TAKE TWO_ Who says you can't ma - Heather M. Orgeron Page 0,76
from Ellie’s best friend and five minutes from the hospital. Hannah could come over on her lunch break every day!”
“On second thought…” I turn back toward the realtor. “You said you had some similar homes on the other end of town to check out too, right?” That earns me a snide laugh from Nya.
Angela gives us a tour of the rest of the house. There are four bedrooms; three upstairs and the master down. There’s also a huge office with plenty of room for both of us, with built-in bookshelves and an entire wall of windows overlooking the pool. The more we see, the giddier my wife becomes. When she spots the chandelier dangling over her clawfoot tub, it’s all over. I may not be able to get her out of this place today.
“Yes? Right?” She looks up at me, squeezing my hand tight enough to cut off the blood flow.
“You’re sure you don’t want to look anywhere else before making a decision?”
She shrugs. “I mean, we can if you want to, but I’ve always loved this neighborhood. I can’t imagine anything better. It’s in the right school district for Ellie and really a blank canvas. We can do anything.” She trails a hand along the bathroom vanity. “I’ve got so many ideas already.”
I turn to Angela. “Is it too late to have the larger bedroom upstairs—the one with the window nook—painted pink for our little girl?” I really want her room to be magical the minute she walks into it. I don’t want her to have to wait on us to paint it.
“Listen, if all it takes to sell this house is custom paint, I don’t think that will be a problem.”
“Hear that, honey?” I give Nya’s shoulder a bump. “Why don’t you go ahead and choose a color to have them paint the nursery too? One less thing we’ll have to do for the new baby.”
“I was thinking blue…” She taps a manicured finger against her lower lip. My heart skips a beat.
“Really?”
“Or pink.” She flips both hands palm up and seesaws them up and down like a scale. “Pink or blue. Definitely.”
Angela looks on curiously.
I consider explaining that she’s aware of the gender and keeping it from me, but quickly realize that means bringing up the why of it and decide it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie. I’m not ever opening that can of worms again if I can help it. It won’t kill me to wait and be surprised. “Why don’t we just leave it light gray for now?” I suggest instead.
“Perfect.”
Before we leave to head home, we’ve already signed a purchase agreement and handed over the earnest money so our realtor can get things rolling.
We spend the remainder of the day closed up in the office. While I busy myself with getting things together to sell the club, Nya spends her time on her design software, plotting out how she wants to furnish the new house.
At 3:15 p.m., the familiar sound of screeching breaks alerts us to our daughter’s return.
She creeps around the corner quietly then releases a relieved sigh when she sees us. “Oh, good. You’re both here.”
“Of course we are. Why wouldn’t we be?” I try to downplay how bad yesterday was, because for a while there I wasn’t quite sure I’d still be here today either.
She shrugs off her backpack, dropping it near the door. “Mom was really upset yesterday… and then she sent me to Hannah’s… I just—well, I was worried.”
“Mija…” Nya gets up and crosses the room, hugging our little girl to her chest. “I’m very sorry for scaring you. It was just a misunderstanding. This pregnancy has my hormones all out of whack, but you have nothing to worry about.”
“Yep.” I roll my desk chair out and join the girls across the room. “Y’all are stuck with me, like it or not,” I joke.
Ellie giggles. “I like it a lot.”
“Phew.” I swipe the back of a hand over my forehead, demonstrating my relief. “Cuz we sort of took your advice today.”
“My advice?” Her forehead crinkles with confusion.
“Didn’t you say we needed a bigger house?”
“We’re moving?” Her little face is filled with nervous energy. So many questions all sitting on the tip of her tongue. “To where? Will I have to change schools? I don’t want to be the new kid.”
“Slow down, mija.” Nya combs her fingers through Ellie’s hair. “We would never do that to you. The house we’re buying is down the road from the Larsons.”