Chapter Fourteen
Emily
“We have a full day today,” Terra said. “Come on; you must be at least a little bit excited?”
I groaned. “I’m not.”
“What? Why not?”
Today was the day that I was officially starting my house hunt. I’d spoken to an agent during the week and set up five different places for me to see all in a day. I’d tried to get her to spread the places out over a few days, but she was insistent that I do them all in one day. She clearly needed to make some commission, and I’d ended up just agreeing. I’d asked Terra to go with me, and she was excited. Although I wasn’t sure if she was excited to spend the day house hunting or if she was just happy that we’d both taken the day off work.
I groaned and put my head under the pillow.
“Em, what’s wrong? I thought you’d be excited to go house hunting?” she said and lifted up the pillow.
“I miss my old house,” I said and sat up.
“Ah, Em. I’m sorry. I’m being insensitive here.”
I shook my head. “No, you’re not. You’re being a good friend. You’re trying to get me excited, and I appreciate that. I had a dream about my house last night. I guess I just woke up in a sad mood. You know how much that place meant to me. I mean, it belonged to my mother and my grandmother. And now it’s all gone. They’d be devastated if they knew. Maybe they do know. Maybe they’re looking down on me and wondering how could’ve let this happen to their house. To their legacy.”
“No way. It’s not your fault. You have to know that.”
“But how did it happen? I mean, one minute it was standing and the next it was engulfed in flames. How does that even happen? What if it was all my fault?”
“Are you crazy? It’s not your fault. Come on, I know you well enough, Emily. There’s no way that was your fault. Freak accidents happen, and you happened to be in the firing range that day. Don’t think like that. But, I’m really sorry that it happened. I’m sorry that you have to find a new home. You didn’t deserve something like that to happen to you. But your gran and your mom will know that. They’ll be happy that you get a nice new house. You’ve told me so much about your gran. I know that she’d see it as an adventure.”
That made me smile. “You’re right. She would. She saw the good in everything. Thanks, Terra.” I still wasn’t sure that it was a freak accident though, as Terra seemed to think it was. The investigation was still open, although I couldn’t imagine what could’ve caused the fire. Right now, I was going to have to rent until things got sorted out.
After the talk, I got ready, had something to eat and then made my way to the agent’s office with Terra.
Tamara Middleton was an energetic woman who didn’t look to be much older than us. I’d peg her to be in very early thirties or late twenties. She didn’t look like most of the realtors I’d met in the past. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail. She didn’t try to bullshit us with fancy words, or obvious falsities. She was straight forward and friendly, and we knew that she was being honest with us.
“Okay,” she said when we arrived. “Are you ready for a day of house hunting?”
“We certainly are.”
“Good. We should be done by around midday.”
“Oh, cool, that early? I thought we’d be gone all day,” I said.
“No need. I’ve plotted the route out so it shouldn’t take us too long. It might even be quicker than you think. You get a feeling of a place. But let’s see all five and then discuss if there’s anything you want to see again, or if you want me to start from scratch.”
As it turned out, I got a feeling on the very first house that I saw. It was a freestanding house not too far from Terra’s house. It was small, but it had everything that I needed. It was by no means wonderful or show-stopping, but it had a sense of home that my old house offered me. Inside was a small reading nook that I could easily imagine myself sitting in for hours at a time, and space for a huge bookshelf next to it. It was by far my favorite part of the house. Also, the kitchen had one bright-yellow wall which immediately made me feel happy.
“This is the one,” I said to Tamara and Terra as we finished looking around.
“I knew you were going to say that!” Terra said. “I told you she’d like this one,” she said to Tamara.
Tamara laughed. “I cannot tell you how many times it happens like this. But, there are still four more places to see. It’s important that you see them. And if you still feel the same way about this one after seeing all four, then you know that it’s the right one for you. But you might change your mind.”
“I doubt it,” I said and looked around again. My eye caught the yellow wall, and I smiled.
“You never know. The houses are all within the budget that you sent me, but one happens to be a lot bigger than the rest. You might end up liking that one more.”
It took us two hours to see the next four houses, and while they were all lovely, they didn’t come close to the first one.
“Not even the big house?” Tamara asked.
I laughed. That house had been almost double the size of the one I liked. And I could see that it would be the house that most people would’ve chosen. It was a lot newer than all the other houses, and everything inside seemed a lot shinier. But, it lacked the feeling of home that I was looking for.
“I want the first one. I want the reading nook, and I want that yellow wall.”
“You can paint another wall yellow in the big house if you like?”
“Nope. I want the first house.”
“Then it’s yours! Wow, that was easy. Sometimes I have clients for months before they find something they like.”
“I’m surprised we got it done so quickly too. But I’m very happy. So what happens now?”
“Well, let’s go back to my office to sign some paperwork. The house will be ready in a week or so. How does that work for you?”
I looked at Terra. Two weeks was fine for me, but it was completely up to Terra. She nodded. “Of course, man. You don’t even have to ask. I’m glad I get you for another week.”
“Thanks, Terra.”
We went back to Tamara’s office, and I signed a few forms.
“We’ll need a few more things from you, mostly paperworkk stuff. But I think it’s safe to say that the house is yours. The lease is for a year and after that we can discuss whether or not you want to buy or keep on renting. I’m so pleased to have been your agent in all of this.”
“Tamara, you’re the best agent I know. I’ll be sure to spread the word around about you.”
She beamed. “Thanks, man. And hey, I’m sorry to hear about the house. It’s awful. But, I also heard there’s a new man in town and that he took you out on a date. What’s he like?”
I laughed. “Wow, news travels fast around here. He’s Brady’s brother, Grant. Very cute. Very cute.”
I walked out of the office beaming and hugged Terra.
“I found a house. One that I know my gran and my mother would’ve loved. It’s the one. I knew it the instant I saw it.”
“Yeah, so did I, actually. I told Tamara that you’d take it. I just knew it. I’m glad we saw the other ones, though. That was a fun day.”
“And you, Terra, are a great friend. I woke up feeling sad this morning, and now I’m so excited. You’re going to be the first guest in my new house. You can bring those wine glasses over. Although, I’ll probably have no furniture for a while, so that’s going to be fun.”
“We can have wine in the reading nook,” she said, and I grinned.
“I like the way you think. Now, I’m buying you lunch.”
“Oooh, can we go to Wyo?”
“Great idea!”
I took her to Wyo and chuckled as she oohed and aahed over the place. We ordered a glass of wine and some pasta and then laughed at how nice it was to be drinking wine instead of working.
“I could get used to this,” I said.
“So, have you heard from Grant?” she asked.
I shook my head. He’d said he’d call me the day after the kiss, but he didn’t. But I didn’t mind. I wasn’t the sort of girl that was going to be upset if his call was a bit late. He had his own life to lead after all.
“Nah, not yet. I’m sure he will, though.”
“After that kiss, I’m sure he will too. So, you’ve got two weeks left with me. That’s two weeks of not being able to do more than kiss. Do you think you can handle it?”
I laughed. “Of course I can. I’m not a sex maniac, you know.”
She raised her eyebrows. “I’ve been told otherwise.”
“What? Who told you that? You’re making it up.”
“Am I?”
“Terra, you’re crazy. Nobody told you that.”
She chuckled. “Remember Aaron?”
“Of course I remember Aaron.” Aaron was Terra’s ex-boyfriend who moved to another city for a job. She still referred to him as ‘the one that got away.'
“Well, Aaron was good friends with Byron.”
“Ah,” I said, and my face reddened.
Byron and I had an on and off relationship for a few years in my early twenties. We were terrible as boyfriend and girlfriend, but we constantly found ourselves in bed together. We were both very attracted to each other despite our personalities clashing.
“You see! I told you!” she said in triumph.
“What exactly did Aaron tell you?”
“According to Byron, you were a sweet little thing in your normal life, but that you were anything but innocent in bed. I mean, it’s really only the men that you sleep with that get to see your tattoos, right?”
“That has nothing to do with anything. You’ve seen them.”
“Well yes, but I’m your best friend. And I’m going to marry you if you don’t find the man of your dreams by thirty. So I’m an exception. So, back to Grant. How are you going to hold out for a week?”
I looked at her in shock. “I haven’t had sex in a very long time. I think I can hold out for another two weeks. I mean, what do you think of me? That’s even if I have sex with him in the first place. I mean, we’ve only had one date.”
“I saw that kiss. You want him. And it’s the very fact that you haven’t had sex in such a long time that is going to make waiting even harder.” She was mirroring my own thoughts which I had desperately trying not to conjure.
“Well, even if that’s true, I’ll just have to wait. I’m not sleeping with him at your house or at Brady’s house for the very first time. I can wait.”
“Or,” Terra said with a mischievous grin. “I can go and stay with my mom the next time that you need the house to yourself. I don’t mind doing that for you.”
I chuckled. “You’re impossible, Terra. We’re not going to have sex. I don’t even know if I want to.”
Terra grinned at me, and I quickly looked away. It was pretty obvious that I’d been thinking about it as much as Terra thought. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t wait two weeks. I barely knew the guy. I could wait.