Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Garrett realized something was different before it clicked into place what he was really seeing as he drove home from work on Wednesday evening.
Some poor, luckless dope had actually bought that old pile on Piedmont Street.
The place had been for sale for about a thousand years, by Garrett’s estimation, and it had been virtually abandoned by the previous owners long before that.
He would know, after all. He passed the house every day on his way to and from work for the past ten or so years, ever since his engagement had fallen apart.
In that time, he had seen the overgrown lawn get its quick makeover when the “for sale” sign had taken up its spot, then had seen that sign languish until it had, once again, been swallowed up by foliage.
Now it was gone. And in its place, there was a car in the driveway and boxes on the porch.
If Garret had been a betting man, he would have put money on somebody eventually buying the house to flip it.
For all that he grumbled about his neighbors getting in his business, he knew that Magnolia Shore wasn’t like other places and, accordingly, real estate options didn’t hit the market all that often.
When people moved to town, they typically wanted to stay.
For somebody with time and experience taking a run-down property and making it over, the Piedmont Street house could be a potential landmine.
The boxes on the porch, however, suggested that someone was moving in. Man, was that place even livable?
It was none of his business, though. Or rather, it would be his business when whatever fellow had stumbled into that place finally came into his shop needing supplies. This was the kind of project that could give Nuts and Bolts a really good month.
He just thought that whoever the guy was, he had a lot of patience.
“It’s all been pretty amazing,” Eleanor lied to her son as she sat on the floor of her new living room, surrounded by boxes.
It was, she reasoned, only a twenty percent lie. Twenty-five percent, tops, depending on how one ranked the situation with her house.
“That’s so great, Mom,” Jeremy said. As usual, there was the hustle and bustle of campus life going on behind him. “I don’t want to say I was worried about you or anything, since I knew you could do it. ”
Eleanor smiled. It was a strange and wonderful novelty to have an adult child.
On one hand, she remembered when he was still in diapers, when he was learning how to read, when he had that gap-toothed smile.
He was still her baby, and part of him always would be.
But he was also so grown up now, so competent, so mature. It was a marvel to see it.
“It has been a little bit abrupt though, hasn’t it,” she said, filling in his trailed-off sentence.
“Yeah,” he agreed with a sigh. “I’m trying not to be too annoyed with Dad, or at least to be honest with him about what I’m feeling, but it’s not always easy.”
Eleanor nibbled at her lip. She wanted to be fair to her son’s feelings, but she didn’t want to do anything that would contribute to putting a wedge between father and son.
“Your dad can sometimes take things like other people’s annoyance a bit personally,” she said diplomatically. “I know you know this, but I’m still going to say it anyway: that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you. He’s just not always super in touch with his feelings.”
“I know,” Jeremy said. “That’s what’s annoying.”
He said it in such a matter-of-fact way that it made Eleanor laugh. Soon, Jeremy was laughing too.
“It’s all good, Mom,” he reassured her. “I know you, so I know you’re probably worrying.
” This was one hundred percent accurate, but she was a mom, so it was allowed.
“So let me assure you, I’m sad, but I’m okay.
I’m even more okay now that I know you like your new town.
I’ll be even more okay than that when Dad decodes his feelings in like four to six months and is able to talk about them. ”
This startled another laugh out of Eleanor. “How did you get to be so wise?” she demanded.
“I have a great mom,” he said, which made her eyes prick with tears a little bit.
“By the way, I’m inviting myself to your new town for a visit this summer, after school lets out.
So whatever quaint ice cream parlors, or saltwater taffy stands, or crab cake restaurants you see, write ‘em down, because I want to check ‘em out.”
“Did you google ‘New England stuff’?”
“Absolutely, I did,” he replied without missing a beat. “Since you already made friends on, like, day one, I assume by summer you’ll be super popular. I plan to be a local legend: Eleanor Ridley’s son, come for a visit.”
“I’ll throw a parade in your honor,” she teased.
“Perfect. Okay, I have a study session, so I’m going to run. But I love you, and I’m really happy for you, Mom.”
“I love you too, kiddo. Chat soon.”
Eleanor lowered the phone to the floor beside her, taking in a deep breath. She’d wanted to play up the positives with her son, not wanting him to worry about her.
But Eleanor? She was, she had to admit, a bit worried.
The house was a lot bigger than it had looked in the pictures.
It was a lot more run-down too. She knew there were no structural issues, since it had passed inspection just before she’d purchased it. This was an enormous relief, because some of the cosmetic elements were…
Well, “iffy” was a charitable way of putting it.
The first thing she’d noticed when she’d pulled up the day prior was the lawn, which was wildly overgrown.
Even though she logically knew that this was a minor issue, as it was just grass, it had given her a long moment of pause.
Brian had been the one to handle lawnmowing.
Eleanor assumed that the process was pretty straightforward, but she’d never actually mowed a lawn by herself.
She’d tried to put that from her mind. Lawnmowing services were a thing, after all, and wasn’t that the kind of job that local kids would do to earn an extra couple of bucks? Mow your lawn every once in a while? She felt certain she could figure it out.
Then she’d noticed that the wood of the porch had been replaced in various places, which meant that the entire thing was sturdy… but it wasn’t uniformly colored. The previous owners had done everything necessary to get the house up to code, but not everything to make it beautiful.
When she’d gotten herself inside, she had refused to acknowledge anything but the size of the house, because that on its own was overwhelming.
The rooms were all bigger than she’d expected, and there were more of them than had been listed on the online real estate profile.
She would have thought that impossible, would have assumed that, if anything, a house would end up being smaller than advertised, but nope!
Eleanor had forced herself to take a deep breath and haul all her boxes inside. And then, once her belongings were secure, she’d called Jeremy to further distract herself. Now there was nothing between her and her thoughts.
Well, she amended, nothing except for a bar of dark chocolate and a glass of red wine, which she’d snagged from the grocery store before heading over to get the keys after she’d left Juniper Café the day prior.
It was pretty much all she had in terms of groceries, since she still didn’t have pots and pans unpacked.
She’d skipped out to the café to buy lunch that day and had a loaf of bread and some peanut butter to tide her over until she could find her kitchen stuff amidst her boxes.
No mere sandwich was going to get her through the next hour, though.
She needed to breathe, needed to think about all the space in this house in a clear, rational way.
Okay, so she didn’t have enough stuff to fill the place.
That was fine, she told herself as she headed out to the front porch, which had a charming bench swing…
one that, like the porch itself, needed to be uniformly stained.
She could get stuff. Once the Indianapolis house sold, she’d get some money coming in.
She could use that to furnish this place.
She took a long sip of her pinot noir, gazing out over the quiet street. Hers was a corner lot, and she could see the cheerful lights of houses going in several directions from where she sat.
Somehow, the size of the house had caused the magnitude of her undertaking to well and truly strike her.
How was she going to structure her time in this new place, in this new life?
What, she wondered with a flutter of anxiety, had she gotten herself into?