The Dad Next Door
THE EMPTY SEATS in his station wagon haunted Gavin Gray as he drove up to the biggest house on the crescent. He stopped the car and gazed through the windshield at the classic Cape Cod colonial. The house looked a little tired. Welcome to the club. But it had good bones. Cindy Buchanan, his real-estate agent, beckoned to him from the door."You have to see this one. It's a real family home."
Cindy was a friendly, plump woman in her midfifties. She'd been showing Gavin houses all day, her patience never wavering. He was sure she'd have felt terrible if she knew how much pain her cheerful words had just brought him.
A family home.
He turned around to face what was left of his family—one little girl strapped into a booster chair in the middle of the backseat. "Tory? Want to see another house?"
Predictably, his daughter offered no opinion, but she scrambled out willingly and held his hand as he led her up the sidewalk to the welcoming front porch.
"It has a huge pie-shaped yard. And it's the only house on this road that backs onto the lake." Seeing his concerned frown in reaction to her comment, Cindy added quickly, "But there's a fence, so it's perfectly ... read full excerpt from The Dad Next Door ebook
