Angel's Peak (Virgin River #10)(55)

He grinned his handsome grin. “I haven’t once complained about your assets, have I?”

She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “In the beginning, you did nothing but complain.” She patted the other cheek. “You’re coming along very well, though. Now, come on—the suspense is killing me.”

“I just hope seeing it doesn’t do any permanent damage to your opinion of me.” He put the truck in gear and took them down a short overgrown driveway to a house that had the washed-out, gray appearance of worn paint. It was surrounded by a totally neglected yard that was dominated by weeds, out of control bushes, rotted-out flower beds, untrimmed trees, cracked sidewalk and copious litter. There was no telling the age; it could be older or younger than it looked. It was a wreck.

It was a two story and it had a porch that stretched the length of the front of the house and a front door that was probably worth as much as the whole structure. Ellie was surprised it hadn’t been ripped off and stolen—it was a stained and polished dark wood with a beveled-glass window. It was a breathtaking door on a nightmare of a house.

Wordlessly, Ellie got out of the truck and went to the house. She got the heel of her shoe stuck in a rotting board on the porch, but she gamely pulled it out and kept going.

The inside opened up into a very large living room that was adjoined by an equally large dining room. Both rooms had filthy fireplaces, suggesting the house was old and had been constructed before central heating. Also, it was built before the days of family rooms and foyers. She walked right into the middle of everything. It was very large and the ceilings were high. The two rooms were divided by an ornate wooden arch that had been sloppily covered with many layers of white paint. In fact, the whole house had been painted in a cheap coat of renter’s white that hadn’t held up well.

The staircase to the second floor was right between the two rooms inside the front door and, again, cheap paint had been used to cover a banister that was undoubtedly real wood. The staircase led up to the second floor and an open balcony that ran along a hall leading to the bedrooms. This old style had gone out of fashion many years ago—it reminded Ellie of the saloon in the Gunsmoke series. She could almost see Miss Kitty poised at the top of the staircase.

She walked through the trash-strewn rooms toward the back of the house. Behind the living room and dining room she found a large kitchen and a small bedroom. “There are three bedrooms upstairs,” Noah said. “One’s pretty big and two are average. There aren’t any big closets and only one bathroom in the house—it must have been built in the days of one-bathroom homes. But there’s a back porch that’s wide and deep and can be closed in. And it might even be possible to put a half bath downstairs. And the bonus is an unfinished basement. Well…a cellar. But there are so many possibilities for that.”

Ellie ignored him, heading into the kitchen. It was the largest kitchen she’d ever been in, and Jo Fitch had a very big kitchen. The appliances looked not only useless but maybe dangerous. However, there were many cupboards and a big bay window. She could envision a large oval table sitting right in that nook; she could imagine friends coming for dinner and children doing homework there while she cooked. Ellie had never dared have such visions before.

Through the bay window Ellie could see the side yard, deep and surrounded by trees and overgrown brush; outside the window over the kitchen sink was the porch, which, as Noah said, could be enclosed to make another room. Beyond that a long, wide backyard went right up to the forest. She spotted blackberry bushes, all gnarled and thorny. She could almost taste the jam…

She put the fingers of both hands over her mouth and her eyes welled with tears, which quickly spilled down her cheeks.

“Aw, baby, don’t cry,” Noah begged, pulling her into his arms. “It was just an idea, but we’ll look at lots of houses. I just got hooked on the size of the house and lot, and my imagination might’ve gotten a little—”

She turned in his arms. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” she whispered. “Noah, it’s wonderful. I mean, it needs love, but isn’t it perfect? Is it stable? Will we fall through the floor if we go upstairs?”

He was shocked silent for a moment. “Are you serious?”

“About the second floor?” she asked with a hiccup of emotion.

“I’ve been upstairs,” he said, shaking the confusion out of his head. “You actually like it?”

“It would be so wonderful to fix it up and make it ours, wouldn’t it? Did you see all the terrible paint in this place? I bet if I stripped the paint off the arch that divides the rooms and off the staircase and banister we’d find beautiful wood. And the yard? I can make that yard look like Jo Ellen’s yard! Give me a year and I can turn it around.” She sniffed, took a breath and said, “Thank God it’s almost winter—I don’t think I could face both house and yard at once, but by spring…”

“Ellie?” he asked, stunned. “You like it?”

“Noah, whoever owns this house lost interest in it years ago. You can’t think of renting it and fixing it at the same time—that’s where the owner lost control of it. My gramma and I did more with our two rooms than was done here, and we had nothing. Either we make a commitment to it or forget it. But first we have to have the plumbing and wiring and structure checked. Does it cost the moon to do that? Because we should check that before we even think of putting down good money.”