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Okay, so that was weird. But they’d worked together—and been friends—long enough that Kimmie knew Ella was giving her the space she needed to figure things out.
Problem was, Kimmie didn’t know if she could ever figure things out.
She pulled out her laptop and logged in, going straight to the site where she found the new listings. Now that it was clear that Jesse wouldn’t sell, she had to make sure she had other things in place. Not that she’d put all her eggs in that basket to start with, but she really felt the need to scramble now.
Another issue? Luke Kelly. He’d still be looking for a place, and if she told her boss, Demetria, she’d just track down another condo. Luke might be open to a wider area.
Luke might be open to a wider area.
She couldn’t believe she hadn’t come up with that idea before. Instead of trying to convince Jesse on selling his condo, she could be looking for a suitable place for Luke. He might not be open to it, but if she could find something, it would be easier to break it to Demetria that the Lyric Tower condo wouldn’t be available.
After all, why would a country singer who spent half the year on the road need a place like Lyric Tower? He wouldn’t be able to use the amenities, and he was having to fight the condo association just to be allowed to have a dog. A pet-friendly place where he wouldn’t have to knock down a wall between two units would be better, wouldn’t it?
She looked at the Green Hills condo again, but it was too small. Right now, there wasn’t an available penthouse in the Nashville area the size of the two condos in Lyric Tower. But she wouldn’t give up. She’d look around until she found something that worked.
A listing at Lyric Tower popped up. It was the one that Luke had wanted. The condo he’d wanted to combine with Jesse’s. It was still on the market, and the living room area was similar to Jesse’s. She scrolled down to read the specifications, and that was when she saw it.
Open House. Saturday at two p.m.
Open houses were pretty useless. It mostly attracted looky-loos. It was an opportunity for the agent to find potential clients, and it made the seller happy because it looked like the agent was doing something to sell the property. But it was rare that an actual sale ever came from one of those.
Maybe Kimmie could go. Just pop in and say hi to the listing agent and make a connection. That agent could know of the perfect property for Luke Kelly. Yes. That was the perfect reason to go to Lyric Tower.
Kimmie glanced at the clock on her laptop. It was still early, but if there was a possibility she might see Jesse again, she wanted to change into something nicer. She also wanted to take a look at some of the amenities in that building. It was research.
That was what she told herself as she packed up and walked out. It was all a lie, though. She was going to Lyric Tower for one reason and one reason only.
Jesse Fulton.
9
Jesse Fulton was having a bad day.
The problem was, he had the sinking feeling that all his days would be bad for a while. He’d had a wonderful woman within reach briefly, and somehow, he’d managed to mess the whole thing up.
That was the real kicker here. He wasn’t sure what he’d done, aside from deciding not to sell a property he’d been perfectly happy with since the day he’d moved in. But here he was, and here he was likely to stay.
He got up early and did something he’d never done. He went straight to the fitness center. Luckily, he had the whole room to himself. He didn’t want to deal with company right now.
It worked. For a while after walking out of that room, he felt a little better. But the endorphins only helped temporarily. Then he was back to trying to figure out a way to convince Kimmie to give him a second chance. Or a first chance. He’d love to date her for real, not as a ruse to sell his condo.
As if he wasn’t working hard enough to stop thinking about Kimmie, there was an open house at the condo next door. The condo some country music star had wanted to buy and combine with Jesse’s. When he saw the sign hanging on the wall outside the elevator, his first thought was to wonder if Kimmie had set this up. Was she here already? He stopped outside the condo door and considered knocking for a long, heart-pounding moment.
But no. He couldn’t do it. If she didn’t want to be with him, he wasn’t going to chase her around town. That was just creepy.
So he headed back to his condo and took a shower. He’d throw himself into work, and soon, it would be like nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
Right. It didn’t work that way at all. He couldn’t focus for more than ten seconds. His mind was one hundred percent on the wall that separated his condo from the empty one. Was Kimmie on the other side of it?
Finally, Jesse just couldn’t take it anymore. He had to put some distance between himself and that condo. His first thought was to head down to the coworking space in the lobby, but that was too close to the flow of people who would be coming in and out of the building for the open house.
So he headed to the one place he knew would be distraction-free. The roof. The weather was perfect. He grabbed his laptop and a protein shake from the fridge and headed straight to the elevator.
It worked. For a full hour, he focused. Problem was, his battery only had so much juice. He was considering heading down to the coworking space, although he’d still have to stop by his condo for the power cord, when he decided to take a break. He picked up his laptop, tossed his empty shake container in the trash, and walked to the railing. If it weren’t for the slight chill in the air, a swim would definitely get his mind off things.
“...happy hour up here at night.”
That voice. He’d know that voice anywhere.
