Secret passages not included.
Mackenzie didn't mind that Jake didn't seem all that interested in the dream house she'd built. She was pretty sure he'd come around by the time they were married.
"And this is the living room," she told him, pointing it each individual segment of the three-story dollhouse in front of her, "and this is the dining room, and THIS is the where the baby sleeps..."
"Uh huh," Jake grunted in a totally dreamy way, checking the hallway. "That's great. So where's your basement around here?"
"Um, the door is next to the bathroom, but Mommy says I can't go down there. OH, and see how I decorated the play room? I did that all by myself with stickers and fabrics and paints and everything. Mommy only had to help with the lamps. See 'em?" Mackenzie turned the lights in her Ideal Decorate a Dream House house on. "Isn't that neato torpedo?"
Jake looked like he was listening to see if Mommy and her friend Michelle were still talking and fussing over Gavin, but she knew better. He was just trying to play it cool like the boys in those shows Mommy liked to watch. After all, he'd been the one to ask her if they could play in her room. So what if he was older? He was so cute AND he could read on his own! Mommy would totally approve.
"So does your mom go down there a lot?" he asked. "To the basement."
Mackenzie shrugged. "It's spooky down there. I don't like it. I like the little furniture pieces I used in MY house. It doesn't have a stupid basement."
"Sure, but do you ever here noises coming from down there?" Jake came closer and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Like crying? Or maybe electrical stuff? Or even someone trying to talk from inside a jar?"
"Nope! But Mommy keeps her pickling jars down there. And one time, I was going to hide Gavin down there and she yelled and said I should never ever open that door ever."
Jake grinned as he looked toward the bedroom doorway again. "Really..."
"And then she locked it."
His face fell. "Rats."
Mackenzie shivered at the thought of big mice in her house. "You would protect me if a rat tried to eat me, right, Jake?"
"What? Oh. Yeah, sure, I would."
HE DID LIKE HER! He was totally her boyfriend now. Totally.
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