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I nodded. “You got it.”
He waited outside for me, face inscrutable, while I gave him my checking account numbers and he tapped them into his phone.
And just like before, he left with no promises, no decisions, and I felt just as unsettled as I had before he arrived.
Chapter Five
BURKE
“It’s ... big.”
My sister smacked me on the chest. “That’s your reaction?”
“Did I really agree to buy you something this huge?”
“Yes.”
I rubbed at the spot where she’d hit me and studied the house. It was right on the water, and from where we stood, I could hear the surf. Immediately my blood pressure dropped, the tension in my shoulders bleeding away.
The blue siding was bright and clean, with white trim and massive arched windows behind mature palm trees. The driveway was made from cobbled stone, curving around to a two-stall garage that I couldn’t see. The moving truck with my things would make it into town within the next day, and my little sister had done her best to get the guest room clean and ready.
What a starkly different arrival.
Instead of trepidation and annoyance, this place promised peace and quiet and relaxation. Even if I would be sharing a roof with my little sister and her nine-year-old twins.
They’d probably cause less fuss than one long-legged redhead.
“When do you want to start looking for a place for you?” she asked.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Can I set my suitcase down in the room before you’re kicking me out?”
She laughed. “I just figured you’d be champing at the bit to settle into your own space.”
“Honestly, Tans, I’ve got enough expensive decisions on my plate right now ... That seems like one that can wait a couple of weeks, if you don’t mind.”
She settled her hand on my arm, and the quiet understanding had me sighing in relief.
Tansy walked us through the arched front doors, made of heavy wood with wrought-iron handles. This was a house tour I wanted to go on, I thought. My sister—who’d quickly found a home in the place of her choosing—was an efficient tour guide too. She didn’t even attempt to point out spindles or banisters or kitschy little details she knew I wouldn’t care too much about.
The rooms were open and airy: white walls, white trim, and tall ceilings with slow, lazy fans.
But she did point out that it had four bedrooms and five bathrooms—plenty of room for a family.
“You sure it’s okay if I stay until I find my own place?” I asked.
She nodded resolutely. “I’m not giving up my ocean-view bedroom, but yes, of course.” Tansy slung her arm around my shoulders. “It’s a good place to start over, isn’t it?”
“Seems like it.”
“Kids are excited. They already told me this is way better than our old house.”
I hoped so. Their old house came with a dickhead husband who my sister had finally decided shouldn’t be in that particular role anymore.
Buying her the house was the easiest money I’d ever spent in my life, as it kept her away from someone I couldn’t stand.
And, even better, it allowed her kids some breathing room from a dickhead father. I didn’t know my niece and nephew very well—a byproduct oftheir dad hating me, of me playing professional football their entire lives, and of having a home across the country during the off-season. On top of that, because Tansy and our dad were the oil-and-water combination in our family, she’d kept her presence sparse during the holidays.
Everything was different now, though.
