Chapter 2
2
JOSIAH
I couldn’t believe I let this chick talk me into looking around my house.
Okay, so she wasn’t a chick. She was a woman. A beautiful woman named Violet. She had the brightest blue eyes I’d ever seen and long, dark hair with a creamy complexion and full, plump lips. The rest of her was all curves, straining the seams of that sexy-as-hell skirt suit.
I always said I liked women in baseball caps, jeans, and a T-shirt. Casual was sexy. But this woman had me rethinking that. Maybe professionally dressed was exactly what turned me on.
“Sorry,” I said as she looked around the kitchen. “I didn’t know I’d have company.”
Plates were stacked in the sink. The counter was cluttered with items I’d bought from the store—non-perishables I hadn’t yet put away. Yeah, I pretty much sucked when it came to keeping a house clean.
“I’m a real estate agent,” she said. “Trust me, I’ve seen it all.”
I believed it. Especially with the bachelor population we had around here. Most of the cabins lacked that special touch a woman brought into a home. Or maybe it was just that we all worked such long hours and home was just a place to crash—and throw back a beer or two after a long day.
“I’d have no problem selling this place if that’s what you want,” she said, walking back toward me.
She pulled her phone out of her purse and held it in front of her, tapping around on the screen for a while without saying anything. Was she calculating how much money I’d make on the sale? Or how much I’d lose? Maybe she was looking up home values in the area.
“You could get six hundred thousand,” she said.
My eyes widened. I’d paid a little over four hundred thousand when I bought it five years ago. But I didn’t pay cash, and I knew that was a problem.
She lowered her phone and looked at me. “The issue is finding you another place to live. I assume you want to stay here in town?”
I nodded. “It’s where I work. It’s where I live. It’s home.”
“Right now, there’s nothing for sale. That’s why I think this would be snatched up pretty quickly. It’s a prime location. A beautiful view. And the perfect size for a rental cabin.”
“A rental cabin?” I narrowed my eyes. “Could we require it be purchased by someone who plans to live here?”
She shrugged and looked around. “You can pick whatever offer you want. Assuming you get more than one interested buyer.”
“Yeah, I like my neighbors. I wouldn’t want to do that to them.”
I’d heard stories from buddies who had rental property next door. Even in the same neighborhood it could be a problem. It wasn’t even the loud parties at all hours. It was the steady stream of different people coming and going, parking on the street and blocking two-way traffic. People not cleaning up after their pets—that sort of thing.
“There will also be closing costs and fees, and those are much higher if you’re getting a mortgage,” she said.
She shoved her phone back into her purse, crossed her arms over her chest, and began walking around. She was taking in her surroundings as she went. She hadn’t even checked out the main bedroom or bathroom yet. Maybe she felt like that was an invasion of privacy.
“To be honest with you, you’re better off staying here,” she said.
I stared at her. What was it about this woman? I wanted to be stern, to insist I was getting out of here no matter what. She didn’t have to be the agent to help me. Real estate agents were a dime a dozen in this town these days.
But I couldn’t be stern with her. I couldn’t do anything but stare. I had to fight the urge to keep her around longer.
“This place doesn’t feel like a home,” I said. “It’s like creepy strangers are living here.”
She tilted her head slightly. She thought I was cuckoo. It was something I couldn’t explain. I didn’t feel it right now. That was the weird thing. Standing here with her, the place felt normal.
“Are you saying it’s haunted?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No.”
“It’s just dark energy. My sister’s into that stuff. She lives in South Carolina with her husband. They’re kind of hippie-ish. In fact, I bet she’d have some great advice. We could sage the place.”
My expression changed then. I felt my jaw drop. My eyebrows shot up—even though I hadn’t consciously made that happen. Maybe the weird energy was responsible for that too.
I almost laughed at that thought. “I don’t even know what ‘sage the place’ means.”
“You don’t have to. I’ll drive over to Adairsville, get some supplies, and come over tonight and help.”
“Great.” I nodded. “I’ll order a pizza and have some beers ready. Or whatever you’d like to drink. I need a little alcohol to get through this.”
She smiled. “I don’t normally drink with a client. But I guess you technically aren’t my client, since you’re hoping not to sell. You’re going to be my client, whether you sell today or five years from now, though, so no alcohol.”
I didn’t want to be her client, but I definitely wanted her in my life five years from now. And that alarmed me. I wasn’t a fan of long-term commitments, and I’d only met a few women in my life who’d even made me consider it. But for some reason, with the woman who’d introduced herself as Violet, I had a feeling this urge wasn’t going away. I had to see if what I was feeling for her could go anywhere.
What scared me most of all was that normally, this kind of thing would freak me out. But with her, I felt like everything was going to be okay.
This was a piece that had been missing from my life for a long time. And I definitely didn’t want to lose it now that I’d found it.