******

Sam had never truly regretted insisting that they purchase an old house, a place with history, a place with a ton of character; frankly, a place that would be reminiscent of the home he’d grown up in down in Delacroix. Older houses were great, even if they could end up being a pain in the butt sometimes — like when they’d decided to put in all new windows not even a year after they’d moved in to cut down on the draft and the gas bill, or when they’d been forced to replace a good chunk of the pipes a few years back. However, even on those costly occasions, regret wasn’t a word he ever would’ve used.

Right now though, when Sam was trying his damnedest to sneak out of the house undetected, and the old wooden staircase he’d refused to part with when they were deciding what to update and what to keep, insisted on practically singing like a canary, well, regret was the only word that came to mind. The stairs were sturdy, probably more solid and safer than any staircase found in any of the cookie cutter new builds some company was throwing up a couple of blocks over, but unfortunately for Sam they were also creaky as hell, and absolutely not designed for creeping around unnoticed. And while that was all well and good when it came to making sure their baby girl never got past them back when she was a curious toddler, and even now when she was a sometimes too curious and adventurous teenager, they weren’t doing Sam any favors when he was trying to put one over on his far too observant husband.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Bucky asked, having made it to the bottom of the stairs even before Sam did.

“Nowhere,” he tried, lamely.

“Sure doesn’t look like nowhere,” Bucky replied, using the wooden spoon he was wielding to point at Sam’s ridiculously puffy coat.

Sam sighed, then stepped off the last step. “I was just going to pick up a few things.”

“Mmm hmm, like what?”

“Some eggs, and more butter. We’re a little low on buttermilk too.”

“And,” Bucky prompted, clearly not convinced that a quick trip to the nearest grocery store was all Sam had in mind.

“And, since I was gonna be out that way anyway, I figured I could swing by the mall.”

“There it is.”