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Cody chuckled. “Looks like maybe the agent is inside. The door’s up and there’s a car there. Let me text him and see. I don’t want to accidentally walk in on the owners.”
“Good plan.” I tucked my hands in my pockets and looked at the rows of decks that stretched out as far as I could see. Why anyone would want to sit outside and stare at the back of someone else’s townhouse was beyond me. Our townhouse had a little walled garden space behind it. The flagstone patio was something Grandma had added, and so when Megan or I wanted to spend time outside, we had a little bit of privacy.
Of course, we didn’t have a garage. Just permit street parking. And sometimes it was a pain to get close to the house, although there were unwritten agreements between all the neighbors on our street to use the spots closest to our own doors. It worked. Mostly. Some folks had more cars than seemed reasonable, and so there were occasional issues.
“Yeah, that’s him. He said to come on in that way and we’d start at the bottom and work our way up. I guess there’s a family room on the ground level, too.”
“Nice.” That was more than Scott had. “Is this bigger than Scott’s then?”
“Guess so.” Cody paused to take in the other side of the garage before pushing open the door leading into the house. “Hello?”
“Hi. Cody, right? I’m Greg.” The man extended his hand, grinning and showing off glaringly white teeth. “You brought a friend?”
“Yeah, this is Austin.”
I waited, but that appeared to be the only intro I was getting. I shook Greg’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Are you in the market, too?” Greg was reaching into the breast pocket of his button down.
“I have a house over on North Royal.”
“Yeah? Nice. If you ever want to sell, let me know. I love listing those beautiful historic places.” Greg held out a card.
I took it and slid it into my pocket. I had no intention of ever selling Grandma’s townhouse, but it wasn’t as if I could guarantee the future. Maybe there’d come a time when it made sense to leave the area.
“Do you want me to give you a tour, or would you rather just look around?” Greg flashed that gleaming grin again.
Cody glanced at me then back at Greg. “It’s okay if we just look?”
“Of course. I’ll hang out in the kitchen—one floor up—if you have questions.” Greg started toward the stairs. “Take your time.”
“He’s a little intense.” Cody muttered when Greg had disappeared from view.
“Yeah, well, he’s gotta hustle for a living. This is a nice family area. Wet bar and fire place. It’s gas?” I moved closer to inspect the fire, nodding as I found the switch that would turn the logs off and on. “Is there a bathroom down here, too?”
Cody wandered to the other side of the room and peeked through a doorway. “Yeah. Over here there’s a half bath.”
That was nice. Saved people from having to run up and down stairs all the time. “Ready to head up?”
“Yeah.” Cody started up the stairs. “From what I remember about the listing, the main floor is an eat-in kitchen and an open plan living-dining room. The kitchen opens onto the deck we saw in the back.”
“And the front door?” I reached the top of the stairs and looked around. There was, in fact, an open plan living and dining room. It was nicely staged so you could get a picture of what it might be like to live here.
“Yeah.” Cody pointed to the front door. It was separated, sort of, from the living area by a change in flooring.
“Do you have enough furniture to fill a place like this?”
Cody laughed. “No. But that’s an easy fix, too. I’ll just hire Scott’s decorators and tell them to go at it.”
That was reasonable. “Maybe you should get Megan to help you. She’s got a pretty good eye and knows what you like. She did our place.”
Cody shot me a startled look. “Megan?”
“Yeah. My sister. Megan. Who decorated the place where I live. Unless you hate that, in which case I wish you’d said something. I’ve always thought it was good.”
“No. It’s great.” Cody frowned at me before stalking into the kitchen.
I wasn’t sure what I’d said wrong, but I also wasn’t going to explore it. Cody could hire Scott’s decorators if he wanted. It wasn’t like he couldn’t afford them. I just remembered how much fun Megan had sprucing up our place when Grandma first let us move in. In fact, maybe I ought to ask her if she wanted to change anything up.
