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“I don’t have the greatest seating,” Ginny said, looking at the sad facsimiles she’d found in place of the magnificent orange floral wingbacks in the photo album. “I haven’t been able to find anything like the chairs your mom had.”

“That’s because she still has them,” Nico said, his smile broad. “They’re in her nursing home room as we speak.”

Ginny brightened. “Really? I’m so glad. I was worried they’d been left on a street corner somewhere.”

They each sat in one of Ginny’s embarrassingly uncomfortable chairs, but when she pulled out her phone, it was clear they weren’t going to be able to watch such a small screen together that way.

“Do you have a TV or laptop?” he asked.

She grimaced. “Just a desktop, and its right across the hall from where she’s sleeping.”

“Uh…how about we sit over there?” He pointed to Ginny’s love seat, barely big enough for two.

Ginny swallowed. “Okay.”

She moved to the loveseat, and he squeezed in beside her. She had a sudden sensation that he might throw his arm around her, but he kept his hands crossed over his lap. The warmth of him against her right side—from her shoulder to her knee—disoriented her.

The movie started up right where she’d left off. He pointed at the screen. “Why do I have an urge to smash your phone into the bed of a rented Ford 150?”

She forced a giggle. “Sorry about that. I was a little upset.” She mentally braced for him to rattle off how much it had cost him or let her know in some passive aggressive way how rude she had been.

He pressed his hands into the tops of his thighs. “It was an expensive lesson for me, but I deserved it. I was trying to manipulate you. I’m the one who’s sorry.”

Shoved up so close to him, Ginny had to lean left and crane her neck to look at Nico after he said that.

This man was sorry? Was he pulling her leg?

But his eyes blinked earnestly at her, and his full lips were slack in expectation of how she might reply.

She remembered how he hadn’t teased her about being afraid of pain and how thoughtful he was toward the dogs.

The mental reel of him kneeling before his mother played through her thoughts again too.

She couldn’t avoid it now; the evidence was stacking up.

She had totally misread this man from the start.

An actual heartbeat beneath his expensive silk suits.

The realization left Ginny speechless for a moment, but, on the screen, an old man and a young boy walked a floating house to its new location. She took advantage of the diversion. “If only we could attach balloons to this house and float it somewhere else.”

Beside her, she felt Nico’s muscles tense. “Wait. You’d do that?”

She shrugged. “If physics weren’t physics, I’d love a balloon ride to Venezuela. I’m not sure I want to know what Jack would say if he could talk, but Mick and Annie would be a hoot to chat with.”

“No, I mean, you’d be okay with moving this house somewhere else?”

She paused the movie. “Sure. It’s not like I love living between an empty lot and a tear down. This street is depressing. It’s the house I love.”

Nico jumped up from the love seat so forcefully the floorboards creaked. “But I can do that!” His long arms gesticulated with kinetic energy. “What kind of location would you like? Cute neighborhood? Wide open spaces?”

Her lips pursed with doubt. “You really think you could move this house without damaging it? It’s pretty old.”

“People do it all the time with bigger and older houses than this. I promise you we can move it safely. And it will be a lot cheaper than a million dollars.”

She blinked up at him, still not quite believing. “Okay, then.”

He clapped his hands loudly, then brought a finger to his lips, remembering too late his sleeping mother. “So, what would you want?” he said more quietly. “I already have a few lots here and there zoned residential.”

“I’d go for the wide-open spaces one. Ocean view if a girl is allowed to dream.”

Nico buried his hands in his hair and rolled his eyes to the ceiling as he let out an exasperated breath “Why didn’t we think of this sooner?”

Movement from the hallway caught Ginny’s eye.

His mother appeared in the doorway to the living room, her face flushed pink and her eyes glistening with moisture.

Wrapped in Ginny’s quilt, she seemed even tinier than before.

Her hands trembled as she pulled at the quilt’s edges.

“Where…where am I?” Her voice trembled too.

Nico moved toward her. “It’s okay, Mom, you’re safe.”

He reached to touch her shoulder, but she drew away as if she thought he planned to slap her. “Who are you?”

Nico recoiled too, but from the emotional strike.

Ginny moved toward the pair. She offered Nico a sympathetic glance, then looked directly at his mother and waited until they made eye contact. “He’s going to take you home,” she said, speaking softly and reassuringly. “And he’s a nice man. You can trust him.”

Her eyes blinked rapidly as she nodded. “Okay. I want to go home.”

They traded the quilt for her sweater, which she’d left in Ginny’s room, and then Ginny gave her a quick goodbye.

As Nico escorted his mother out the door, he paused and looked back at Ginny. “I guess this was the most likely way this experiment was going to end but, still, today was wonderful. This was the greatest gift anyone has ever given me. I can’t thank you enough.”

She shook her head as she raised both palms toward the ceiling. “It wasn’t me. The house did it. I told you there was love in its walls.” She nodded in the direction of his mother. “It’s just coming back to the people who put it there.”

He pressed his lips together as if holding in his initial response, then reached over and pressed his palm against the nearest wall, giving it a pat. “All the more reason to save her. I’m going to look into some new locations. I’ll give you a call tomorrow or the next day. Will you be around?”

She rubbed her chin in mock thoughtfulness. “Gee, let me check my busy schedule…and the price of balloons.”