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“Thanks for going with me, man.” Cody fastened his seatbelt and looked over at me as I slid behind the wheel of my car.
“I’ve always liked looking at real estate. Although I think the whole gang is in shock that you and Noah are going to stop living together. I was honestly starting to wonder if the two of you were going to be like those twins who married twins and then all lived in the same house together until the end of time.” I grinned as Cody punched my arm. “Hey. Don’t hit the driver.”
“You weren’t moving yet.” Cody shook his head. “And it’s comments like that that pushed us over the edge. In today’s world, you have to know how that sounds. Two single guys living together?”
I laughed. “I think there are still people out there who can accept that platonic roommates are a thing.”
“You’d be surprised. People need to be less fixated on the sex lives of everyone around them.”
“That’d be nice, wouldn’t it?” I turned out of the diner parking lot. “Remind me where we’re heading?”
“Toward the river, near Jones Point.”
“Fancy.” I wiggled my eyebrows. Old Town proper didn’t have a lot of housing that couldn’t be considered fancy. Megan and I were blessed that our grandmother had purchased her historic townhome before the prices were as outrageous as they were today. The annoying thing was that there wasn’t a lot of middle ground. It was either ritzy or low income. At least if you wanted to stay in Old Town. And if you wanted affordable? South or west were the best options. And these days, even those were tricky.
Not that any of us had to worry about affordability. But at the same time, none of us wanted to spend mega money on a home just because we could.
Cody shrugged. “I guess, yeah. But why not, right? And I’ll have a better river view—and access—than Scott.”
I laughed. “Bragging rights. Now I get it.”
“Only if the house is good, but yeah.” Cody grinned. “Someone has to beat him at something. First, he has this great idea and we all get rich. Then he lands himself an amazing wife complete with built-in kid. I mean, what’s next?”
“Well, when you put it that way.” I grinned. None of us were actually competitive. At the same time? “If nothing else, we can alternate poker night locations.”
“You could always volunteer to host, you know. You and Megan have that nice townhouse right in the middle of Old Town. When was it built?”
“Eighteen eighty. And yeah, I should. We used to all share. Since Beckett’s got a mom and a dad now, we ought to get back to that.” Would that work, though? Scott and Whitney alternated Fridays when it came to who was in charge of Beckett. When Scott had him, being at their house made it a lot easier once bedtime rolled around. “Although maybe that doesn’t work with getting him to bed and all that. What do I know? I’m not a parent.”
Cody glanced over at me. “And you want to be?”
“I don’t know. Eventually, yeah. And I guess it’s starting to feel like eventually is creeping up on me. I’m not getting any younger.”
“Turn here.”
I followed Cody’s directions and parked beside a pale yellow, four-story end unit. “Where’s the front door?”
“On the end.” Cody pointed. “I like that it’s not all in a row with the others.”
I got out of the car. I kind of liked that, too. Not that I didn’t love the place Grandma had given us. Cody wasn’t wrong, we were right in the middle of everything. And while the building was old, it had been well maintained and upgraded over the years, so we didn’t have to worry about the plumbing and electrical or anything like that.
“I like the roofline.”
I followed Cody around to the front door, my gaze taking in the squared-off roof. “That’s one of those funny French words, right?”
“Mansard. Yeah.” Cody shrugged. “It’s nice, though. I’m not sure if the window at the very top is decorative or if there’s an actual attic space.”
So maybe only three stories. Which was still plenty. “You couldn’t tell from the listing online?”
“I didn’t pay a lot of attention. It was in the right area and the price was something I was willing to pay. I figured it was better to just come look at it, and the agent said he’d meet us here at two.” Cody twisted his watch around to check the time. “So he should be here any minute.”
“Parking is gonna be a pain.” I looked around. There was some street parking, but nothing looked assigned, and it was likely to fill up quickly in the evenings when everyone got home. We’d been lucky to get the spot we had.
“There’s a two-car garage.” Cody started toward the other side of the townhouse.
I followed. Where had they stuck a garage? From the front it didn’t seem possible. But sure enough, as we rounded the corner, we ended up in an alleyway type setup between the townhouse rows. All the garages opened onto this street.
“All right, I take it back.”
