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I’d set this all up the night before, so I went down the wide front steps and right up to the dark hulking car, popping the passenger side door open.
“Hey,” I said, greeting the woman at the wheel. She was pretty in an overdone kind of way. Big sunglasses, dark hair slicked into a knot on the back of her head. She smiled at me, and then something in her face shifted as she realized she might know who I was. I hadn’t given her the name I usually went by, so when I climbed into the passenger seat of her big SUV, I allowed her a few minutes to recover from the recognition and surprise I saw on her face.
“Are you …?”
“I am.”
“And you want to buy a house in Maryland?”
“Maybe,” I said, smiling. I’d come up with this idea as Tess had talked about the drastic differences between our worlds. I didn’t want to live in a different world from Tess. And maybe if I could find a little piece of home for myself in this world… well, maybe things could work.
“But …” she trailed off, her mind finally clicking into place as she shook her head lightly. “I’m sorry, I just. .. I’m just surprised, that’s all. I’m not used to showing houses to movie stars.”
I didn’t bother to tell her that Juliet Manchester was just a few feet away from where we sat, drinking coffee distractedly inside in front of a window. Tess had said most of the folks who’d lived here a while knew Juliet was from this area, that most knew exactly which house had been hers.
I gave the realtor my trademark grin. “It’s fine, but I am on a bit of a schedule today. Can we look at those waterfront houses we emailed about?”
“So you were serious about the … the big ones?” She pulled the car out of the driveway and back down the long lane as she eyed me sideways.
“I was.” I was as serious as I’d been about anything since running away. I might not have a plan for after I bought the house, but I knew that I wanted a piece of this world, this serenity and beauty. I was pretty sure I wanted it even if Tess wasn’t in it.
“It’s just,” she waved a hand. “People sometimes want to see them. You know, look but not really because they want to buy.” She blushed and giggled then. “I’m not saying that’s what you’re doing.”
“That’s not what I’m doing,” I confirmed.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “Well, okay then.” She seemed to finally settle into the situation. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. McDonnell, and I sure hope we can find something you’ll like today.”
“I hope so too, Jessica.” I settled back into the leather seat and watched the lush green trees fly by the sides of the car as we sped down one country lane after another. Thankfully, Jessica didn’t seem big on small talk once we’d settled the confusion over my identity, and she was happy enough to just take us to the first property on our list.
“This is seven-thousand square feet,” she said, opening the grand front doors into an expansive foyer that spread out into a wide open living room with high ceilings and exposed wood beams. From the floor-to-ceiling windows on the back side of the house, I could see the water sparkling just beyond a sloping green yard. A long wooden dock stretched out into the glassy dark water.
“Six bedrooms, six baths,” Jessica continued. “A chef’s kitchen, a first-floor master and mother-in-law suite in the basement downstairs. The rest of the bedrooms are upstairs.”
We wandered the house and the property, and then looked at four more that might have been built by the exact same builder for the exact same homeowner. The sun was high in the sky and I knew I’d need to get back to Juliet and the magazine folks soon as we left the last ridiculously big house. I wasn’t finding what I’d imagined. I’d fallen in love with Tess’s house—the history, the girl too. I knew I wouldn’t find a house with Tess Manchester waiting for me inside, but I didn’t want a cookie cutter builder home I could have gotten anywhere.
“These are all beautiful,” I said. “At the risk of being one of the people you were talking about … I don’t think I’m in the market for anything so …”
“Over the top?”
“Right. Maybe something a little different? A little less… new?” I watched Jessica scan through some more listings on her iPad before she turned to me.
“There is another I’ll show you if you have time. It’s less ostentatious. More unassuming.”
“Still on the water?” I didn’t know why that was so important to me, but maybe growing up poor had made me feel like you’d really made it in life when you could wake up every morning and see an endless expanse of water stretching out in front of you—something most people would never be able to afford in California, even movie stars. And there was plenty of water here in Maryland.
“Yes, still waterfront,” she confirmed. “More land than the others, actually. Just not as much house.”
“Let’s go!”
* * *
I arrived backat Tess and Juliet’s house later than I’d planned, and was disheartened to see several long black town cars and a van already pulled into the circular drive in front of the house. The magazine folks were already here. Would they already be interviewing Juliet, wondering where her new boyfriend had gone off to? Had I forced her into another bad situation?
“Here he is,” Juliet called, opening the front door just as I thanked Jessica and pushed closed the passenger door to her car. I heard her sharp intake of breath through the open window as she spotted Juliet, but she was gracious enough to pull away rather than linger.
“I’m so sorry I’m a little late,” I said, adopting my boyfriend persona even as my stomach turned at the falseness of it all.
“It’s fine, hon,” Juliet said, reaching a hand toward me. “Did you find what you needed?” She turned her movie-star smile on me and I forced a smile back.
