“Here,” he said, slowing the car as the road ended at a small A-frame cabin. “What’s here?”
He got out of the car and met her in front of it. Five feet away, a Realtor sign swung in the breeze. “It’s a house,” Max said, “for sale.”
“You want me to buy a house?”
“No, I…” He turned toward her, suddenly worried about her reaction. “I turned in my resignation last night.”
“You did?” When it hit her, she jumped into his arms. “Oh, Max, you did?”
He held on to her, closing his eyes so he could savor the moment. She pulled away way too soon.
“But I thought you said it would take a few trips to get the new girl trained.”
“Well…she was the dive supervisor on another ship for five years, so it turns out she’s pretty well trained already.”
“But…but you said she was so young!”
“Yeah. Twenty-eight.”
“Max!” She slapped his shoulder. “You big…dork.” When a tear slipped down her cheek, Max shook his head. “What’s wrong?”
“Are you buying a house here? In Richmond?”
“Maybe.” Was she happy? Was she freaked out? Did she think this was moving too fast? “I haven’t seen anything but pictures yet, but I need to make an offer soon if I like it. Want to go inside?”
This time, when she threw herself into his arms, she was crying. Loudly. All he could do was hold on and hope that she was overcome with happiness and not horror. “Chloe?”
“Yes, I want to look inside,” she said into his shirt, her words muffled and watery. Then, “Do you have a tissue?”
While Chloe blew her nose and got herself in order, Max figured out the key safe on the door and then stood there quietly with the key in his hand. He’d never owned his own home. He hadn’t even owned a car for the past decade. But this place could be his.
“Ready?” she asked from close behind him.
Max turned the key and stepped in. It wasn’t fancy, but he’d already known that from the pictures. It had been built as a getaway cabin, so even though the living area was a big two-story room with a huge fireplace, the kitchen to the left was small. Still, it had been recently remodeled, and everything in it was shiny and new.
The kitchen led to a mudroom with a back door beyond that. As he walked toward it, Max noticed that every window he could see was filled with green. Trees surrounded the house, and just the sight of them left Max feeling more peaceful than he had since he’d left Richmond two months before.
He took Chloe’s hand and pulled her through the mudroom to the door beyond.
“You haven’t even looked around yet. Where are we going?”
He opened the door and there it was. At some point it had been a garage, but now it was a work-room, complete with lights on pulleys and an elaborate system of shelves to hold every tool he could ever want.
“Whoa,” Chloe breathed.
Max went straight for the garage door and pulled it up to reveal the edge of the driveway and beyond that…more trees. The scent of leaves overwhelmed him as fresh air blew in.
“I think I’m gonna buy this place,” he whispered.
“Maybe you should look upstairs?”
“Screw the upstairs.”
Laughing, she curled her arms around his waist. “You have to at least look upstairs.”
“All right, fine.” Just to make Chloe happy, he raced upstairs and quickly toured the two bedrooms and one bath. “Perfect,” he declared, then obligingly followed Chloe back downstairs to look around the little hallway off the living room. Another bathroom and a small den. “Still perfect.”
“The carpets are a little worn.”