The house sat back a good hundred feet from the road on a slight rise, making it look taller than its two stories. It was, in fact, imposing, like something off a postcard. It was everything Finnegan had promised. Stately, but also charming, with its dormer windows, wraparound porch, a forest backdrop, painted in a shade of blue that matched the sky. Annie felt a hopeful swelling in her heart, that this was everything she had hoped it would be.

The driveway was circular, allowing Annie to bring the car right up in front of the house, at the base of the steps up to the porch. Charlie was trying to disconnect the seat belt that held him and his booster seat in place but couldn’t reach it.

“Let me out! Let me out!”

“Hold on, pal.”

She put the car in park, killed the engine, got out, and came around the other side to free Charlie. He leapt out and ran up the three steps to the porch, wide-eyed.

“How much of it is ours?” he asked.

That made Annie laugh. Another city-vs.-country perception. In New York, you got part or, in their case, maybe most of a building. But even they rented out the basement, which was a totally self-contained unit.

“All of it,” she said.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. I mean, we don’t own it, we’re just renting, but we can use every single room if we want to.” Annie couldn’t imagine that they would. There was probably twice the square footage of their home. It had three floors, and this house had but two, but the brownstone was narrow, tall and skinny, and this house spread out, like it was trying to use up as much of the land as it could.

Annie said, “See if there’s a key under the mat.”

That was equally mystifying to Charlie. He knew about keys, even though their brownstone was accessed via a keypad, but he was not familiar with the notion of leaving a key where anybody could find it. But he did as he was told, lifted up the corner of the mat, and shrieked, “It’s here!”

Annie reached the porch, took the key from Charlie, unlocked the door, and let it open into the house.

“Wow,” Charlie said.

They stepped into a spacious front hall. A few steps directly ahead of them was a broad staircase leading to the upper floor. To the right, a large living room with a wall-mounted big-screen television. To the left, a dining room. Alongside the stairs, on the right, was a hallway that led to the kitchen.

“Where’s the bathroom?” Charlie asked with some urgency.

Annie shrugged.

“Never mind, I’ll find it.” Charlie ran down the hall to the kitchen, vanished, then reappeared in the dining room, having done a loop of the first floor.

“Find it?”

“No!” he shouted somewhat frantically.