Page 159 of The New Place

“Luna,” Ned repeats. Is Steve here? And Abbot, surely? In this house, which is so strangely close to his own?

“So?” Liesl asks and Ned steps past her to knock lightly.

“So,” Ned echoes. So. Yeah. This is a house. The very address Abbot sent him to meet Steve for dinner. Nearly in his own neighborhood, which is pretty damn wild.

“You made it,” Steve says, pushing the front door open. “Come in, come in. Luna, girl, you also. Yeah, I know, you now have two admirers, don’t you?”

“Yes, let’s admire her inside,” Ned says, ushering the girls into the warmth of the house.

“Ned?” Liesl asks.

“Yeah?” He closes the door behind her and turns to Steve. “All this time, you lived right down the road? You never said.”

“This is my grandma’s house. The one I told you about.”

“Your grandma’s,” Ned repeats slowly.

“What do you think?” Steve asks. “I told Henry to forgive the wallpaper, unless you two are really into 80s florals.”

He’s selling this place. This is the house Steve had been talking about, and now they’re here to what? Look at it?

Together?

To buy?

Fuck, Ned thinks.

“This summer?” Liesl asks.

Ned glances down at her. “What about it?”

“It’s not too far from Newbury,” Steve goes on.

“It isn’t,” Ned agrees. Actually really close. A couple blocks to the river, and then right across the water is the campus. He runs over that bridge sometimes, when he and Baxter decide to go that way.

“The foundation is sound, and the electrical and the plumbing are all good,” Steve says. “Redid the roof only a couple years ago. The heat works, too. The rest is cosmetic.”

“Is it,” Ned says.

“Come in. Jess is in the kitchen grilling Henry on Portland neighborhoods,” Steve says.

“You good, Pegs?” Ned touches her head lightly, but she ignores him for the dog.

“Ned,” Liesl says, louder. “Henry said you’d promise.”

“Give me one second,” Ned says, and hurries to follow Steve to the back of the house.

The kitchen is past a dining room, and he spots Abbot, but before he can cast a look his way with a what the hell is happening here expression, Jess greets him with a hug.

“I’m so sorry about my awful husband trying to stick you with this place,” she says. “Before he tries to sell you on it, what he isn’t saying is that the house comes with a whole separate apartment.”

“I was going to get to it,” Steve says. “Let them breathe first.”

“Thank you for having us, really,” Ned says and lets Abbot take his hand in a quick squeeze. “Hi.”

“Hello.” Abbot tightens his grip in a way that Ned guesses probably means Don’t be mad.

Well, a heads up would have been nice, if Abbot’s worried.