AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No idea, but probably.” I laughed, picking up the glass. “I don’t know a thing about property prices, to be honest, but it’s not always about that, is it? I’m the fifth generation of my family to own this place. You can’t put a price on history.”
Brandon grimaced. “No, but he’s certainly trying to.”
“Well, he can keep trying,” I said firmly. “I’d rather die than sell to someone like him.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“Ithink you’ve lost your mind,” Jade said, and the phone line crackled as I moved into a weak signal spot.
I quickly moved back to the window and what seemed like the only strong signal spot in the room. “I had a feeling you’d say that,” I replied, adjusting the blind so the vanes untangled and I could easily open it. “But what else am I supposed to do? I can’t just leave it there. It’s so sad.”
“It’s a building, Lottie. Buildings don’t have feelings.”
I mean… they did, but whatever.
“For me, you idiot,” I said. “I have so many good memories there, and it’s heartbreaking to see it in such a state. I feel like I owe it to Grandpa to fix it up.”
“Then sell it, right?”
“I don’t know. It’s going to take a while.”
“And what are you going to do for work?” Jade was asking all the practical questions, apparently. “Renovations require funding, and that money your grandpa left you is going to disappear sooner rather than later. You need to be able to bring in a cash flow.”
I shrugged even though she couldn’t see it and looked out the window as someone passed with two dogs on one of those fancy double leads. “I’ll figure it out. The annexe isn’t too bad. I could always rent that out for some income and just live here. It’s not like I don’t already live with my parents.”
“Charlotte, people don’t want to go on holiday and stay on a building site. I wouldn’t pay you to stay there, no offense.”
“I don’t know, I’ll work it out. I won’t know until a surveyor goes in and I get the report, and it’s either going to be worse than I thought or better than I thought. I can make a final decision then.”
“Yeah, but by all accounts, you just pissed off a guy who offered you at least a million for the place. That’s fucking insane.”
Oh, well. He’d live.
“I wouldn’t sell to him anyway. I couldn’t do it knowing what he’d do to the place. Besides, it’s not like I’m leaving behind some amazing career,” I reasoned, turning away from the window and grabbing my jacket from the back of the chair in the corner. “I think a break will be a good thing for me.”
“I think you’re making a huge mistake,” Jade said, and the line crackled once again as I left the bedroom.
“Duly noted. I’ve gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.” I hung up before she could dampen my mood any further and shoved my phone in my pocket.
Stupid move, really.
Pockets in women’s clothes weren’t nearly large enough for something as trivial and unnecessary as aphone.
I pulled it back out before it tumbled out and went on its jollies down the stairs, and I stopped dead at the bottom.
Ihatedthe mirror that was here. I’d loved it as a superficial teen girl who’d needed to check her lip-gloss or check her backcombed hair bump one last time before leaving, but now?
Ugh.
All it showed was that pimple on the crease of my nostril, the smudge of yesterday’s mascara dawdling in the corner of my eye, and the fact I’d put my t-shirt on inside out.
Fan-bloody-tastic.
Ah, well. If I tightened my jacket around me, nobody would know. Besides, it wasn’t like I was going to run into anyone.
I was only going over to the bed and breakfast. It’d been quite overwhelming yesterday, and I wanted to go in today to the annexe and view it when I wasn’t quite so dramatic about the rotting badger.
Although, if there was ever a time to be dramatic about a rotting badger in a kitchen, yesterday was it.
