“It’s an old house, Jules. They settle. They make a lot of noise.”
It sounds like something falls downstairs, and I jump, but then cover my heart and try to slow my heartbeat.
“Just a loose board,” I mutter, doing my best to believe it. “This isourhouse. Nothing can hurt us in here.”
It’s cold up here, and I tug my sweatshirt tight around me as I stride across the hall to the next bedroom and walk a slow circle, taking everything in. The walls are baby pink.
“This might have been someone’s nursery.”
The idea is a pang in the chest.
I want to have babies with Brooks. I always did. He’d be such an amazing dad, and I know we’re in our late thirties now, but there’s still time if we get started right away.
“We just got married,” I remind myself as I walk over to run my hand down the white molding around the small closet. “He might not want babies yet.”
But since we don’t use protection when we have sex, and I amnoton birth control, we’d better figure out what we want.Although if we didn’t want kids, I think we would be more concerned about preventing pregnancy.
“This was someone’s baby’s room,” I murmur and smile before walking farther down the hall, past another bathroom that needs to be gutted, to the last bedroom.
It’s bigger than the other two and has tacks in the wall that no one ever bothered to remove.
“Probably a teenager who had posters on the wall.”
I glance out the window, which looks out to the backyard, and then turn to look around the room again.
Something feelsoff.
“Why does this room feel smaller than it should?”
Frowning, I pace back and forth, then glance outside again.
The window is only about a foot away from the interior wall perpendicular to it. However, when I look outside, I can see that the wall should be about six feet away, as the outside extends much farther.
But there’s no door.
I knock around on the wall, and then feel when I hit a solid spot.
That’s not a wall.
“I need a hammer.”
I push my phone into my back pocket and hurry downstairs to where I saw one leaning against the wall by the back door, then head back upstairs with it.
These walls are coming down anyway. There’s no reason I can’t start now.
I take a swing where the solid spot was, and the drywall starts to fall away. It’s brittle. I cover my mouth and nose with my sweatshirt, but soon I’m too hot from all of the swinging, so I shed the sweatshirt, and then grin.
Because I just found a freakingdoor.
“This is what I’m TALKING ABOUT!” I yell as I dance in a circle. “A secret door! I’m absolutely not waiting around for Brooks. I need to know what’s back there.”
I have to chip away at more of the drywall, but soon, I’m able to shimmy the door open, and when I grab my phone out of my pocket and turn the flashlight on, I see a stairway that goes up.
“There’s anattic?”
I frown and poke my head around the corner so I can shine the light up to see where it leads.
Sure enough, there’s an attic up there, and it looks like it’s full.
