“Ork.” She gave him a coy look from under fluttering lashes before wiggling down. “Run!” she commanded, and did so.
If Bella’s joy hit the outer rings of Saturn, her mother’s wasn’t far behind. Heavy with Number Two, Mavis bounced in her own pink kicks while the flirty skirt of her baby-blue dress danced around her thighs.
She didn’t take the leap and run, but threw her arms around Eve. “We live here,” she said, and bounced again.
“I heard that. How’s it fit?”
“As perfect as one of my moonpie’s creations. Made for me. For all of us.”
When Mavis shifted to throw her arms around Roarke, Eve handed Leonardo the champagne. “So, welcome home.”
His face glowed as he wrapped an arm around her and kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”
His long shirt of green-and-pink stripes flowed as he turned to embrace Roarke. “Both of you.”
Peabody moved in next. “You’ve got to deal with it,” she said, and hugged Eve.
“It’s a moment.” McNab lifted his shoulders, grinned at Eve. And hugged her.
“Okay, that’s the moment. And now why is everyone wearing ribbons in their hair?”
“Bella’s rules.” Mavis pulled two more, one blue, one red, out of her pocket.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Just go with it.” Mavis handed the red one to Roarke, then, moving around Eve, tied a blue bow at the back of her head. Obviously going with it, Roarke pulled his hair back in what Eve thought of as his work mode, and secured it with the red ribbon.
Delighted, Bella clapped her hands. “Party!”
“I’m going to need a lot of champagne.”
With a laugh, Mavis squeezed her hand. “Welcome to the first official We Live Here house tour.”
And she opened the door with a flourish.
Eve had seen it along the way, from confusing wreck to construction zone to the inching toward a vision. She’d seen the colorful walls, the clever lights, and the old floors brought back to life.
But now, it held furniture, and the pieces of the family that lived there.
The sitting room on one side with its big let’s-take-a-nap sofa, with a trio of New York street scenes in pencil sketches behind it. The big living area on the other side, sofas covered in a bright and bold meadow of flowers, chairs picking up the variety of color in deep peach or soft greens.
Candles on the mantel of the restored fireplace, photos and mementos on shelves, splashes of more color in paintings.
“God, it’s you all over, all three of you.”
“It’s everything we wanted. We want one more picture,” Mavis added. “One of all of us. We’ll take it when we go out back. It’s going on the mantel.”
“Let’s work our way to the kitchen,” Leonardo suggested. “I’ll openthe champagne for the tour of the second floor. Sparkle juice for you, Bellamina.”
“’Parkle joo! Yay!”
“And for me and Number Two.” Mavis patted her baby mound and led the way.
A home office not at all businesslike, which included a Bella-sized desk and chair, a first-floor playroom as happy as the girl who would rule it.
“It’s a kind of library, or a do-nothing room,” Mavis said at the next. “We’ve got Nadine’s books, some storybooks. And see, there’s a friggie and AC built into the cabinet right here. So you could sit and read—and have the sweetest little electric fireplace in the winter. Or just plop down and do nothing. What hits mag extreme more than a do-nothing room?”
They moved into the kitchen with its multicolored cabinets, its spacious lounge, and the wall of glass doors that opened it to the back—the patio, the garden, the play area.
