I closed my eyes when the vertigo I’d experienced last night returned. “I don’t understand.”
“I’m renovating it, Sloane, with my father’s help. My intention is to make it a home.”
“For whom?”
“I won’t make the same mistake I did last time with assumptions, but I hope one day you’ll consider living here with me.”
I put my hand on my belly when I thought I felt the baby move.
“Do you want to see the rest of it?”
I still felt too dizzy to walk. “There’s more?”
“We haven’t seen the third floor yet, and then there’s the carriage house in the back.”
“A carriage house?”
“It’s a four-car garage with storage on the main level and a large apartment above it. Come. We can see it from the back bedroom.”
He held my right hand, and I hung onto his arm with my left.
“See?” he said, pointing out the window.
I’d never seen more than the front of the house, but in the back, there was playground equipment that looked similar to what was in the park. “What’s that?” I asked, pointing at a small structure beneath a huge, old white pine.
“I think it might’ve been a playhouse.”
After looking at the third floor, Tackle led me down to the main level and into the kitchen. He opened up a cupboard and pulled out a roll of paper. He removed the rubber band and spread it out on the counter.
“This is the front of the house. My dad and I believe that, at one time, there were two large covered porches off each side of the portico. They must’ve been ripped off the main structure. I intend to put them back.” He rested his finger on another part of the drawing, this time on the side of the house. “I think this may have been a sunroom or sleeping porch. Another porch stretches across the back of the house, big enough that it could be made into two more rooms or left as an outdoor living area since it looks out over the backyard.”
“This must’ve cost a fortune,” I muttered.
He shook his head. “There was an auction. It went for not much more than the back taxes.”
“But the cost to renovate it must be staggering.”
Tackle shrugged. “Not so much when your family owns a construction company.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
He crowded me against the counter and put a hand on either side of me. “Don’t say anything yet. Just tell me you’ll try to keep an open mind.”
I gripped the counter when the dizziness got worse. I knew I was about to lose consciousness when I felt my legs give out, and Tackle caught me.
24
Tackle
Sloane was only unconscious long enough for me to pick her up and carry her into the dining room. I’d just sat down on the window seat, the only place in the house where we could sit, when her eyes opened.
A thousand thoughts raced through my mind in those few seconds. Should I call 9-1-1? How far away was Cowboy? Should I text him and ask him to come inside? Was Sloane getting enough to eat? Enough rest? Had I worn her out by bringing her here? I thought back to last night and how little sleep either of us had gotten. I had to be more careful about that in the future.
Or was there something in the house that had made her pass out? It was so old. Had I brought her into a place that might be toxic for her and the baby?
“How do you feel?” I asked when I looked into her beautiful blue eyes.
“I must’ve passed out.”