After watching the dog and boy, Jace straightened. “Let me show you your new home.”
Calling Eddie to her, she followed Jace up the wide wooden steps and across the generously-sized, covered veranda, which needed sweeping. A job that normally fell to him. He opened the door, ignoring the broom waiting inside, and stepped back to let her enter the small entranceway with hooks for coats on one wall. Apart from that and the broom, the room was empty.
“Chet called this the company door. Everyone else comes in the side entrance.”
He opened the inside door to reveal the sitting room, as Chet had called it. A wide burgundy sofa was flanked by two matching armchairs in front of bookcases full of books. The stuffed furniture faced the fireplace.
“Oh my.”
Was she really at a loss for words?
“It’s so big and welcoming.” She touched a chair as she passed to the window that overlooked the veranda and the road they’d just traveled.
Easing back on his heels, Jace waited while she and Eddie circled the room, looking out each window and taking in the view of the valley. She ran her finger along the top of the bookcase and paused at the closed door.
“Go ’head. Open it.” He joined her as she stepped into thesmall room. “Chet thought if he married, his wife would use it for a day nursery or a sewing room.”
She laughed. “And what would you call it now?”
“We politely refer to it as the junk room.” Aside from the desk in the corner where Chet kept the ranch records, it’s where odds and ends collected that they’d never gotten around to putting away or finding a place for. There’d never been a need to. Of course, Dianne could do whatever she wanted with the collection—winter coats could be in the bedrooms, empty crates should be in the cellar, or one of the storage sheds, and old newspapers could be burned. “I expect you’ll want to clean it out.”
“Maybe.” She stepped from the room. Her shoes clicked on the polished wooden floor as she crossed to open the double doors separating the sitting room from the dining room.
He grinned at her gasp of pleasure.
“Jace, this is amazing.”
“You mean the table? It’s big enough for twenty people. But mostly, it was Chet and me, and we sat at one end.”
“He really was expecting a large family.”
“He liked to entertain. Several times a year, he invited all the ranchers and businesspeople from town.” Who would do that now? It sure wouldn’t be him.
No wall closed the dining room from the kitchen, and she approached the stove and cupboards, opening doors and checking the contents. One door led to the pantry. Another opened to the cloakroom off the back entry. Her examination complete, she turned her gaze to the stairs to the upper floor.
“I’ll show you the bedrooms.” He ushered them up steps to the hall. Five doors closed off bedrooms and a large closet. At the first doorway, he hesitated. “This was Chet’s room.” Having no desire to confront harsh evidence of the man’s passing, he stepped back without opening the door.
Dianne studied him, her eyes full of compassion.
She could save her sympathy for someone who deserved it.
Eddie broke free and raced down the hall, skidding to a halt and sliding several inches. “Look, Mama, I skate.”
“Eddie, no running in the house.” But she didn’t even look at the child.
Her gaze never flickered from Jace.
He must turn away lest she guessed at the pain roaring through him. Steeling himself, he turned to the next door. “I slept here. I’ll clean out the room before I leave.” The next two rooms held bare mattresses on steel bed frames—a wide one in the first, two narrower in the second. “They’re only used when there’s company. Which isn’t often though there were a few who stayed overnight when they came for those gatherings I mentioned.” He’d been bombarded by memories and regrets long enough. “I’ll show you the outdoors.” His boots clattered on the wooden steps as he hurried to the main floor and waited for her at the side entrance.
With her permission, Eddie joined Skip in the yard, both animal and child happy for the company.
“I’m sure we’ll be wonderfully comfortable here. The house is lovely.” In the yard, dirt billowed up in a gust of wind, catching her attention.
Of course, her gaze went farther. Past the bunkhouse and storage sheds to the pile of rubble.
“What happened there?”
“That used to be our barn.” Each word dropped like a large stone to the pit of his stomach, heavy and bitter.
