Chapter 10
Boon led Angelle from the edge of the bayou where it curved around the front point of his property to the back of the house.
He kept going until he reached a point halfway between the house and the tree line furthest away, then turned to look up at that side of the house.
“You saw the stairs on the bayou side, right? Well, we’ve got a door on this side, too.
You can enter from both sides. And there are nice doors on both sides. ”
“You put front doors on both sides?” she asked, looking up at the house.
“Actually, Tempest thought of it, but I’m glad she did.”
Angelle let go of Boon’s hand and took a few steps away from him to better see the house.
Then she turned in a slow circle as she surveyed the land, and the trees all around them.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere this pretty, Boon.
Everything is so vibrant and green. It looks completely untouched. ”
“It is for the most part. There’s no pollution here.
There aren’t any cars, no electricity. It’s a life like was lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
We live off the land. If we do want something from the city, we ask Enthrall or Lily to arrange it for us.
Gaston goes into town sometimes and can get us whatever we need if it’s not an emergency and we can wait until his next trip in. ”
“It’s beautiful. It’s got a different look, a different feel from anywhere I’ve known.”
“Is that a good thing?” he asked with a teasing smile.
“It is. It’s a really good thing.”
He grinned at her. “Let me show you inside.” He led her around the opposite side of the house so she could get a look at it from all sides. “You see that enclosed area underneath on the ground level? That’s my hut. Tempest made sure that she incorporated it.”
“I love that,” she said. “She’s made sure that your old home is a part of your new home.”
“I have to admit, it made me really happy,” he said as he guided her around the house, then up the stairs that faced the bayou. When they reached the top they stepped onto the wraparound porch.
“You don’t realize how large the porch is until you’re standing on it,” Angelle said.
“It’s kind of like Maverik’s porch. It’s a deck actually — too big to be just a porch,” Boon said.
“Exactly. And it goes all the way around?” Angelle asked.
“Yes.”
Angelle walked over and ran her hand across the glider rocker that Tempest had put there, then she smiled at the twin rocking chairs just past it. “It’s ready to be enjoyed.”
“It’s ready to be lived in. It has everything.”
Angelle turned to Boon, who stood waiting for her to open the door.
“Go on. Open it,” he said, gesturing to the door.
Angelle smiled as she walked back to him and reached for the door.
She turned the doorknob and stepped inside with Boon entering right behind her.
Angelle took a few more steps into the family room and looked around, taking in everything she saw.
She took a few seconds to look out of the windows, even.
“I love this room. It’s so welcoming.” She walked over to the windows and pulled back one of the gauzy white curtains to better see.
“And I love the view. It’s perfectly angled so you can see the bayou as it flows around the property on both sides of the house. ”
“That’s my favorite thing, too,” Boon said. “And that reminds me, Tempest put a cement embankment in the bayou where it makes the curve around our property to make sure there won’t be any erosion in the future.”
“You two have certainly thought of everything.”
“We tried. But if you want anything changed, all you have to do is say so.”
She turned away from the window and saw the kitchen against the far wall. “The open concept is great. It lets whoever’s cooking still be in the room with whoever they’re cooking for.”
“Exactly,” Boon said.
Angelle’s gaze wandered to the two hallways leading from that side of the house. “Two hallways?” she asked, looking back at Boon.
“Down the one on the right are the bedrooms. Down the one on the left is the dining room, and then a smaller sitting room that houses some of my hunting and fishing equipment at the moment. In the middle between the two halls are the bathrooms.”
“Bathrooms?” she asked.
“Two. One has a door opening on the bedroom side. One has a door opening on the kitchen and dining room side. And there’s a short cross hall running between the two if you want go from the bedroom to the kitchen without walking through all the rest of the house.”
“And I see there’s an opening between the kitchen and dining room, too,” she said, walking through the arch in the kitchen wall that connected the dining room.
From the dining room she stepped into the hallway and looked into the bathroom, then continued on to the smaller sitting room.
She took a second to look at the hunting and fishing equipment Boon had artfully displayed on the walls. “Your man cave,” she said with a grin.
Boon chuckled. “Unless you want it for a reading or an art room or something.”
“I can read just fine in the family room. Or in here if you’re puttering around in here and I just want to be with you while I read.”
“Yes, you can,” Boon said.
“The bedrooms are through there?” she asked.
Boon nodded.
Angelle started down the hallway the bedrooms were off of and Boon followed closely.
She took the time to walk into each bedroom and get a feel for them, looking out of the windows in them as she had each room so far.
When she passed the bathroom whose door opened toward the bedrooms she looked in it, too. “Exactly like the other.”
“It is.”
“They’re both very roomy. Lots of space to move around. So are the bedrooms.”
“I thought so, too.”
“Which did you mean to be ours?” she asked.
“I thought either the middle, we have equal access to both bedrooms that way, or the one that shares a wall with the family room. If we have people over, our room would be between the kids’ rooms and the family room and it would buffer any noise that might keep them up.”
“Kids’ rooms?” she said, looking at him questioningly as she headed to the kitchen after stepping into the family room.
“Well,” he said on a shrug, grinning as he just barely met her gaze as she looked back over her shoulder, “I figured if we were going to set up house, we may as well get it right from the beginning. Make sure we allow room for when the babies come.”
“Oh, may as well,” she said.
“Be prepared, you know?” he asked with a smirk.
“Good thinking,” she said. She ran a hand across the small round table sitting near the window in the kitchen.
“Breakfast table,” he said. “Dining wouldn’t have to be used unless we wanted to have guests. We could actually turn it into something else if we wanted to and get a bigger table for the kitchen.”
“We could,” she said, as she peeked into cabinets and fiddled with the stove. She noticed the refrigerator and came to a complete stop. She looked at it, then opened the door, felt the cold permeating its interior and looked at him with a confused expression. “But there’s no electricity.”
“We’ve got solar panels on the roof, and a bank of batteries that supply enough power to run the refrigerator and the hot water heater.
You can have a hot bath or shower whenever you want.
And store whatever food you want without having to worry about replacing the ice every few days like most do in an old fashioned ice box.
For lighting we’ve got candles and hurricane lamps with oil.
Flashlights with batteries, and if it bothers you that we don’t have a fully electric house, Tempest said she can add more solar panels and a larger bank of batteries to harness more power to run the entire house. ”
Angelle turned to Boon who stood across the room from her. After a few moments she shook her head. “I think I like it like it is. Not having electricity all the time kind of makes it more like camping. Luxuriously, so maybe glamping? But I like the ambiance of having candles and lanterns.”
“We have the windows arranged at different points of the house to create a breeze so it won’t be so hot in the summer months, and there are wood burning stoves in the bedrooms for the winter, but all it takes is a simple request and we can change that to a more modern set up.”
“Again, I think I like it as it is.”
Boon nodded. “Do you think you could live here?”
Angelle smiled at him and canted her head just a slight bit as she regarded him. “You haven’t been paying a lot of attention, have you?”
“Sure I have. I’ve been watching every move you make. I’ve been anticipating you seeing it. Hoping you like it.”
She walked over to him and placed her hands on his arms. “I do like it. Very much. I don’t think it needs any changes. I said, I like it just the way it is.”
“So, you like your house?”
“I like your house,” Angelle answered.
“It’s your house. I built it for you — with Tempest’s help.”
“It’s a beautiful house. But it is your house. You live here no matter what happens with us.”
“I haven’t lived here yet. I want to live in it with you.”
“I think I want to live in it with you,” she said.
“Then it’s our home. We’ll live here together.”
“If we can work it all out, it’s our home.”
“Oh, we’ll work it all out,” he insisted.
Angelle laughed. “We’ll see.”
“We don’t need to see. I will not allow anything to make you think we can’t make this work.”
“We still need to see if we’re compatible.”
“We are.”
“You’re stubborn.”
“And you’re holding back. You still don’t trust me.”
She opened her mouth to answer, then closed it and quietly looked at him.
“I’m right,” Boon said.
“Not exactly. I do trust you. But I’m afraid. When I thought you left I was devastated. I don’t want to feel that ever again.”
“If you’d trusted me, you’d have had no doubt that I’d have been right back.”
“That’s probably true. But this is all new for me. I don’t know how to do this. I’m lost in all this.”