Page 41 of Hometown Hottie

20

CARSON

Leaves crunched under the rake as I swept them across my mom’s front lawn. We were still clearing the debris from the storm on her property after having helped a few of her neighbors first. In this neighborhood, where I’d grown up, most of the owners were getting on in age and Mom had proudly offered her services, along with her NFL superstar son’s.

My head shook as I added leaves to the giant pile I’d made, but I was still smiling as I wiped my brow with the back of my forearm and took a drink of water. Honestly, I loved that she was so proud of me, even if I did often feel like shit over having left her alone for so long.

My phone rang, jerking me out of my reverie. The number of the realtor who’d wanted to show me those properties popped up on my screen. Obviously, we’d never gotten around to going to the viewings the other day, what with everyone scrambling after the storm.

“Hello?”

“Carson!” the guy said on the other end of the line. Frank something or other. I could never remember his name. “I heard you were okay after that storm. It was a whopper, huh? I’m glad we’re on the other side of it now.”

I frowned. Being on the other side of one storm simply meant we were on our way to the next, but I didn’t say it. As far as I knew, the man was a transplant from somewhere else and he probably hadn’t been around here very long. “Yeah. Sure. I’m glad you’re okay too. What have you got for me?”

“I’d like to meet you at a few places today if you’re available,” he said. “The first is just outside town and there’s another opportunity that may come soon. I’ll take you there, but it’s closer to town and a darn nice piece of land, if I have to say so myself. The owners are getting older and they might be willing to sell, which means you’d get a great deal on an insane amount of acreage.”

“Sounds good. Text me the address of the first place and I’ll meet you there in about an hour?” With blues skies and bright sunshine having returned with a vengeance after that storm, I was drenched in sweat and feeling like I was glowing. I needed to shower before I went anywhere.

“I’ll see you there, buddy,” he said before he hung up.

I huffed out a breath and slid the phone into my back pocket, refocusing on the last of the leaves I had to rake. I had a severe dislike of people who acted like you were their friend after they’d only spoken to you on the phone a handful of times.

I wasn’t this guy’s buddy and I was starting to get a strange vibe that made me wonder if I could trust him. Something about him was also nagging at me to remember why I felt this way, but I let it slide for now.

He was showing me a couple properties that were on the market. It wasn’t like I was getting in bed with the devil. After adding the remaining leaves to the pile and bagging it all up, I sped through a shower before I headed out.

Mom was at the library, helping to clear the parking lot, and I locked up behind me and waved at Earl as I passed his house. He gave me a friendly wave back and I grinned again, glad that I was starting to feel at home here once more.

Frank had sent me a pin location and I’d put it on my GPS, but it took me a little further out of town than I’d been expecting. Not too far, but closer would certainly be better.

“Your destination is on the right,” the disembodied voice said through my speakers, and I slowed, pulling up on the lawn outside what appeared to be a small property with a very overgrown garden out front.

Tall trees lined the edge of the property, making it hard to see past the foliage to catch a glimpse of what was going on beyond. An obnoxious bright red truck sat in the drive on the way up to the house, and a slick-looking guy with a weasel face and a skintight suit climbed out of it. He grinned and tossed his hand up in a wave as I climbed out.

“Carson,” he said, spreading his arms open wide before he reached up to pull a pair of sunglasses off his eyes. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person.”

“Yeah, you too…” I trailed off because I’d forgotten his name again, but I stuck out my hand to shake his when he offered it.

“Frank,” he said magnanimously, that grin not faltering at all. He gave me a weak handshake before motioning toward the property. “Right, so the owners of this place have moved to California to be with their daughter. They’ve got someone looking after the property until it’s sold, but you’ll have to excuse the state it’s in at the moment. I’m not sure he’s cleaned up yet.”

“I get it,” I replied easily. “I grew up around here. I can look past some mess in the garden.”

He chuckled. “Of course. Let’s go take a look at it, shall we?”

I nodded and fell into step beside him. He fished a bunch of keys out of his pocket. As we walked up the drive, I looked around eagerly, hoping that this would be a first-time lucky situation. The yard between the road and the small, ramshackle house really was a mess, but that didn’t bother me. Neither did the size or general lack of maintenance of the house itself. I’d preserve what I could and recycle the materials that were usable, but other than that, I was looking to build from scratch anyway.

“As you can see,” Frank said as we approached the house. “The owners were struggling to keep up with everything around here for at least a few years before they moved, so I’d recommend tearing it all down. Since you’re looking to build, that’s not a problem, is it?”

“Uh, no, but I’m not sure I’d tear it down just for the sake of tearing it down. Someone built a whole life here. I’d like to respect that as much as possible.”

He hummed but didn’t respond. “This other property I’m taking you to see after has a lot more potential than this one. There’s a river and two beautiful, relatively new structures that are completely usable as-is but could be incredible features to keep and incorporate into your place. There’s also a lot of grazing land if you want to keep some livestock, existing access roads on the property, and the mountains run across the back of it, so that makes for some excellent hiking opportunities.”

My heart tripped over itself, but I couldn’t put a finger on why. It all sounded too good to be true, for starters, but there was something else that was bothering me about this sales pitch. As he showed me around the property, which I thought had a lot of potential itself, he kept going on and on about the other property, like he wasn’t actually trying to sell me on this one at all.

The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, but when we were done, I appeased him and followed his truck to this supposed utopia I was going to love so much. On the way back to town, I drummed my fingers on my steering wheel, wondering why he started slowing when we approached the property line of Red Stone Ranch—and that was when it hit me where we were going.

I slammed on brakes and pulled over immediately. That was what had been bothering me. Frank the realtor is Frank the developer that has been trying to sell the ranch out from underneath the Murphys.