Page 26 of Mack

She hesitated for just a second, then unbuckled and put her hand in his and stepped out. His grip was steady and warm, and he let go the moment she had her footing, which she noticed. She opened the back door, unbuckled T.J., and set him on the ground.

He ran straight to Mack with his arms up.

Mack picked him up without breaking stride. “Hey, buddy. Where are your dinosaurs?”

T.J. pointed back at the car. “Rex and Blue are in there.”

“Blue, huh?”

“Cause he is.”

Mack looked at Mallory over the top of T.J.’s head.

“That’s what he told me too,” she said.

He smiled, and she felt it move through her before she could do anything about it. Those gray eyes, steady, warm, and seeing entirely too much.

She looked away and focused on getting T.J.’s dinosaurs out of the back seat.

The moment she stepped inside she understood why he’d stayed here. She glanced around as she removed T.J.’s coat, then her own.

The kitchen was large and practical, wide plank hardwood floors running through it, a second staircase rising from the far corner with a laundry room tucked off to the side. A pot of hot chocolate was warming on the stove and the whole room smelled of it.

“Would you like to see the rest of the house?” Mack asked, setting T.J. down.

“I’d love to.”

He showed her through without fanfare, like a person walks through a place they know by heart. The den first, comfortable and worn, then the office with its tall bookshelves and a desk that looked like it had seen serious work. When they reached the living room she stopped in the doorway. It was a large room with high ceilings, the brick fireplace taking up most of one wall, a fire already going slow and steady in the hearth. The window seat faced the front yard, and she would love to sit there and watch the snow. The mountains filled the glass.

“This is beautiful,” she said quietly.

T.J. had already made himself at home on the braided rug in front of the fire, dinosaurs arranged in front of him.

From there Mack led her to the front foyer, wide and welcoming, a staircase rising along one wall with a dark wood banister worn smooth from years of hands on it.

They headed upstairs, Mack pushing open doors as they went. Spare rooms that were clean and waiting, a bathroom with the original black and white tile that she immediately loved, three and a half baths in total, four bedrooms counting the primary.

His bedroom was at the end of the hall. He opened the door and she stepped in and saw the second fireplace, brick like the one downstairs, set into the far wall opposite a bed that looked out on the mountains through two tall windows. An open door, let her look inside the bathroom.

She stood there for a moment taking it in.

“Your parents built something really special here,” she said.

He stood in the doorway with his hands in his pockets and looked around the room like he was seeing it fresh. “Yeah,” he said. “They did.”

She turned back to the window and the mountains beyond it, pale and sharp against the September sky.

“I can see why you’d never want to leave this place,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “So can I.”

Mallory looked at him and their eyes held for a moment before she looked away.

“I should get back to T.J.”

“I’ll get the hot chocolate ready.” He headed for the kitchen stairs, and she took a breath and followed.

In the living room T.J. was exactly where she’d left him, dinosaurs arranged with great intention on the braided rug. He looked up and smiled at her and her heart did what it always did.