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The garage fit two cars, but was detached, and the home had exactly two entrances—the one she’d just come through, and a set of sliding glass doors off the master bedroom in the back corner. So this sight would greet her each and every day when she got home.
She needed this in her life, as she’d started the job in Charleston, and coming home to glorious windows with rays of sunshine would do so much for her.
Ty stepped down the hall, chattering about the drapes, the furniture, the appliances. “They want it all to stay,” he said. “If that’s a problem, let me know.”
Lauren didn’t know if it would be a problem or not. She hadn’t sold her house in Texas, and she wasn’t sure what she wanted to bring with her and what she could leave behind.
You left it all behind, she told herself. She had packed up a lot and brought it with her weeks ago.
“I’ll let you know,” she said, her voice almost a vague rendition of itself. She went through the kitchen, her fingers trailing along the quartz countertops, and she went down the hall with Ty. A small, narrow office sat right off the living room, and Lauren had worked in much tighter spaces.
A guest bathroom and bedroom took up the front quadrant of the home, with the master suite behind it.
“Walk-in closet,” Ty said, pulling open the door. “It’s actually a walk-through closet. It connects to the linen closet in the hall.” He beamed like this was a great feature for a home to have, and Lauren smiled back. It was unique, at least.
She stopped dead in her tracks at the master bathroom. Blues, grays, and whites reflected like diamonds in her eyes. “Wow,” she said.
“Marble counter tops.” Ty glanced at his tiny clipboard. “The tiles in the shower and powder room are glass, frosted and clear. We’ve got ceramic tiles on the floor and the sinks are cement.”
Lauren adored them, how they sloped from left to right, where the drain ran the width of them.
“Standing shower,” he said. “With a rainfall head, and of course, your tub.”
“It’s copper,” Bea said. “I love it.”
“I want to take a bath here,” Cass said.
Lauren moved over to the coppery tub, surprised everything in the house had been cool, made of grays, whites, and blues—until this tub.
She looked at Ty. “Can I afford this?”
He grinned at her. “You sent me the listing.”
She bit her thumbnail and turned in a full three-hundred-sixty-degree circle. She looked at Cass, who nodded with the widest grin on her face. Bea was already bouncing on the balls of her feet, her hands clasped together near her throat.
“Lauren, you have to live here.” Bea clapped then and launched herself into Lauren’s arms. They laughed together, but Lauren knew that just because she liked something didn’t mean she’d get it.
“This house was built for you,” Cass said. “A hundred years ago, and you’re both just now realizing it.”
Lauren pulled away from Bea and took a deep breath. “Okay.” She straightened her blouse and turned to Ty. “I want to put in an offer. Full asking price, and I won’t require an inspection. I want them to come back to me if they have other offers so I can consider increasing mine.”
Ty cocked his eyebrows. “I’ll keep that to myself for now,” he said. He tugged his phone out of his front jacket pocket. How he wore a jacket in the dog days of summer, Lauren didn’t know. Her lightweight, nearly sheer blouse was suffocating her. “I’ll go call the listing agent right now and get a feel for how many people have seen the house, if he has other offers, all of that.”
“Sounds good.”
Ty left the bathroom and Lauren reached for the hands of her friends. “I’m not crazy, am I?”
“Yes,” Cass said. “You absolutely are.” She giggled, the sound growing into a full laugh. “But it’s good, Lauren. You need a change, and this will be a huge change for you.”
“I hate my job,” she said next, sudden worry diving through her. She hadn’t always overthought things in her life, but lately, she felt like she could go round and round in circles and never come to a decision.
“Then get a new one,” Bea said. “Do you really need to work that much? You’ve worked for almost twenty years already.”
And she’d never been married. It had always been just her, paying her mortgage and her car payments. No one came asking for money, and Lauren had had a good, healthy six-figure annual salary job.
“I’ll see,” Lauren said, because she hadn’t discussed her finances with anyone. Of her friends, she probably seemed to be doing the best from the outside. She traveled a lot, and her clothes came from designer department stores. Her job had paid for all of that, and Lauren had been extremely grateful.
“I need to list my house in Sweet Water Falls,” she said.
