Page 7 of The Hunted Wife

All the brothers smiled and nodded.

She looked up at Adam. “I’d like to see the house now.”

“Of course.” He turned toward his brothers. “Okay. Will you all unload the groceries, please?”

The brothers broke up and went to work getting the groceries from the truck and carrying them inside.

Millie gazed up at the home before her. It looked magnificent. Three stories of roughhewn logs, lots of windows on the two sides she could see. The large picture windows on either side of the door drew her. They faced the east and would get a lot of morning sunshine.

Adam retrieved her bags from the back seat of his truck and stopped at her side. “Are you ready?”

“Yes. So far, I love your home, Adam. It’s beautiful and so unique. One doesn’t often see three-story log homes.”

As he looked up at the house, he smiled, “My father built it for Mom. I was about ten at the time construction started and I helped as much as I could, but Dad did most of it alone. By the time it was finished two years later, Benjamin and Chris, were both old enough to help us move in. But Daniel was just too young, as were Everett and the twins.”

“Where are you parents now? Are they snowbirds?”

He closed his eyes for a moment. “Two years ago, they were killed in an avalanche while cross-country skiing in the back country. We didn’t find them for several days because the area was so remote.”

Millie placed her hand on Adam’s arm. “I’m very sorry for your loss.”

He shook his head as though shaking off the memories. “Thank you. Shall we.”

She grinned, excited to see her new home.

“We’ll go in through the kitchen.” Adam led her to the door on the side of the house.

Millie’s eyes widened as she took in the room. The kitchen was as she not what she expected. Oh, it had all the modern conveniences, but the room also hadn’t had a good cleaning probably since his mother passed away.

Dishes were piled in the sink. Grease spatter covered the stove and burned-on food from days or weeks of meals. The floor was covered is muddy footprints from who-knew-how-long ago. The island was covered with pots and pans that would probably need a good scrubbing before going into the dishwasher.

The countertops were black granite with sparkles and streaks of gold running through it.

All the appliances were stainless, which was a good thing, because if they hadn’t had the ability to hide some of the mess, she couldn’t imagine what the room would look like.

A large rectangular table with ten chairs sat at one end of the room. It looked to have empty grocery sacks on it. Well, at least they put the groceries away.

She noticed a door, opposite the stove, which she thought was probably the pantry.

“Follow me, and I’ll take you to the bedroom.”

Between the kitchen and the living room was the laundry room, which was piled high with both dirty and clean laundry. She decided she’d just wash everything since she wasn’t positive what was clean. The stairs even had clothes on them.

At the top of the stairs ran a long hallway with five doors. The first on the right was a bathroom that was in dire need of cleaning.

“We don’t use this part of the house much anymore since Mom and Dad passed away. We all moved to the bunkhouse.” He kept walking and stopped at the first door on the left. “This was Benjamin’s room.” Adam opened the door.

A king-sized bed, dark wood desk with computer, nightstands that matched the desk and chest of drawers. The room was relatively neat with the bed the only thing that was not perfect. The bedspread had been pulled up to cover the pillows and called good.

The next room was Christopher’s. It was neat and clean, except for dusting.

The last room on the left was the master bedroom. Adam’s parent’s room. The space was very large with windows on the south and one on the east wall. A kind-sized bed, like in all the rooms, was made perfectly. She bet she could bounce a quarter off of it. The beautiful headboard and footboard were made of oak that had been carved into woodland scenes.

Along the north wall were two doors. Inspection of them revealed a large five-piece bathroom behind one and a walk-in closet behind the other.

A chest of drawers and a large nine drawer bureau was against the west wall along with a cheval mirror.

All the wood was varnished oak just like in her parent’s kitchen.