5. Olivia
CHAPTER 5
OLIVIA
“D id you even read your aunt’s will?” Olivia demanded.
Charlie looked up at her, bleary-eyes. It was obvious that he wasn’t a morning person. It was already ten o’clock and he had just now stumbled out of bed. Olivia, as was her usual way, had been up since six-thirty. She’d driven to her mother’s house to pick up Izzy and take her to school, though she’d had to conceal the fact that she was taking a new route these days. She didn’t want her mother or her sister to know that she’d moved from her apartment into the Coldwell estate, because then she would have had to answer all kinds of questions that she wasn’t ready to discuss with them.
They’d have to know eventually. When the money was in her bank account and Charlie was in the rearview, then she would tell them. But not until.
He squinted at her now. His hair was messier than usual, making her realize how intentional and carefully curated his usual messy brown hairstyle was. “Why should I read it?” he asked. “That’s why we pay an executor — to tell us what it says.”
“I can’t believe you,” she said. “Look at this.” She slapped a copy of the will down on the breakfast table in front of him.
“Where did you even get this?” he asked her.
“Your office. It was sitting on your desk in a clearly labeled folder.”
“You went through the documents in my office?”
“I didn't go through anything. I wanted to see the will, and it was clearly labeled and sitting out in the open. And might I add, it's a good thing I did look at it, because either you didn't know or you just decided not to tell me that we’re not allowed to sell the house for six months!”
It seemed to take a moment for him to process what she had said. “What do you mean, six months?”
“Did I stutter? Six. Months. We are not allowed to list the house or advertise the sale in any way until that time is up. Your aunt must have anticipated that you would do something like this.”
“Let me see that.” He held out his hand for the will.
Olivia just stared at him. Did he think she was going to pick it up and hand it to him? Just what exactly did he think this arrangement was?
With a sigh, Charlie picked up the paper and flipped it over. “What exactly am I looking at?”
“Third paragraph,” Olivia said, her voice tight. “It's not even in legalese or anything. There was nothing hard to read about this. The house can't be listed or sold for six months.”
“All right,” Charlie said. “I guess we'll just have to wait six months and sell it then.”
Which meant that the two of them would have to remain married for six months before they could even talk about selling the property. The time stretched out in front of Olivia. She had agreed to this thinking that the house sale would be handled quickly, and that she would soon be able to help her family. Now, though, it looked as though that might not happen for a while.
She couldn't quite face this without a cup of coffee. At least there were some upsides to the current situation. The coffee selection here was just incredible. She poured herself a cup and joined Charlie at the table.
He rubbed both hands over his face a few times, clearly trying to wake himself up. “You know it isn't that bad,” he said. “The six months, I mean. It gives us the time we need to get this place in condition to sell.”
Olivia let out a sigh. She had to admit he had a point. When they had moved in here, she had been taken aback by the condition of the place. The upkeep had been managed fairly well, but it was hopelessly out of date. If they wanted to get a good price for it, they would have to do some renovations. It didn't look as though it had been updated in several decades.
“What you want to do to the place?” she asked.
Charlie looked at her. “You're asking me?”
“Of course I'm asking you. This is your house. It’s up to you what we do to it, what kinds of updates we make.”
“Well, you’re the realtor,” he threw back. “You know what we might need to update in order to make a sale. That’s what I want to do. I want to sell the place for the most money possible. I don’t care what the specific changes are.”
“Okay,” she said. “But a remodel costs money. How much do you want to invest in this project?”
“We’ll get it all back when we sell anyway, right?” He shrugged. “I don’t think I care. Whatever you think is best.”
“You’re giving me a free hand?” She could hardly believe what she was hearing. As if this project hadn’t been enough of a dream come true already — now this?
“Just tell me what you’re doing before you do it, that’s all,” he said.
“Well, I think we should decide together,” she said. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened a notepad app. “Let’s make a list. What would you put down first?”
“I guess there are some creaky floorboards. We should get those fixed, right?”
“Definitely.” She made a note of it. “And the door that leads into the backyard doesn’t quite hang right in the frame, did you notice that?”
“No,” he admitted.
“It’s not a major problem, but if we’re tuning the place up, we want it to be the kind of home that someone will pay top dollar for. What about the bathroom in the basement?”
“What about it?”
“It could be a little nicer.” She had been impressed by it, truth be told. It was a full bath with both a freestanding claw foot tub and a shower. But the appliances were a little old-fashioned, a little out of date. “And we should see how old the furnace and water heater are. Maybe they could use an update.”
“What about the wallpaper?” She could see that he was getting into the spirit of the thing now. “It’s peeling in some places.”
“Yeah, I think we should get rid of that altogether. Apply some fresh paint instead. That will be much more modern.”
“I know some contractors we can call for all this.”
She laughed. “I’m a real estate agent, Charlie. I have contractors.”
“Well, mine might be better.”
“They’re not. You have to trust me, Charlie. I’ve worked with all the contractors in the state. I know who’s good. I don’t know who your family usually deals with, and maybe it’s the same people, but I know who can do the best job at the best pace for the best rate. This is the first massive beachfront estate I’ve listed, but it’s definitely not the first home renovation I’ve handled.”
He gave her a skeptical look.
“You said you were going to let me handle it,” she reminded him. “Did you mean that, or were you just blowing smoke?”
He held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay,” he said. “We’ll give your contractors a shot. We’ll see if they’re up to the job or not. But if it doesn’t go well, then we’ll switch to my people.”
“You’re on,” she told him. “I know the contractors I work with well enough that this isn’t a gamble for me.”
“Okay, good. I hope you’re right!”
“I think we should bring in an HVAC person first,” Olivia said. “Have them do a full diagnostic, and then we’ll figure out what new systems we ought to put in.”
“You think we need a new AC system too?”
“I have no idea. It depends how old the one we’ve got is,” she said. “These are things that should be replaced periodically, so if that hasn’t happened in a while, it might be time. But we’ll see what the technician says about it. We’ll follow his advice. These aren’t the kind of decisions we have to make on our own.”
“All right,” he agreed.
“And I’ll pick up some interior home magazines while I’m out today,” she said. “That way you can look them over and see what the latest trends are. When we decide what we’re going to do in terms of things like paint and new furnishings, we should take inspiration from those pages. We can look through them tonight and see what you like.”
“It doesn’t matter what I like, does it?” Charlie asked. “It’s not like I’m going to be the one living here.”
“I guess not,” she said. “But renovating can be fun, you know. It could be a good time, if you let it. You could spend this time choosing things you like, or things you think your aunt would have liked. Some people see it as a good way to honor a loved one — remodeling a house in their honor before selling it. It would be a kind of way of spending time with her once more before you part ways.”
“That’s a little silly,” Charlie said. “She’s already gone. It’s not as if I’d really be spending any time with her.”
“Okay, Charlie,” Olivia said with a sigh. “You can do whatever you want. This is your house, after all. If you don’t care what it looks like, I’m happy to make the design choices for you.”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Charlie said. “Just pick whatever you think will make it easiest to sell the house and get a good amount of money.”
“Because all you really care about is sticking it to your brothers and your sister?”
“That’s why we’re doing all this,” he said. “That’s the end goal here.”
“Okay,” she agreed, getting up from the table. “I’m going out.”
“Going where?”
“Just out.” She didn’t want to spend the rest of the day in this house with him, struggling to get along, trying to deal with the fact that he seemed so dispassionate about what lay before them. She particularly didn’t want to be with him while she tried to sort out her feelings about the turn their deal had just taken.
How long are we going to have to do this ? What had she gotten herself into?
The thoughts plagued her as she got into her car and drove away from the estate, hardly able to believe how little time had passed since the day she had driven over here to take a look at it. It had been less than ten days since the first time she’d laid eyes on Charlie, and now she was married to him. And though it was supposed to be a temporary situation, she had no idea when she would be able to get out of it.
She should have made him commit to a firm date before she had gotten involved in all this. That would have been the smart thing to do. And for the first time since it had begun, she wished she had thought to tell her family what she was doing. They would have told her not to, but once they accepted it, they would have helped her to prepare.
She wished she could talk to them, at the very least, about everything she was going through, so that she wouldn’t have felt so alone.
Talking to Charlie was out of the question, of course. He wasn’t the kind of person who would empathize or understand. He would probably just look at her like she was crazy and ask what the big deal was. He wouldn’t understand why she found it so maddening to live in that unfamiliar house with a man she hardly knew — a man who drove her crazy every time he opened his mouth. He would just tell her that she was lucky to have gotten the chance to sell the house she’d dreamed of selling.
She was lucky. She knew that. She should be grateful.
She shouldn’t be dwelling on everything that made it so difficult. It was just that, with the timeline extended like this, it was hard to believe in the payoff she knew was waiting for her at the end.