Page 2 of Bradley

My ex-husband had tried to fight me on moving, but then I reminded him that he had moved five hundred miles away from the girls to be with his new wife. I also reminded him that I was now closer to him and his previous eight-hour drive was only four. Eventually, he got on board with it, and I think that had a lot to do with his new wife. It was the only thing I appreciated about her. She didn’t want him arguing with me because it took time away from their relationship and put him in a bad mood.

I hadn’t liked her from the day I met her. Well, I didn’t like her before that either. She’d been sleeping with my husband for two years while we were married. I did know that she was pleasant to the kids, and she made sure they had fun and were taken care of when they went to visit—I appreciated that too.

Kayley broke me out of my thoughts. “Nolan, I’m serious here. This place will be too much work and way too expensive.”

“It won’t be too expensive, Kayley. I can get this house for a steal. You already said that, and I can use that extra money I saved from the sale of my place to put back into the house.”

“Saving fifty grand on the purchase price of the house and spending a hundred is not saving money, Nolan.”

I sighed. I knew Kayley was probably right, but I wanted this house. The minute I had seen the overgrown front garden and the wraparound porch that begged for some tender loving care, I had fallen in love with it.

I approached Kayley. “I know you want what is best for me, but, Kayley, this is the type of house that I have dreamed of owning since I was a little girl. Once I restore it, it is going to be beautiful—absolutely stunning.”

She huffed as she shook her head. “Fine. If this is what youreallywant, I will put an offer on it for you.”

Even though Kayley wasn’t doing real estate full-time anymore, she had gotten her Pennsylvania license to help friends out once in a while and to keep her toes in the water in case things went terrible working with her brother.

I squealed as I grabbed her hands. “Thank you! How long do you think it will take?”

“Considering the house has been on the market for almost two years, and no one has lived in it or even put an offer in on it the whole time, I’m thinking pretty quickly.”

“Great!” I clapped my hands together. “Then let’s put an offer in.”

She shook her head. “Alright, if you seriously want to.”

“Yes! You realize that I’ll only be a couple of miles away from you and no longer sleeping in your guest room. I’m sure that Cam will appreciate it.” I winked at her, and she finally smiled.

“Oh, I’m sure Cam would appreciate one less person in the house for a little while, but you know you are welcome to stay as long as you need to. I don’t think you will be living here for a while.”

“No! I’m going to move in as soon as I own it. The best way to work on it is to immerse myself into the project completely.”

Kayley glanced around, her eyes skimming over the cobwebs and dirt. I really wasn’t blind. I did know that this would be a considerable undertaking, but I was excited to do something for the first time in a long time.

“Nolan, I swear, if I didn’t know you better, I’d think you had lost your mind.”

I grinned at her and bumped her shoulder. “But you do know me, and you know that my mind was lost a long time ago.”

She snickered as she shook her head. “Okay, then why don’t we go back to my place, and I’ll put an offer in on the house. Just in case some other crazy person is thinking of doing it too.”

I laughed. “Yeah, right. Before we go, I want to make a list of the things that I will need to start, like trash bags and brooms and cleaners and things like that.”

“You might want to think about a bulldozer instead.”

I laughed at her and pulled her arm as I left the kitchen. “Let’s start in the bedrooms. Those will be easier.”

It was three hours later before we left, and I carried with me a list of projects that would need my attention. The list was over two pages long. Then I had a list of tools and supplies that I would need, which was another three pages. Luckily, Kayley said that some of the tools I could borrow, like the saws and such. Her brother had quite a few older tools that she knew he’d let me use.

With that decided, we left the house and went back to hers to put in the offer. I did not doubt that they would accept it, especially after having it on the market with no traffic for two years.

I made us lunch while she worked at the kitchen table, and before she sent it over, she called the agent who had listed it.

“Hello, Marianne. It’s Kayley Young. How are you?”

I listened to the one-sided conversation, gnawing on my bottom lip so hard, I was surprised I didn’t peel the skin off. Kayley told her that she had a buyer for the property, told her what I was willing to offer, which was twenty thousand less than I had told her to offer—but Kayley insisted. There were a lot of ‘yeps,’ ‘I know,’ and ‘I did,’ said in that conversation from Kayley’s side.

Finally, Kayley said, “Okay, I’m emailing it over to you right now. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.”

When she hung up, I stared at her wide-eyed. “Well?”

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