I don’t remember him mentioning a sister yesterday. Must have been one of the times I zoned out, and I make a mental note to do better.
As soon as Keri pulls up in front of the house, I have a good feeling about it. It’s single-story, which is nice since Ma occasionally suffers from bursitis in her left knee. But more than that, it simply looks homey. The outside is red brick, and there’s a sweet white porch with a wooden swing on one end. The landscaping appears to be well-tended. Ma enjoys gardening on the weekends, so she will appreciatethat.
“It’s a relatively new construction,” Keri says as she opens the burgundy front door. “Only eight years old, so it’s in great shape. The couple that lived here moved due to a job opportunity in Brazil for the wife. They are selling it furnished.”
She shows us around, and I kick the metaphorical tires, making sure I don’t see any noticeable leaks or structural issues. I snap some photos of the interior and exterior and send them to Ma.
There are two bedrooms, two baths, and a cozy study, and the furniture is modern and clean. Overall, I think it’s pretty perfect, not too big and not too small.
“How much?” I ask bluntly, and the price Keri spits out almost has me dropping my teeth. “Not that I’m complaining, but why is the price so low?”
“The couple is anxious to sell, but I think you’ll find the cost of living is much more reasonable here. If this same house was in Dallas, it would be three times as much.”
Pausing for a moment, I tell her, “Pending an inspection, I’m interested.”
Sensing the blood in the water, Keri grins and hands me a report from the leather folio she’s carrying. “Already done. I’ll give you some time to look over it.”
I scan through the pages and don’t see any red flags, but I decide to get my real estate guy in Colorado to look over it since I’m no expert. My phone rings, and I smile when I see it’s my mother calling.
“Reno, it’s lovely,” she gushes. “I’ve been looking up the town on the internet, and I adore it too. How much is the house?”
She gets even more worked up when I tell her the price, and her excitement bleeds through the phone and directly into me. “I’ll get Carlos to look at the inspection report, and if he says everything looks good, I’ll have the agent here email you the paperwork.”
“Thank you for handling all this,” she says.
“Of course, Ma. You’re handling Gramps. Have you spoken with him today?”
I hear the tut in her voice. “I had lunch with him earlier. He thought I was his sister who’s been dead for thirty years.”
So obviously not one of his good days.
We talk for a couple more minutes, and then I go back into the house. “Ma likes the house,” I tell Keri. “If you could email me the inspection paperwork, I’d like to have my friend take a look.”
“Of course.”
So I guess it’s official. I’m moving to Pine Tree Falls.
After dinner with Baylor, I receive a call from Carlos, who advises me to snap up the house as soon as possible. I message Keri, who sends my mom the paperwork.
I go downstairs to the living area of the bed and breakfast and pour myself two fingers of a nice scotch. Taking it up to my room, I sit on the edge of the cream-colored bed, down the contents of the glass, and run a hand through my hair.
Everything in my life is coming together. My career, this move… everything except for the woman I love. I restrain my twitching fingers from picking up my phone to call Juliette. She said she wanted a clean break. I know she felt something for me too, but for some reason, she doesn’t want to pursue a real life with me.
I stand and dig out a blue pajama top from my bag, holding it to my nose and inhaling the sweetness. It’s both soothing and heartbreaking.
When I moved into Juliette’s cottage for that final week on the island and began putting away my clothes, I found these fancy little sachets that she had tucked beneath her clothes. They smelled like brambleberry—whatever the fuck a brambleberry is. When I got home and unpacked, I found this top, which is infused with the subtlefloral scent, in my suitcase. I don’t know if it ended up in there accidentally or if Juliette put it in there, but it’s been my lifeline.
Stripping down to my underwear, I turn off the lights and crawl beneath the covers, holding the shirt to my face like a kid with a security blanket.
And I drift off to sleep, dreaming of the most beautiful face I’ve ever seen.
The face I’ll probably never see again.
Chapter 30
Oh. My. God.
“Thisisjustfuckingadorable,” Keri says as we stand at the back of the activity room in the Pine Tree Falls Library.
