Donna sat beside him. She was okay with him taking the lead on this conversation. It was his surprise. It was his gift.
Dorthea stood. “I’ll let you have your talk.”
“Please stay, Mom,” Donna said. “This involves you, too.”
“This is a kind of Christmas gift to you guys,” Rich said. “You know gifts can be things or experiences, like a trip or an outing to go roller skating or bowling, or even a pet.” He paused, his gaze sweeping over the three attentive faces who hung on every word he said. “You guys know I love to spend time with you and your mom, right? Well, I do travel a lot for work, but Chicago is my work’s home base. I’m here more than I’m anywhere else. If you guys lived here, I’d get to see you a lot more. And your mom andI would really like it if we all lived together in one house, so we’d really be a family. How would you guys feel about me being your dad?”
All three faces lit up with excitement, and they cheered. Jeriah hugged him.
“What about Grandma?” Jayden asked.
“We want Grandma to move and live with us too,” Rich said. “We just looked at a house that we really like, and we’re going to take you all back with us to see it.”
Dorthea stood. “I’m not sure,” she said.
“I know you’re not, Mom. But come take a look. Besides, we’d love your opinion of the place,” Donna said. “We were just driving through the neighborhood and saw it. There was an open house, and we went in.”
“Are you sure you want me to come along?” Dorthea asked.
Jayden hugged his grandmother. “Please come, Grandma.”
They all loaded into the rented minivan and drove back to the house. Dorthea sat in the front seat beside Burke. He watched her face as they drove through the subdivision. He could see that she looked over the homes carefully. He knew that she was evaluating the neighborhood to be one she’d love to see her grandkids living in.
“Wow, that’s quite a house,” Dorthea said when he pulled into the driveway.
The kids ran to the front door. Rich ran to catch up.
Donna wrapped her arm around her mom. “I told Rich I’d only let him buy a house this big if you moved in with us,” she said. “You’ll see why in a minute.”
This time Rich and Donna played realtor as they brought her mom and the kids through the house. “And your dining room set would look great in this room,” Donna said. “The backyard could use your love,” she added when they stepped out onto the patio. “I don’t have a green thumb. I wouldn’t know the first thing about taking care of the plants back here.”
The kids wanted to go play on the swing set after being told it was a private yard, and the swing set belonged to whoever lived there. But Rich told them they couldn’t play right then, and he lured them back into the house with talk of checking out their bedrooms.
Dorthea smiled as she checked out the lower level.
“This area down here is bigger than my entire apartment,” Donna said. “What do you think, Mom?”
“This is a nice house, honey.”
“And we could wall it off for you at the stairs and build you a door for more privacy and noise control,” Burke said with alaugh as the loud voices of the kids echoed through the house. “Think about it, Dorthea. I can’t imagine why you’d want to move out here and live separately when this big house has plenty of room for you.” He wouldn’t mention that because of the Parkinson’s, she would probably eventually move in with one of her daughters.
“I’ll think about it,” Dorthea promised.
They all went upstairs and checked out the four bedrooms. The kids ran wildly from room to room. It was probably the biggest house they’d ever been in. And of course, with no furniture in it, it seemed even bigger than it was.
“Okay, guys, what do you think?” Burke asked the kids after finally corralling them in one room.
They all agreed that they loved it and wanted to live there.
“Donna?” he asked, embracing her.
She smiled and nodded. “Are you going to make an offer right now?”
“Yeah, why not?” His smile was bigger than hers.
Dorthea took the kids to the swing set in the backyard. It was an unseasonably warm forty degrees. There was no snow in the foreseeable forecast.
Burke glanced over the sales sheet again. It had been on the market for over a month, and the owners had already moved. “I’ll offer the asking price if the owners will rent it to me beginning next week until closing. I can have a deposit of whatever amount they require sent electronically from my bank account today, in addition to earnest money.” He’d only bought his condo and realized he should probably get advice from one of his teammates who had bought a home in case it was different, but he wanted this house and didn’t see a reason to wait to make an offer. He’d consult someone after the fact for the next steps.
