Jesse pointed through the windshield at the Burger King. “Do you want to stop for burgers? So you don’t have to cook?”
She nodded. “That would be good. Don’t order me anything though. I’m not hungry.”
He gave her the same look he gave the girls when they were being brats.
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “But I’m really not hungry. I don’t feel well.”
It was the truth. This whole thing made her literally sick to her stomach.
27
So what do you think?” Jesse squeezed Corinne’s hand under the table. So hard it hurt.
Dallas Brooks looked at Danae as if making sure they were on the same page. Apparently he saw agreement in her face because he turned to them with a big smile. “We’re game if you are.”
“Okay! Let’s do this.”
Corinne wanted to kick Jesse under the table for being just a tad too excited about trading off their beautiful home for the little two-bedroom cottage where they were sitting at the eat-in kitchen—because there was no formal dining room. But even now, she could hear the girls’ chattering and giggling, their voices carrying through the open windows as they played in Aunt Danae’s playhouse in the backyard. A playhouse that might soon belong to them.
Her sister’s house looked especially pretty tonight, and soft jazz played from somewhere in the kitchen, adding to the ambiance. It was obvious Danae had gone to extra pains with the house before they got here. Not that Corinne would fault her if she had. Danae knew this was hard for her, and even though they were sisters, this was a business deal for both of them.
Jesse took the reins now, steering them to the most difficult part of the conversation. “I think you guys know what we were asking for our house. We have a little room to wiggle, but not much. But we don’t know where you’re wanting to come in on your house.”
Dallas jumped up and retrieved a file folder from the rolltop desk in the corner of the living room—the space he used for his office. Corinne cringed inwardly. Well, it was convenient. She had to give him that. She tried—unsuccessfully—to mentally arrange their living room furniture in this space. Oh well. They’d talked about selling some of it anyway. Extra cash was the name of the game right now. She swallowed hard. This wasn’t going to be easy. But she was determined not to be a big baby about it.
“Why don’t we move to the living room.”
“Let me check on the girls,” Jesse said. He stooped to look out the dining room windows.
“Do you see them?” Corinne asked, working to keep her voice level. She couldn’t help feeling vulnerable when the girls weren’t in sight.
“They’re fine.”
“You see all three of them?”
“Yes, babe. They’re right out here. One, two, three.”
“Did Danae tell you we put locks on the side gates? They’re both locked. I checked before you guys got here.”
“I hadn’t told her yet,” Danae said, looking a little sheepish.
“Thanks, you guys.” She knew Danae hadn’t said anything because she didn’t want to remind her of that day the girls had gone missing. As if she could ever forget. But it did help to know the gates were locked.
Dallas led the way, and when they were settled, he opened the folder and spread it on the coffee table in front of the sofa where Corinne and Jesse sat. “I’ve talked to a Realtor friend and printed out some comparable homes in this neighborhood. I also know this is close to what our neighbors to the west of us paid for their home about”—he looked to Danae—“two years ago, wasn’t it, honey?”
“Probably closer to three.”
“Anyway, we have a little wiggle room, too. We’re not going to be able to put as much down on your house as you guys did, but this house is paid for, so that helps.”
Corinne was surprised to learn that Dallas and Danae didn’t have a mortgage on their home. She assumed since they’d been socking so much money into their “baby fund” that paying off the house had gone on the back burner.
“So . . . How do you want to do this?” Jesse shifted in his seat the way he did when he was feeling socially uncomfortable.
Corinne spoke up. “What if we each write our offer on a piece of paper and work forward from there?”
“Sounds good to me,” her sister said. “Everybody?”
Nods all around, and Danae went to the kitchen and came back with slips of paper and pens. She gave a nervous laugh. “Is this legal, you think?”
Dallas shrugged. “Sure. We’re doing two FSBOs. We can do anything we want at this point.”
He pronounced the acronym “fizz-bo,” which Corinne would not have understood before her recent real estate research.
In the car on the way here, she’d asked Jesse to pray with her that nothing that happened tonight would endanger their friendship with her sister and brother-in-law. So far, so good, but this part could get sticky.
“Do we need to go talk amongst ourselves,” Dallas joked. “Or are we ready to write down some numbers?”
Jesse looked at Corinne. “I think we’re ready. You guys?”
“Do the wives need to sequester themselves in a soundproof booth?” Danae asked, smiling.
Corinne laughed. “It does kind of feel like that time we tried to play The Newlywed Game at Mom and Dad’s.”
The guys both groaned, and the sisters exchanged conspiratorial looks. She and Danae had orchestrated the game. And it had been a blast. At least the women all thought so. The guys, not so much.
With the ice broken, they settled in to work out the business deal. Exchanging slips of paper, Danae hurried to explain theirs. “We’re offering you guys full price, but we’d like to negotiate for some of the furniture if that’s okay.”
“Sure.” Corinne swallowed—more like a gulp. “Do you have certain things in mind?”
“Kind of,” her sister said. “But if you’d rather, we’d be happy to just wait until you’ve decided what you plan to sell, and then we’ll talk about those pieces.”
“That might be better,” Jesse said.
Corinne could have kissed him.
He looked at the slip of paper Dallas had written on and handed it to Corinne. “Is this right?”
Their asking price was almost thirty thousand dollars less than she and Jesse had been anticipating. “Did you guys take into account all the updates you’ve done to the house?”
“We did.” Dallas stroked his chin. “It’s a great neighborhood and we love it here, but it hasn’t kept its value very well.”
“Partly because too many of these houses get rented out to college kids. Or at least the basements or attic apartments do.”
“But you guys have said before that it doesn’t get too rowdy?”
“No,” they said in unison.
“We’ve had a couple of times where we could hear a party going on up the street, but it never got too out of control.”
“The only problem you’ll have in our neighborhood is the HOA patrol,” Jesse said.
Danae’s forehead wrinkled. “What’s that?”
“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Corinne told her sister. “He’s just being facetious. There are a couple of people on our homeowners association board with too much time on their hands.”
“There’s one old lady who walks the streets with a ruler, measuring to be sure nobody’s grass gets over four inches tall.”
“Seriously?” Dallas looked doubtful.
“Oh, she does not, Jesse.” Corinne elbowed Jesse and turned to Dallas. “They’re pretty strict about the covenants, but not that strict.”
“I’m telling you, Corinne, I have seen her with a ruler.”
She smirked. “Maybe so, but it wasn’t to measure the grass. Don’t listen to him, guys.”
“Yeah, man,” Dallas said. “Are you trying to change our minds about that full-price offer?”
“No way!” Jesse held up a hand. “We’re all over that offer. In fact, I just happen to have a contract ou
t in the car.” He started to rise, but Corinne pulled him back down, laughing.
When the room quieted, Jesse picked up the slip of paper with the Brooks’s price on it. “Guys, this is a really nice offer. You’re sure it’s not an act of charity? Because we really don’t need you to—”
Dallas halted him with an upraised hand. “We feel like it’s a fair price. I seriously don’t think we could get any more than that if we put it on the market.”
“You’re sure?”
“And besides,” Danae said, “you guys are giving us a nice deal too, with the furniture and all.”
Jesse winked at Corinne before turning to Danae. “Have you taken a good look at our furniture lately?”
“Renegotiate, renegotiate,” Danae said, laughing.
Corinne watched her sister and their husbands joking with each other and seemingly in competition for who could be the nicest to whom, who could bless the other guy more. It warmed her heart. She’d never considered that expression before, but there truly was a warmth in the region of her heart. No matter what happened, she would always remember that about this evening.
Dallas got up and offered to refill drink glasses, and Jesse went to check on the girls again. With the kitchen right around the corner from the living room, Corinne could hear ice clinking into glasses and tea being poured. This—coziness—would take some getting used to.
Jesse returned smiling. “I think we may actually be getting a better deal than we thought.”
“Why’s that?” Danae said.
“Because I think those girls would be plenty happy to just move into the playhouse permanently. Corinne and I can have the whole house to ourselves.”
The whole house. Yeah, all fourteen hundred square feet of it. But the playhouse would soften the blow for the girls, that was for sure.
When Dallas returned with refills, he remained standing. An uncharacteristic gentleness came to his voice. “I’ve gotta say, guys, this has to be the most fun business deal I’ve ever done.”
“Well, sure, you’re the one getting the big house out of the deal,” Jesse said.
“I’m also the one writing the big check.”
Jesse beamed. “Touché, brother. Touché.”
Dallas held out his iced tea glass. “A toast. To trading spaces.”
“You’re toasting a TV show?” Corinne said.
“Cute,” her sister said wryly. But she raised her glass.
Corinne and Jesse did likewise, and they clinked glasses all around to murmurs of “cheers.”
Dusk came on quickly, and while Jesse and Dallas came up with a plan for who would take care of each aspect of their real estate trade, she went out to round up the girls. The evening had gone better than she could have hoped. And like she’d told Jesse, the actual doing was far easier than the dreading of it.
Later, in the kitchen, while the girls colored at the table, Corinne helped Danae put glasses in the dishwasher.
“Are you okay if we tell the family Tuesday night?” she asked her sister. “Do we dare wait that long?” Most of the Whitmans had been together last week to celebrate the Fourth of July, so they’d skipped a Tuesday family dinner.
“I’d rather not do it like a big . . .” Danae frowned. “Like a big secret announcement.”
“What do you mean?”
“Because if we make a big deal of announcing it, the first thing everybody will think is that I’m pregnant.” Danae looked at the floor. “And I’m definitely not. I started my period this morning.”
“Oh, Danae. I’m so sorry.” She reached for her sister and gave her a hug. “I know it’s got to be so hard to be disappointed month after month.”
Her sister shrugged out of her embrace. “I’m getting used to it.”
“Your turn will come, Danae. I know it will. And I’m sorry for being so thoughtless. I hadn’t even considered that the family might take it that way. We’ll just tell people privately as they get there. Sound okay?”
Danae nodded. She glanced over at the girls and lowered her voice. “I know this whole house swap isn’t easy for you, Corinne. Please don’t feel like you have to pretend you’re excited about moving into our house.”
“No, I’m not—”
“I think you guys will be really happy here. Dallas and I have been. And, if it’s any consolation, it’s helped a lot to keep my mind off our baby woes having your house to get excited about. And to dream about filling it with babies.”
“Aww.” A lump came to her throat. “That helps a lot, sis. And don’t misunderstand. I love your house. It’ll just be kind of hard to downsize.”
“Well, it won’t be for long. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were back in your neighborhood in a few short years. Just think, we might end up being next-door neighbors.”
Corinne was touched. She hadn’t thought about how this move—and their house—might be a much-needed blessing to Danae while she and Dallas were going through a hard time.
But she didn’t tell her sister that there was no use hoping they’d someday be next-door neighbors. She and Jesse had done the math. Unless they won the lottery—unlikely since they never bought a ticket—they would never again live in a house as nice as the one they were moving out of.
* * *
Corinne finished buckling the girls into their car seats and climbed into the passenger seat beside Jesse. She was eager to hear his thoughts about the evening with Dallas and Danae, but given the way he was whistling under his breath, she was pretty sure she could guess how he felt.
The girls were asleep in the backseat practically as soon as they pulled out of the Brooks’s driveway. Their driveway. At least it soon would be.
“So what do you think?” she asked, once they were on the main road.
“What do you think?”
“I asked you first.”
“Well, for starters, I can’t believe their asking price. I almost fell out of my chair.” He shook his head. “It almost feels like we’d be cheating them.”
“Maybe we should offer a little over their asking price.”
“Even if we did, do you realize what this means, Corinne?”
She shook her head, not understanding.
“Babe! You won’t have to work. At that price, and with what they’re paying for our house, we will own that house free and clear. We’ll have no mortgage payment. Zero. And with such a small house, we’ll have lower utility bills, lower taxes. I really won’t have to make much to pay the bills. And Dallas even gave me a lead on a job. We may have to dip into savings for anything extra, but we’ll be sitting pretty good.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m positive. You saw the numbers. I mean, we’ll still have to be careful with our money. But we do that anyway. And I know there are probably things you want to do to the house. But you can absolutely stay home if you want to.”
“Wow. How did I miss that? But—maybe you should be the one who doesn’t take a job. You could carry more hours that way.” She wished she hadn’t opened her big mouth, because she was really liking the idea of not having to find a job. Of getting to be home with Simone for another few years.
“I’d feel better if you were home with the girls,” he said. “And if we don’t have to pay for daycare—and a work wardrobe and gas for your car—we’re that much more ahead. And you’re creative, and paint is cheap; we’re moving some nice furniture. The house will look a lot better—and more like ours—once we move our things in. What do you think?”
“Oh, Jesse. That would be like a dream come true.”
He laughed and reached across the console to squeeze her knee. “Listen to you. This is a little different song than you were singing a few weeks ago. And are you calling that little cottage we’re moving into a dream come true?”
She wrinkled her nose. “The jury’s still out on that one. I may be wishing I could get a job just to cure my claustrophobia.”
“The house is pretty small, isn’t it?” He winced. “I neve
r realized.”
“I know. You start looking at it with different eyes when it’s going to be yours.”
“That red wall in the kitchen will have to go.” He made a gagging sound.
“Seriously? I kind of like it. Our dishes would look really good against that shade of red.”
“You really think the hutch will fit on that wall?”
“Oh, sure.” She made a face. “At least I think so.”
He took both hands off the steering wheel and held them up in surrender. “Hey, I bow to your superior knowledge. Honestly, I know you’ll make the place look great. All I ask is that I have a quiet corner somewhere where I can study.”
“A quiet corner? In that house? Dream on, baby. But hey, I know the perfect place.”
“Oh yeah?”
“It’s called the public library.”
He rolled his eyes. “I guess I could always go sit in the car in the garage and study.”
“That’s not a half-bad idea. Why didn’t I think of that?” She grinned up at him, then turned serious again, in full brainstorming mode. “I think we could fit that smaller desk in a corner of the master bedroom for you. That room is actually a little bigger than I remembered. Or maybe you could use the playhouse for an office?”
“Do you think for one minute the girls would allow that?”
“Good point.”
“How do you think they’ll react when we tell them?”
She grinned. “Probably a whole lot better than I did.”
“We’ll figure it all out.” He looked at her in the dim light of the car. “It’s just for a while, babe. Just until I can get through school and get a teaching position.”
“No, Jesse. It’s not just for a while. It’s a big change. And it’s forever. For the rest of our lives. And—I’m okay with that.”
And she was. Or she would be. Hard as it might be, she would be okay. They would be okay.
28
Audrey sat at the dining room table, her favorite place in the house because it afforded her a panoramic view of most of the inn’s first floor—this beautifully transformed home she’d dreamed of and longed for all the years she and Grant had spent raising their children here. Of course, back then the carpets were worn—never mind ugly—and the woodwork was dark and scuffed. But there had been so much joy inside these walls. And she’d wasted entirely too much time wishing for something she couldn’t have at that time.
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