The room fell silent for a moment. At the time, Anderson had asked him if he was sure that his sister had thawed a little toward him. But he could see that wasn’t going to happen. Not anytime soon anyway.
Taking a deep breath, he asked, “How is it priced? Is there wiggle room?”
“I think it is, but I have little experience with buying property,” she lied to him, but she couldn’t even keep a poker face as she did it because she was smirking. The woman owned half the properties on Main Street and a few more throughout town.
“By how much?” he pushed, because he knew she had an opinion on it.
“I would offer about 20 percent off and meet them as close to 10 percent as possible.” She spoke with confidence.
“How much of a down payment do you think?”
“I don’t do loans, but if I did, I would say 20 percent as well, unless there’s more available.”
Rafferty closed his box and leaned back in his chair. “I don’t have that.”
“I didn’t think you did. How much do you have?” She gave him a smile, obviously still enjoying his misery. Old habits died hard.
“Maybe close to ten grand, and then my house. I own it and would have to sell it. But besides you, not many people are buying in town.” It was a sad truth. It usually took months for anything to sell… unless Ruth was buying.
Ruth shuffled a few pieces of paper around on her nearly empty desk, not meeting his eyes. “If you sold your house, would you have enough for the 20 percent? Because if you still don’t have it, we don’t need to be talking.”
Doing the numbers quickly in his head, he knew he would. “Yes, but who’s going to buy my house? It’ll take time to get it sold before I can make an offer on that house, and then I might lose it.”
“Why do you want this particular house? It’s far bigger than what you have, and you’re just you.”
“I want a place to raise a family. I’m getting to that point in my life. Seeing everyone in town start to settle down. I want that, too.” He wanted to tell her it was for his wife and making her dreams come true.
“Or is it because Mia said she wanted it, and you’re buying it so that she doesn’t?” Ruth accused him.
A few years ago, that would be exactly why he would buy the house. But not anymore.
“That’s not why I’m doing this. I looked at the house, and I fell in love with it.” Or he had planned on looking at it. But if Mia loved it, he did, too.
“So, it has nothing to do with Mia at all? That she likes that house.” She raised an eyebrow.
“Not a thing,” he insisted as he felt his face heat up.
“Not a thing,” she mocked him,.“You can’t even lie well. What do you even hope to accomplish by buying this house? That she will fall madly in love with you, because of a house?”
“No!” he denied, maybe a little too quickly.
Ruth smirked and snapped her fingers. “That’s it. You want her to fall for you. I can’t even believe you think it would work. Why are you suddenly turning your attention on Mia? Have you made your way through every other woman around?”
“What the hell, Ruth? Is that how you think of me?”
“That’s how everyone thinks of you, Rafferty. You don’t exactly hide your dating habits.” Ruth stopped talking and analyzed him for a few moments. “That’s why you need to change. That’s why I wouldn’t help you before. If you want Mia to fall for you, then you need to change and change right now.”
“I’m trying.” Suddenly, he saw a glimmer of hope that Ruth would help him. Both with the house and with Mia.
“You haven’t been trying very hard,” Ruth stated flatly.
“Will you help? I’m trying to buy her a house.”
“I will, for Mia. But I’ll have you fired if you mess up and break her heart. If you’re the reason she ends up leaving town…” Ruth glared at him in challenge.
“You can’t fire me.”
“I sleep with your boss; I can do anything.” Frowning, she pointed at him.