks to the decorator and the crew I hired to keep it looking nice.”
Abby sprints down the hall to check out another guest room.
“So, no pressure, but how are you feeling about all this?” he asks.
I look at him, realization sinking in. For a second, I hesitate, but then I remind myself that I need to be honest with him. “Honestly? Pretty overwhelmed. Your house is incredible. And there’s no way I can afford to pay rent to stay here.”
He frowns like he’s confused. “I’m not going to charge you rent to live here.”
Now I’m the one confused. “Gavin, you can’t be serious.”
“I am. I bought this house outright ten years ago. I don’t have a mortgage. So that would be pretty greedy of me to charge you rent.”
