Chapter 2

"Oh, Dane, just look at it!"

Alissa Taylor stood next to her husband as they gazed at their new dream home. He turned to her, grinning, and leaned in for a kiss.

The white two-story cottage was located at the top of a hill and offered a cozy view of Blueberry Bay and the ocean beyond it. The other side of the yard was bordered with trees—maples, birches, and pines. It was a hushed, beautiful spot, a stone's throw from their town, but also pleasantly removed from the bustle of the streets.

"I know." Dane's fiery auburn hair was tossing in the wind, framing his handsome face. His green eyes surveyed the house. "It's perfect, and it's ours."

The newlywed couple shared an eager embrace, and Alissa felt her heart stir with enthusiasm. She couldn't wait to move into their new house and make it theirs. She wanted to nestle down into it and arrange every detail carefully, like a bird lovingly weaving a nest. She'd spent hours daydreaming about how she wanted to decorate, and now that the moment was finally here, she was itching to start unpacking their belongings.

The rumbling noise of the moving van faded into the distance. The movers had finished unloading all of their boxes and furniture only a few minutes before, and she tingled with excitement now that they could really start exploring their space without the distractions of moving boxes and furniture inside.

"Let's go in!" she said, tugging his hand and starting for the door. "I want to start unpacking."

He laughed, hurrying to keep up with her eager pace. "First, we should talk about where we want to put everything. Sticky notes? We could put sticky notes up in places where we know we want to put stuff. Like for some of the bigger things, like potted plants."

"That's a good idea!" She opened the red front door with a flourish. "This feels like the first time we're really entering our home together," she said, turning to him with a grin. "Now that our belongings are inside, it really feels like ours."

"Just wait till we get everything organized." He grinned back at her, and they shared a kiss.

They stepped over the threshold together holding hands. As Dane had suggested, before trying to unpack anything, they wandered through the house discussing where to put things, and placing sticky notes here and there to help themselves remember all the ideas they agreed on.

"Oh, I forgot about this alcove!" She cooed as they went upstairs. She gazed fondly at the cozy reading nook surrounding a latticed dormer window. "I want to put those yellow pillows here—and buy a long cushion for the window seat. Light blue, maybe?"

There were several other quaint and cozy spaces around the house—a sloped roof in the living room leading down to a stone fireplace, and a set of glass doors leading out onto a balcony upstairs. She had barely had time to notice anything in the house as they directed the moving men through each room, and she and Dane now lingered in every space with delight.

After a while, they began to unpack. It was a messy business, even though they'd organized boxes as best they could. Combining two previous homes into one was no easy task, but they enjoyed it thoroughly.

I'm in love with this house, she thought as they unpacked some of their books together, arranging them according to genre on the living room bookshelf.

She pushed her glasses up higher on her nose, and her gaze roamed around the room as she waited for Dane to open the last box of books that they'd carried over to the bookshelf. The overhead lights were bright and cheerful, and added a warm ambiance to the space.

"What if we hung that old map you have over the fireplace?" she asked him. "The one from the nineteen-forties? I think the reddish frame you have it in would look great with the throw pillows for the couch."

"That's a great idea," he said, grinning at her. "And we should print out some of the wedding photos and hang them in the downstairs hallway."

"Yes!"

They continued to unpack for the next several hours, taking a break to sit on the couch in the living room and eat Chinese takeout. They talked as they worked, making plans for how to combine their belongings and teasing each other good-naturedly.

They were unpacking the dishes into the kitchen cupboards when she noticed an odd sound. It sounded almost like rustling at first, and then drumming, and then she realized that it was rain.

"That's weird," she said, glancing up at the ceiling. "That started really fast. All at once."

"Probably a cloud burst or something." He grunted as he heaved a stack of Christmas dishes onto the highest shelf of one of the cupboards. He turned around to grin at her. "Good thing we're nice and cozy in here."

They weren't as cozy as they thought, however. A couple of seconds later, she suddenly felt something cold prick her cheek. She lifted her hand to the spot and felt a streak of water. She looked up at the kitchen ceiling and gasped when she saw a crack, and beads of water forming in the center of it.

"Oh, Dane, we have a leak!" she cried, as another drop splashed across her forearm. She winced as she rubbed it off, feeling a rush of worry.

He looked up and blinked at the leak. For a few seconds, he didn't say anything, and then he said, "Shoot."

She had to laugh—his pause had created a moment of perfect comic timing.

He glanced at her, smiling a little, and then his expression turned to a frown as he looked back up at the ceiling. "At least this part of the house is an addition, and there's no second story above us. So we know the leak is coming from the roof, and not all the way from upstairs."

"True." She bit her lip as she watched another drop splash down onto the floor beside her. She felt a flutter of disappointment as she realized that settling into their new home was not going to be as breezy of an experience as she'd hoped. "Can we try to patch it?"

"I wouldn't want to try." He rubbed one of her shoulders with his hand. "That water is going to keep coming through the roof, so if we patch it on this side, I'm worried that it will just create more water damage as it spreads above the patch."

She nodded, understanding what he was saying. "Okay. Well, meanwhile, I'll look for our largest and most reliable drip-catching pot."

He laughed as she started to rummage around in the remaining boxes. A few seconds later, she triumphantly pulled a hefty soup pot out of one of the larger ones. "This should do the trick."

They placed the pot underneath the leak, and a second later, there was a loud plink as a raindrop splashed right into the center of the pot.

"Perfect." He winked at her.

They continued to unpack boxes, but she felt a little tense. The intermittent dripping sound made it harder to lose herself in the joy of settling into their home.

It's okay,she told herself. I'm just getting tired. It's late. We'll be able to fix this leak without too much trouble, I'm sure.

In another forty-five minutes, the rain subsided and the dripping finally stopped. By that time, they'd moved back into the living room, but once she noticed that the dripping sound was no longer audible, she started toward the kitchen.

"I want to go check the pot," she told her husband. "It was really raining hard, but hopefully that pot isn't too full of water."

"Good idea," he said as he followed her into the kitchen. They hurried over to the pot and saw that it had a couple of inches of rainwater in it.

That's not too bad considering,she thought, but she still felt a twist of anxiety in her stomach. But it's still not a great start to moving into our new house.

"Don't worry about it, sweetheart," he said, seeming to sense that she was upset. He pulled her into a hug and rocked her back and forth a little. "We can pour this water into a glass bottle and keep it forever, to commemorate our first night in this house."

She laughed and he grinned. "But for real," he assured her, kissing her nose, "I'm sure we'll get this leak patched up in no time. This is just one of many challenges we're going to face as a married couple."

She beamed at him, gazing up into his striking green eyes. "I'm so happy we're married," she whispered. "No matter what comes next or what challenges we face, we're together, and that means the world to me. Even with a leaky roof, I'm so happy."

"Right back at you." For a moment, they stood there smiling at each other, and then he pulled her in for a kiss.