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“I don’t need a babysitter,” Gunner grumbles while Kolter laughs, leading him, still eating his second cookie, toward the primary bedroom while I go back to the front door. When I answer it, it’s a young couple who saw the sign out front, so they decided to stop by. I ask if they’d like me to show them the house, but they decline and head back toward the two bedrooms on the opposite side of the house from the primary. For the next fifteen minutes, it feels like I do nothing but answer the door, and I couldn’t be happier about it. My goal is to have at least one offer on the table for Liam and Jessica by the end of the day, and the more people who stop by, the more likely that will be.
As I’m standing in the kitchen talking to Han, a Realtor who is here viewing the house for a client who lives out of town, I hear the front door open. I turn to smile at my new arrivals and fight to keep my smile in place when I see that it’s Ashley from next door.
Great.
“Welcome,” I greet her, and she offers me a half smile.
“Do you mind if I look around?”
“Of course not,” I tell her, then watch her until she disappears down the hall. I know it’s completely normal for people to come in and check out their neighbors’ home when they have an open house. It’s human nature to be nosy and want to see what kind of upgrades the person living down the block from you has done or how they have decorated, but because it’s her and we have already had an issue, I’m a little wary seeing her face.
Focusing back on Han, I tell him about the area, since he isn’t from here but from a town over, and I also tell him about the middle school that is just down the street and the private school about fifteen minutes away because the family has a young daughter. After a few minutes he tells me that he is going to go record a video walk-through for the family, so I point him in the direction of the primary bedroom.
“So what do you think?” I ask Kolter when he and Gunner come inside through the back door after looking outside.
“It’s nice, and the garage is a three-car, which would be good.”
Oh lord.
“Okay, but you’re not only buying a house because you can fit your truck and four-wheelers in the garage. What do you think about the house, the bedrooms, the backyard? Is it somewhere that you can picture you and Anna?” I don’t mention the baby, but it still hangs silently in the air between us.
Sliding his fingers through his hair, he looks around again, and I swear it just dawned on him that he would be buying the house for himself and the family he is creating.
“The bedrooms are a good size,” he mumbles as Ashley comes out from wherever she was.
“They are, and there are three of them, so you have some extra room, and the closets have all been done, so that’s a nice upgrade that you won’t have to put money into, plus the yard is big enough for you to add an outdoor kitchen or whatever else you might think of later on down the road.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” He looks around again. “Maybe I should take another look around.”
“Good idea.” I turn to Ashley, who has gotten closer in the last minute. “Everything okay?”
“I just wanted to tell you that my husband and I have decided to let the situation with the trees slide for now, since Liam and Jessica don’t want to deal with it.” She lifts one shoulder. “We’ll just take it up with the next owners.”
“The trees?” Kolter asks, and she looks at him.
“The trees on this property are damaging mine and my husband’s yard. We live next door.” She points in the direction of her house, even though we can’t see it from where we are inside. “We’ve asked the current owners to cut them back, but they refuse,” she informs him, then adds, “and we would like to put in a fence but would want to attach ours to the one around the yard here.”
“How are the trees damaging your property?” Gunner asks, and Ashley looks at him.
“The leaves.”
“Leaves are damaging your property?” He frowns. “How?”
“They all fall into our yard.”
“There is a whole forest behind this house and all the other ones on this side of the street. How do you know the leaves are from the trees at this house?”
“We just know.”
“Okay, crazy lady,” he mumbles under his breath, but she still hears him, and her face gets red.
“Why don’t you two go have another look around?” I suggest to both my brothers, more than a little thankful that Ashley didn’t decide to approach me when I was talking to anyone else. Her bringing up the situation with the trees could cost me an offer—actually, the idea of living next to her could cost me an offer.
“What a jerk,” Ashley whispers, and I’m not sure she’s talking to me, so I just ignore the comment.
“So what did you think of the house?”
“It’s fine. I think they are asking for too much for their house, but whatever,” she grumbles, obviously mad.
