Victor #2
They all loaded into the rented minivan and drove back to the house.
Dorthea sat in the front seat beside Burke.
He watched her face as they drove through the subdivision.
He could see that she looked over the homes carefully.
He knew that she was evaluating the neighborhood to be one she’d love to see her grandkids living in.
“Wow, that’s quite a house,” Dorthea said when he pulled into the driveway.
The kids ran to the front door. Rich ran to catch up.
Donna wrapped her arm around her mom. “I told Rich I’d only let him buy a house this big if you moved in with us,” she said. “You’ll see why in a minute.”
This time Rich and Donna played realtor as they brought her mom and the kids through the house.
“And your dining room set would look great in this room,” Donna said.
“The backyard could use your love,” she added when they stepped out onto the patio.
“I don’t have a green thumb. I wouldn’t know the first thing about taking care of the plants back here. ”
The kids wanted to go play on the swing set after being told it was a private yard, and the swing set belonged to whoever lived there. But Rich told them they couldn’t play right then, and he lured them back into the house with talk of checking out their bedrooms.
Dorthea smiled as she checked out the lower level.
“This area down here is bigger than my entire apartment,” Donna said. “What do you think, Mom?”
“This is a nice house, honey.”
“And we could wall it off for you at the stairs and build you a door for more privacy and noise control,” Burke said with a laugh as the loud voices of the kids echoed through the house.
“Think about it, Dorthea. I can’t imagine why you’d want to move out here and live separately when this big house has plenty of room for you.
” He wouldn’t mention that because of the Parkinson’s, she would probably eventually move in with one of her daughters.
“I’ll think about it,” Dorthea promised.
They all went upstairs and checked out the four bedrooms. The kids ran wildly from room to room. It was probably the biggest house they’d ever been in. And of course, with no furniture in it, it seemed even bigger than it was.
“Okay, guys, what do you think?” Burke asked the kids after finally corralling them in one room.
They all agreed that they loved it and wanted to live there.
“Donna?” he asked, embracing her.
She smiled and nodded. “Are you going to make an offer right now?”
“Yeah, why not?” His smile was bigger than hers.
Dorthea took the kids to the swing set in the backyard. It was an unseasonably warm forty degrees. There was no snow in the foreseeable forecast.
Burke glanced over the sales sheet again.
It had been on the market for over a month, and the owners had already moved.
“I’ll offer the asking price if the owners will rent it to me beginning next week until closing.
I can have a deposit of whatever amount they require sent electronically from my bank account today, in addition to earnest money.
” He’d only bought his condo and realized he should probably get advice from one of his teammates who had bought a home in case it was different, but he wanted this house and didn’t see a reason to wait to make an offer.
He’d consult someone after the fact for the next steps.
“Are you pre-approved for a loan?” the realtor asked.
“No, but it won’t be an issue.” He pointed to the price on the listing sheet. “I’ll do the loan application the day after Christmas at my bank. "
“You do realize it can take several weeks to a month for loan documents to be processed.”
“None of my coworkers have ever had an issue. They’ve gotten the thumbs up from our bank within days of their applications,” he said with a shrug.
“Excuse us for a second, please,” Donna said to the realtor. She pulled Rich into the living room. “Rich, their homes cost less than this one. Are you sure it won’t be a problem?”
He leaned into her and brought his lips beside her ear.
“Donna, I could pay cash for this house if I wanted to, but I don’t.
I’ll sell my condo to replace the funds I’ll use for the down-payment, but the purchase won’t be contingent on the sale of it.
Hell, I guess I could just pay cash and then take out the equity loan on it to keep it simple. My parents did that one time we moved.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “How do you have that much money saved?”
“I haven’t spent much over the years. I was in the Sandbox for several deployments, so I didn’t spend much then. And my mom helped me with investments that did really well over the years.” He shrugged again.
“You made that much money in the Marine Corps?” she asked.
“In addition to my base pay at my rank, I got hazardous duty pay and other deployment and hostile territory stipends. And Shepherd pays well, so yeah, I made that much.”
Donna was floored by that revelation. And then a feeling of guilt settled over her. He’d be spending all the money that he’d saved over the last decade or more on a home for her and her kids. “What had you planned to spend that money on while you saved it?”
He pressed his lips to hers. When he pulled back, he grinned. “A home for my family.”