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Before too long, shuffling footsteps captured her attention. Glancing up she caught Jody’s bloodshot eyes staring down at her.
“Good morning. How are you feeling?” Elizabeth asked, unwilling to keep the ‘I told you so’ sarcasm from flowing in her tone. She had cautioned her to lay-off the shots, but her warnings went unheeded.
“Fine. Nothing a little coffee and pain reliever can’t fix.” Jody poured herself a cup of coffee. “How long have you been up? I bet you already exercised, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
Her friend slid onto the opposite chair from her and kept her gaze on Elizabeth as she took a sip from her ceramic mug. “What’s wrong with you? You need to loosen up, have some fun, and sleep in.”
“I don’t have time for fun right now. I need to stay the course. I’ve got obligations and goals to meet.” She refocused her gaze on the business section of the newspaper.
A few minutes later, she finished the paper, folded it back up, and set it on the table. “I’m going to jump in the shower.” She eyed her friend who looked like she was in some sort of trance. “When will you be ready to show me the house? I can’t wait to see it.”
“Give me an hour to wake up and get ready. Maybe by then my head will have stopped pounding and my freckles will have stopped hurting.” Jody half-smiled as she took another sip of her coffee and downed the pain reliever tablets.
An hour later, they arrived at the house, and Elizabeth immediately fell in love with it, inside and out. The huge kitchen sparked her interest, with its oak raised panel cupboards, granite countertops, and shiny new, stainless steel appliances. She thought maybe she’d actually start cooking, seeing as the kitchen looked so inviting.
As she stepped into the den, she could easily picture her mahogany desk strategically placed to face the sliding glass doors that led to a large patio in the backyard. On the other side of the room, the den opened to the enormous living room Jody had told her about. The large room would certainly suit her oversized leather furniture, which she couldn’t wait to get out of storage. And just when she thought it couldn’t get any better, she scoped out the master bedroom and bathroom, which provided ultimate satisfaction to her. The walk-in closet was huge and complete with every wardrobe organizing device possible.
And to top everything off, the lawn was perfectly manicured and the driveway was flawlessly edged. It couldn’t be more perfect.
As Elizabeth stood outside eyeing up her potential purchase, she turned her attention to the house next door, the last house on the dead end road which bordered a narrow river with woods on the other side. The house was not like any of the other large picture-perfect homes in the neighborhood. It appeared to be an old homestead; this house was small, but well kept, and the yard sported a swing set, some bikes, and a rather large, tan dog house with the name Jake painted on the front in big red letters.
Elizabeth raised a brow. “Hmm.”
“Something wrong?” Jody asked.
She glanced at her friend. “Do children live there? And why wasn’t that lot re-developed along with the rest of the project? It totally doesn’t fit in.”
“The house belongs to Joe Antonetti. He bought it from his Uncle Frank years ago when Frank sold nearly the entire family plot to my dad. The homestead once belonged to Joe’s grandpa. Apparently, he couldn’t bear to part with it, so my dad was unable to buy it from him.”
“Oh, so it’s going to stay like this?” Elizabeth asked as disappointment rippled through her. But she loved the house and wanted to get settled in a place as soon as possible so she could focus all of her time and energy on her work. She swung her gaze between the two homes one last time before landing it on Jody. “Draw up the paperwork.”
“Great.”
“Exactly how many children live next door, and how old are they?”
“Mr. Antonetti has two children, Max and Molly. I believe the boy is somewhere around seven and the girl looks to be about three or four.”
“Is there a Mrs. Antonetti?”
“It’s my understanding he’s a widower.”
“Who takes care of the children?”
Jody shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess he does.”
Just great. No mother probably means no supervision.
