Chapter 17
Shay placed a cup of coffee on the table before Faith the next afternoon, and bent down to kiss the top of her head. “Are you going to get that?” he asked.
“Huh? What?” She looked up from her computer with a faraway, but confused look on her face. “What did you say?”
“Your phone has been dinging for the last twenty minutes.”
“Oh, sorry.” She reached out to her phone and frowned when it made noise again. “I don’t recognize the number, it’s from Kentucky, I do know that, but I don’t recognize the actual number.”
Shay smirked at him. “I can think of maybe two people it might be. Are they leaving a voice mail?”
“No, who do you know from Kentucky?”
“Pedro, he’s due here next weekend. That’s one, but what about Margaret?”
“Who?”
“Margaret Boyle, your real estate agent, didn’t she have an open house for your house yesterday.”
“Shit,” she sat up quickly, and the next time the same number flashed across the screen, she answered it.
“Hello? You’re on speaker, and Shay is with me.” She didn’t bother finding out who it was that was calling. Shay joined her at the table.
“Hello, this is Margaret, Margaret Boyle. I’ve been trying to leave you a message, but it says your voicemail is full.”
“Sorry, I’ll clear it out once I get off the phone with you. How did yesterday work out?”
“Good, great, excellent,” Margaret laughed. “That’s why I’m calling. Remember when I asked if you wanted to do Airbnb, because of the location of your home? Well, that was what everyone said yesterday. They loved the location.”
“Okay, but what about the house? Do they love the house?”
“Are you sitting down?”
“I am, why?”
“Because the open house was from eleven in the morning until three in the afternoon. Four hours. I expected five couples to show up. I advertised, and I put out signs all over the neighborhood. I also contacted several other real estate agents that I know that might have clients looking for something like your home. They reached out to their clients to tell them about the open house.”
“Okay, but what does that mean?” Faith looked at Shay as she asked Margaret that question.
“It means that instead of the five couples I expected, that’s the average on an open house with only a week’s notice. Thirty couples showed up.”
“What?” Shay asked in shock.
“Thirty couples. Before I even closed and locked the door behind me when I was done, I was receiving calls.”
“Regarding?”
“Offers. Out of the thirty couples, twelve of them put in an offer. Richard, my husband has to help me.” She laughed. “Bottom line, we ended up listing your home for two hundred and twenty thousand dollars. With all the offers, we are now in a bidding war with four couples.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means that all four couples want your house, and are willing to pay more than the asking price. Yes, you can do that. I need to talk to you before I can go back to them. They are at the same amount right now, all four couples.”
“At what price?” Shay asked.
“Right now, we’re at three hundred and fifty thousand. If you want me to continue, I can.”
“If I say no?”
“Then we run a financial check on the four couples, to see if they can get financing, and then you would pick the couple.”
“Why me?”
“Because you have to accept the offer they are giving.”
“And if I say to continue?”
“Then I go back to them and tell them what the current bid is. They can either up their offer, or back out.”
“Question,” Shay said. “Are these couples in the bidding war yours or your fellow real estate agents?”
“What do you mean?”
“If these couples are people the other real estate agents sent to you, after you told them about the open house, do they get a commission, do you, or do you split the commission?”
“Oh, these are my people, or people that came in off the street. The people my colleagues told either didn’t show up, or thought the house was too small for what they wanted.”
“Can you tell us about the people bidding?” Faith asked.
“Two couples are empty nesters and want to downsize. They are nearing retirement age, but can still work for several years. The other two couples are young families. Young enough that one couple married only a year ago, while the other couple has been married for three years and are expecting their first child.”
“Bottom line, what’s my role in all this?”
“I continue with contacting them to see if any of them want to up their offer.”
“Okay, let me know how you make out. Do you know how long this could drag on? I’m not putting any pressure on you, I’m starting what I was hired for tomorrow, and it’s going to be intense.
I’m not saying I’ll be ignoring you, but I won’t be able to answer my phone every time you call.
I understand you have a tough task ahead of you, and I’m just warning you that I won’t be available until after six at night, mountain time. ”
“Oh wow, okay, thank you for letting me know that. I’ll make note of it. If I can ask, what is your job?”
Faith grinned, even though Margaret couldn’t see it. “I’m a jockey. The type that rides horses around a race track. I was hired to train thirty horses.”
“Wow, okay, yeah, you’re going to be extremely busy. I’ll do what I can, and I know I have no right to ask this, but could you clear out your voicemail so I can leave a message?”
“I’ll do that as soon as I hang up. Thanks, Margaret, I look forward to hearing from you soon.” They hung up, and Faith immediately cleaned out her voicemail without listening to any of the messages. She put her phone down and looked at Shay.
“Wow. I never expected something like this.”
“I had heard that it was a seller’s market.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning sellers can basically do what you’re doing. Sitting back and waiting for the war to conclude, and you accept or reject the offer put before you.”
“Ah, okay.”
Shay studied her, and asked quietly, “What were you doing when your phone was going off?”
“Watching videos from the parents of the horses I’ll start racing tomorrow.”
“Can that actually help?” He held up his hands and shook his head. “I know nothing, as Tony told me once, I know the teeth end is where the food enters, and the tail is where the shit comes out.”
Faith started to giggle, then ended up bent over hugging her stomach belly laughing.
She rose to wipe her tears. “Yeah, that’s about it.
” She wiped her tears again. “In my experience, if you can learn that, then everything else is easy.” She laughed again when he shook his head at her. “Have you called Caleb yet?”
“For?”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you tell me that if you could be on top last night, then you could call Caleb about something. You never told me what.” She smirked at him. “Personally, I think you made up that excuse so we could have sex.”
This time, Shay was the one to laugh and bent over to grip his stomach, except he didn’t have tears, he had stomach cramps. To prove her wrong, he grabbed his phone from the center of the table and dialed. He put it on speaker so she could hear his conversation.
“Hello?”
“Caleb, it’s Shay. You’re on speaker, and Faith is with me.”
“Oh, okay, what’s up?”
“I don’t know how to actually broach this subject.”
“Just say it.”
“Okay, It’s been four weeks since I saw Dr. Johnson. She told me not to drive, nor do any work for six weeks, that’s when I go back to see her.”
“Okay, that sounds about right. What do you want me to do?”
“I’ve been good for three weeks. This past week, I wear my brace all day at work, I am mucking out stalls, but when I get home and shower, I don’t wear my brace around the house.”
“What’s your pain level?”
“Nothing, zero. The only discoloration I have now is in the shape of a horse shoe, but it’s extremely pale yellow. If you’re not looking for it, you can’t see it.”
“Okay, but why are you calling me?”
“I was wondering if I could get in to see you tomorrow, and I don’t know, maybe you can tell me to ditch the brace all together, or if you have a smaller one.”
“What do you mean by smaller?”
“Dr. Johnson gave me one that goes from mid-thigh to mid-calf, and there are like hinges at the knee so I could bend it. The MRI showed nothing torn or broken, just bruised.”
“I see, I can’t release you for work, but I can see what your range of motion is, and if you can stand on it without pain. I do happen to have a couple of smaller braces here. Can you stop by at seven in the morning? I normally get to the office at eight, but I’m sure you’ll want an early start.”
“I do, I’ll ring Cole to let him know I’ll be in around eight, but I’ll see you at seven.”
“See you then.” They hung up, and Shay looked at Faith with a grin.
“Don’t get your hopes up too high.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s been four weeks, the doctor wants you off it for six. Don’t push your luck that you can get cleared two weeks before you see Dr. Johnson again. I’m not saying you can’t go see Caleb, and there’s nothing wrong with the guy, that I know of, but he’s not a medical doctor.”
“I know, but I’m hoping he can call Dr. Johnson sometime tomorrow with the results of his exam.
Maybe she’ll call me and give me good news.
” He shook his head and held up his hand when she started to say something.
“Don’t worry, I’ll still follow directions, I know how to take orders.
I just want to ditch the larger brace while I’m working.
If that can happen, I will wait for two weeks until my regular appointment. ”
Faith nodded and went back to watching her videos while Shay tinkered in the kitchen.
After being alone for so long she had been hesitant to move in with Shay when he’d first brought it up, but now that they’d been together for a week, she enjoyed having him around.
This was something she could get used to and planned to enjoy it every single day.