Page 48 of Reforming Hunt
“Wow!” Noah said, looking around in amazement. “Do you really live here?”
Hunt crouched next to Noah and scanned the room, with two-story ceilings and windows that looked out onto the woods. “When I was a kid I did. What do you think?”
“It’s huge,” Noah said, eyes bright. “Can I run around?”
“Have at it.”
Noah took off like a shot, past the foyer and down a long hall. Abby could hear him whooping and hollering the entire way.
She sent Hunt a sidelong glance. “This doesn’t mean anything.”
He smiled. “Whatever you say, wife.”
A shiver ran down her spine. His words were meant in humor, but somehow she thought he enjoyed calling her wife, and that was the part that messed with her head. “Are you sure you’ve never been married before? Because you seem to have all the appropriate responses to get what you want.”
He chuckled. “Never been married. But I’m attentive.”
“Which is why you’re so good with women,” she said, not liking her own words.
Hunt grabbed her hand, his smile fading. “We had a deal, Abby. I’m committed to you while we’re together.”
Prickles raced down her arm where his warm palm held hers. She was reading into things. Wondering if there could be more.
She slowly slid her hand out of his and walked through the dining room and into the kitchen. Hunt’s footsteps sounded behind her.
She glanced over her shoulder and caught him staring off, a serious expression on his face as he looked around the kitchen.
She forgot her worries about their marriage. What did this house really mean to Hunt?
He wanted her to live here, but as soon as he’d stepped inside, his demeanor turned guarded. “Everything okay?”
He nodded. “Just haven’t been back here in a while.” His shoulders shook ever so slightly. “It’s older than I remember. This kitchen is crap.”
The “kitchen” was top-of-the-line fancy, and a million times better than the one she shared with Noah. Hunt never seemed to mind her place, but the mountain mansion he hated? If they moved into Hunt’s family home, it would be the finest thing Abby had ever lived in.
However, she could see how if they planned to sell the estate, they’d need to remodel the kitchen. It had to be twenty years old. Anyone spending that kind of money would expect something modern. Still, he was awfully tetchy over an outdated kitchen. “Is that all that’s wrong?”
Hunt shoved his hands in his jean pockets and stood there stiffly, not answering. Or unable to.
There was something about this house that set him off. If they were going to live here, she wanted to make surehewas going to be happy with the decision. She tried another tactic. “What was it like growing up here?”
“Cold,” he said, no inflection in his tone.
Abby laughed darkly. “And you want us to move in?”
Hunt looked around, letting out a long sigh. “It’s temporary. Besides, I plan to strip the place until it’s practically unrecognizable.”
Her eyebrows pinched together. “What’s the real reason you don’t like this house?”
He glanced to the side, seemingly looking for Noah. Abby could hear her son racing across the upstairs level. “My childhood was…different. It wasn’t awful, but it was lonely. My mother died when I was a baby, and my father was a workaholic. When he was around, he wasn’t attentive. I don’t know.” His shoulders jerked up in a stiff shrug. “There were five of us, and we were a handful. Can’t say I blame him for wanting to ditch us.”
Abby swallowed, pain shooting through her chest. She wanted to hug Hunt. She wanted to yell at his father and tell him he should have been there for his sons. Here she was fighting to raise her son, and Hunt’s father had thrown his chance to parent his children away.
Abby settled for looping her arm through Hunt’s, unsure how a man—her husband—would feel about it. “You’re the best with the children at Club Tahoe, and Noah loves you. If you didn’t have a happy childhood, it doesn’t show.”
He looked away. “I don’t like to see the kids lonely. Besides,” he said, and grinned. “According to my brothers, I’m the same age as them mentally. We’re a good fit.”
Abby squeezed his arm. “Your brothers are wrong. You’re a wonderful man, and you’ll make a great father. You’re already a wonderful role model to Noah.”
