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“That would be great,” she said. “But I’m not moving any time soon or looking to be a flipper. My father is going to do this half bath for me this weekend. He said it would be a housewarming gift.”
Christian popped his head into the small space she was talking about. “Should be easy enough,” he said. “The walls are primed. The floors are in good shape if you keep them. Just change out the vanity, mirror and toilet and it’s a new room.”
“That’s what is happening. He’s going to sand the grout down on the tiles and put a gray in to match the tiles rather than white. At least I think it was white before years of grime were added to it.”
“It will look good,” he said. “Some things are better left simple to keep the integrity.”
“I think so too. As you can tell, I don’t have a lot of furniture. What I’ve got isn’t the best. I’ve been living with my father for the past year when I moved back here.”
He turned to look at her. He’d always been so handsome and nice.
Way out of her league with his brown hair, dark eyes, great personality and wealth.
Yeah, the Butlers were in their own league and she grew up with a single father and an unstable mother.
They tried to keep the part about her mother out of the grapevine as a kid, but some knew and they made sure they bullied her about it too.
Never Christian though.
He’d always seen her as a classmate he was attracted to.
They’d lost their virginity to each other, dated for six months, then drifted apart. She’d like to think it was mutual back then. Just two kids that hung out in the same group and then went on to date other people.
But that was a lie. They didn’t drift. She’d made the decision to break up and he went along with it.
Only she didn’t date too many more after Christian. No one that she slept with, at least in high school.
No one that tugged at her like he had and she didn’t want a reputation.
She’d been asked if she’d slept with Christian by her friends and she never admitted it. She didn’t think he told anyone either. He didn’t seem the type to brag because no one had ever made a comment to her about having sex back in high school.
“I’ll admit that when I found out this house sold, I’d asked who bought it. I must have heard the name but didn’t think anything of it. I would have recognized Elizabeth Sherman.”
“I’m divorced,” she said. “It was finalized about eight months ago, but I moved back a year ago. I’ve been living with my father and putting money away. No one wants to live at home at our age. It was time to start looking. I got this house for a steal and I know it.”
“I looked it up,” he said. “I was just curious what it sold for.”
She knew home sales were all public knowledge.
“And it stung even more, didn’t it?” she asked, grinning.
“Yeah,” he said. “I figured it would have gone for more, even with the work it needs.”
“They wanted more. They probably could have gotten it. I wrote them a letter at Ruby’s urging. Just telling them about myself. The previous owner is a retired nurse from Albany Med where I work. She was touched and they accepted my offer with no contingencies. It was a fast close once the banks got to work.”
“Which most sellers love. Congrats,” he said.
He sounded as if he meant it even though she could see deep down he wished he owned the house.
“Thanks. You won’t be saying that once you see the kitchen.”
They moved through the downstairs rooms, then to the kitchen in the back. “Complete with yellow wall oven,” he said. “Haven’t seen one of those in a long time.”
“It works,” she said. “Thankfully. I don’t want to replace any appliances until I’m ready to gut this. I’ll have to hire someone to do the work. My father can help me with a lot of things, but he’s getting into his busy season, so it’d be on the weekends. I can’t go that long without a kitchen for one thing. And second of all, it’s just too much work for him.”
“You could demo it at least,” he said.
“I might,” she said. “Or with my father. Anything to save some money. I just have to figure out what I want. What would you do?”
