Elsa dropped her gaze to the blueprints, trying to inhale every detail. The kitchen was enormous, with a large bay window and plenty of cabinet space. The porch wrapped around the entire house (one of Elsa’s dreams!), and the largest bedroom featured a walk-in closet.
“It’s only one story,” she whispered.
“I know,” Bruce said. “I want to get old there. With you. And I heard a rumor that your knees don’t work as well when you’re older.”
Elsa’s laugh was soft and immediately lost against the rush of the water. After a pause, she felt the crushing weight of reality. “It would mean leaving the Remington House.”
“It won’t be easy to leave. But I know you moved there during a particularly rough year of your life. You were never meant to be there full-time.”
“It was my lifeboat,” Elsa agreed tenderly. “Nancy picked me up and put me back together again. It’s where Janine, Carmella, Nancy, and I have come together as a sort of team.”
“You’ll always have that,” Bruce told her. “Especially because I haven’t told you the best part.”
“What’s that?”
The property I want to buy is a ten-minute walk from the Remington House. I figured you’d want to stay close.”
Elsa threw herself forward, her heart pounding as she wrapped her arms around him. After a moment of only wind and crashing waves, Bruce laughed and said, “Does that mean yes?”
Elsa closed her eyes. A thousand images passed through her mind: Her father, throwing open the front door of the Remington House and crying out, “I’m home!” Colton, hard at play with his train set, linking his little tracks across the entire living room. Elsa, carrying baby Cole across the porch and weeping for the mother who hadn’t lived long enough to be a grandmother.
“That house is full of ghosts,” Elsa whispered, dropping back to lock eyes with Bruce.
“Ghosts can be good,” Bruce told her.
“I know.” Elsa’s throat tightened. “But I’m only forty-six years old. I have a whole lifetime ahead of me. I’m ready to build something new, and I want to do it with you. And with that, I think I’m finally ready to do something that’s terrified me for years.”
“What’s that?” Bruce asked.
Elsa set her jaw. “I want to sell the house I raised my children in. The house I haven’t been able to return to since my father’s death. It’s time to go through everything, sell anything we don’t need, and pass it along to another family. It’s time for that house to have a second chance, too.”