Page 9 of Begin Again

She turned and walked away; he did the same.

He drove to his office. He wanted to talk to his cousin Whitney about this, but she was out on maternity leave still. She’d had her daughter, Quinn, a month ago and wouldn’t be back in the office for another month and then it’d be part time in the office, part time at home.

He moved to Zoe Randal’s office. She did all the marketing for the business now, taking that off of Whitney’s plate now that Whitney had a family of her own.

“Hey, Christian,” Zoe said. “What can I help you with?”

“Can you look up the owners of a house for me?”

“Sure,” Zoe said. “Give me the address. I’m sure Whitney has it updated, you know she tries to.”

“This was just purchased a few weeks ago, so maybe not. Not sure what I was thinking.” He gave Zoe the address anyway.

“Oh, I put this in. Elizabeth Carter. Ruby gave me the information right when Whitney went out. It was a pocket listing.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Whitney had told me after I came back from vacation.”

He’d been so ticked off. He never went on vacation. Ever.

This year though, he’d decided to take a week with a buddy and went to Vegas. They saw a fight, they gambled more than anything, they ate and did whatever they wanted while they were there.

“You wanted that house,” Zoe said. “I heard.”

He wasn’t surprised, as he’d cursed and sworn enough over it. If he hadn’t been out of town, he would have heard sooner, he was sure. Ruby found most of his houses for him, but that would teach him to make sure she knew in the future what he wanted.

Now it was gone, out of his grasp like a fist full of water.

It was the house he wanted and knew in his heart he’d never flip.

All his adult life he moved around from house to house, waiting, hoping, for the one he could call home.

Then bam, all his dreams vanished because he decided to help a friend out in his time of need.

He’d just move on like he always did, but man, it was going to sting for a long time.

“I just ran into the person who bought it,” he said. He told her what happened. “I knew her. We went to school together. I didn’t recognize the name when I heard it.”

But he saw why now. She must have been married since her last name was different.

“I’m sure you’ll get another one,” Zoe said. “You always do. Are you almost done with the one you’re in now?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Ruby is going to come and price it in a few weeks. Just need a few finishing touches in the basement, then clean it out and find another place to put my stuff. Got to live somewhere.”

Zoe shook her head. “I’m not sure how you do it. Dylan said he’s not flipping any more houses. He’ll help Nathan, but our house was the first and last project he was doing on his own.”

Dylan Randal was a state trooper. His older brother was an investigator with the state police. Nathan was a flipper too, on the side. The house in Paradise Place though, Nathan had kept that for himself.

No one in his family understood how Christian could move all the time, but he didn’t care. It’s not like he had anything holding him down. He just took it as it came.

Living in the houses that he flipped made it easier to get the work done. If he had to drive somewhere all the time, he might put it off at the end of the day.

If he’d been thinking about slowing down or changing that soon, he had to tell himself it might be a while before the forever home hit him again.

“I haven’t heard of anything else in the development,” Zoe said. “I’ll let you know if I do.”

“Thanks,” he said and went to his office. They knew he only bought older homes that needed work. Nothing newer. That tended to limit his options, but it’s not like he cared if he was in Paradise Place or not. At least he never did before...but that damn house that got away was going to hurt for a long time.

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