Page 28 of Charmed, I'm Sure
Thankfully, the email from my realtor pinged on my phone just as I pulled out of her driveway and onto the main road.
“You mind checking that for me?” I asked, glancing her way before returning my focus to the road.
“You wantmeto checkyour phone?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Uh, maybe because you barely know me?”
‘I know what your body feels like beneath my hands and what your lips taste like. I know the sounds you make when I kiss your neck,’ was what I wanted to say, but now was not the time or place—regardless of how much I wanted to relive our Halloween encounter. Instead, I opted for something simpler… and a lot less intimate. “Magnolia, it’s just an email. But feel free to snoop if that’s what you want to do.”
Her eyes widened, like saucers, as she hesitantly grabbed my phone from the dashboard. “You’re sure about this?”
“Yes, Mags. Just click the first link so the address loads into the GPS.”
Quirking a single brow, she did as I instructed, then promptly placed the phone back in its holder.
“What? No snooping?” I chuckled.
“I prefer to get to know people organically, thank you very much,” she replied matter-of-factly, pulling one leg up into the seat and resting it against the door.
Silence filled the cab as Magnolia stared out the window, watching the trees roll by. Gone was the levity and joking; in its place was a heavy awkwardness that I didn’t know how to dispel. The radio played faintly in the background, Jon Pardi’sHeartbreak on the Dance Floorfilling the spaces where I’d hoped conversation would thrive.
It wasn’t her fault. I knew this would be awkward or weird; I just hadn’t expected complete silence and didn’t know where to start.
As we pulled into the first driveway, Magnolia scoffed into her palm, her lips turning inward as she dropped her hand back to her lap.
“What?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I glanced her way.
“This is an apartment, Taylor. I thought you said no apartments?”
“It’s technically a townhome.”
Her deadpan expression left no room for argument, but I pushed anyway. “Would you just get out of the car?”
The first place had been a bust right from the start because there was a yard—if you could even call it that—no bigger than a postage stamp. We didn’t even make it out of the car at the second stop because itwas, indeed, an apartment complex. By the third, I was questioning why I wanted to buy a house in the first place.
Evidently no longer trusting the listings my realtor had sent me, Magnolia pulled my phone from its holder and began scrolling through random listings to find something she deemed “appropriate.”
“Oh! This one is cute!” she exclaimed, turning the screen my way.
“It looks a little small, don’t you think?”
Pulling the phone away, she scrolled through the pictures. “Unless you have a wife and kids I don’t know about, I think it’s a good size.” She shot me a sideways glance, a brow arched. “You don’t, do you? Because this would be hella awkward if you did.”
“No, Magnolia. I don’t have some secret family stashed away in another state,” I chuckled.
“Okay, good.”
“Why, exactly, is that a good thing?” I asked, braking at a stop sign, a smirk tugging at my lips as hers rolled inward.
“Because,” she drew out the word, a faint pink coloring her cheeks, “I’m no homewrecker, Taylor Hallows.”
“This would have to be a date for you to be a homewrecker, Mags.Isthis a date?” I couldn’t help the smile that crept onto my lips as her mouth popped open and then promptly closed.
“So, this house has three bedrooms and two and a half baths…” I shook my head as she ignored the question and rattled off the key items on the listing. When she finally finished, her big blue eyes landed on mine. “Do you want to go see it?”
“Sure.”
