Page 8 of One Good Puck (Denver Bashers #5)

Abby

G avin gestures to the far side of the space. “So there are seven bedrooms total. There’s a guest bedroom on each end of the main floor. The rest are upstairs. I can show you?—”

“You have a pool?!” Emma’s excited voice pulls our attention to her. She’s standing by the sliding glass door that leads to the patio and backyard. When I walk over to where she is, I see a small pool along the far end of the backyard.

“I do,” Gavin says. He turns to me. “I forget it’s there sometimes. I hardly ever use it. Sophie swam in it all the time when she was younger.”

“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.”

“But you pay for electricity and utilities every month. And property taxes.”

The corner of his mouth hooks up in an easy half-smile. “Yeah, but I don’t need you to help me pay for any of that, okay?”

Emma starts singing her favorite song to herself while she skips to one of the other guest rooms. A second later, she pops out.

“Mom, can I see the bedrooms downstairs? ”

“Sure, honey.”

She runs downstairs, still singing. Gavin chuckles. “She’s so funny.”

I smile. “She makes me laugh every day.”

Gavin rests his hands in his trouser pockets and glances at me.

“It’s really no problem for you to live here, Abby.

You’d be doing me a favor. The season is about to start, and I’ll be gone a lot, traveling with the team.

I usually hire someone to check on the house while I’m away, but if you and Emma move in, I wouldn’t have to do that.

And even when I’m here for home games during the season, I’m not home till late most nights of the week.

You’d have the place to yourselves a lot of the time.

It would give me a lot of peace of mind if you and Emma were here holding the fort down. ”

I’m quiet as I think about all that he’s said.

“Mom!” Emma hollers from downstairs.

“Yeah, honey?”

“I like the bedroom down here the most. The one with the bathroom next to it.”

Gavin starts to smile.

“Okay, honey.”

“Can I please have that one?”

Gavin chuckles.

“We’ll talk about it later,” I say.

He looks at me. “Looks like Emma’s on board. That just leaves you to convince.”

I can tell he’s teasing me in a good-natured way, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’m taking advantage of him.

“This is so generous of you to offer, Gavin. Really, really generous. It just feels like I’m taking advantage since I wouldn’t be paying you anything.”

“You wouldn’t be taking advantage of me at all. You need a place to live. I have the extra room. Plus, you’d be helping me out when I’m gone. It’s that simple.”

The more I think about it, the more comfortable I feel about accepting his offer.

I look at him. “Okay. We’ll move in with you.”

A warm smile pulls at his lips. “Great.”