Page 28 of The Deadbeat Next Door

CHAPTER SIX

Cody

Monday morning hit me like Thor’s hammer. I forced myself out of bed and out the door for my run, but I felt like I was running through black tar. I hadn’t slept for shit. My bed still smelled like Carrie and, every time I closed my eyes her naked body flashed in my mind like it was permanently tattooed there. I found myself out of bed and halfway to my front door to go see her three times and, every time, I had to stop myself and go back to my bed. I reminded myself that she was the kind of woman who wanted a relationship and, even if she didn’t leap out of my bed like I had the plague, even if she showed any signs of wanting me when she was sober, I wasn’t in the market for a serious relationship and I couldn’t just bang my neighbor and then pretend not to know her. That would be a dick move. I wasn’t saying I wasn’t a dick, but I was trying to be better.

My doorbell rang as I was finishing breakfast and my first thought was of Carrie. Instead, I found Mary Ellen on my porch. She was wearing slim slacks and a sheer blouse, her hair and make-up perfect, her body out of this world, and still my heart, and other parts of my anatomy, sunk to see her and not Carrie. I shook my head like I could shake off my obsession and Mary Ellen frowned.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m a few minutes early, but I can come back.” Her eyes raked over my body, before landing back on my face and I resisted the urge to cover myself. I hadn’t bothered to put on a shirt, yet, but at least I had on a pair of jeans. Was this how Carrie had felt when I’d ogled her naked body after her shower?

“I’m just running a bit behind,” I said. “Give me two minutes and I’ll be ready to go.”

Mary Ellen took a seat on my couch. I went back to my room and pulled on a t-shirt, my uniform these days. It was so much better than the suit and tie I’d had to wear every day when I’d been trying to please my father and work in the family business, but I’d put that suit and tie back on in a heartbeat if it gave me just five more minutes with him.

Mary Ellen stood when I walked back out. “Do you want your girlfriend to join us today?” she asked, her lips pursed.

I just stared at her, confused. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

She smiled. “I didn’t think so, but you know gossip. I just had to check.”

“What gossip?” A nasty rumor could get me run out of this town by townspeople waving pitchforks and rifles. I knew that from experience.

Mary Ellen waved her hand. “I don’t care for gossip myself, but folks are saying you went home with your neighbor the other night and that she stayed here until morning.”

A sour taste filled the back of my throat. Did people in this town have nothing better to do than talk about other people? “Why is anyone talking about me? How did anyone even notice in a town this size?”

Mary Ellen gave me a condescending smile. “The university makes us seem like a much bigger place than we are. There’s only one public high school and people take notice of a new guy moving to town and looking for property.”

Shit. I had a bad feeling this was all going to come back to bite me. “How many properties have you got for me today?”

“Just the one,” she said, her mouth turned down like she didn’t like my tone. That was okay, because I didn’t appreciate her not so subtle way of prying into my business. “Bartholomew Gregory has finally accepted that his grandkids aren’t interested in his land and he’s not in any shape to care for it. He’s going to move closer to town. His place is exactly what you’re looking for.”

Finally, some good news. “Great, take me to it.”

Twenty minutes later, Mary Ellen parked at the end of a winding driveway in front of a three-story, southern Gothic plantation house, with brick facing and two-story pillars. It had a large porch on the first floor and a wrap-around balcony on the second. It was in amazing condition and would be perfect as a bed and breakfast and focal point for events. The weeping willows and ancient oaks in the yard only added to its charm. “Do you want to see the house?” Mary Ellen asked, studying my reaction. “I would have thought you’d be more interested in the land.”

“I am. But there’s no way this place is within my budget. This house alone has got to be worth over a million dollars.”

“It only looks that way from the outside. Everything in that house dates backs to the early nineteen sixties when it was built to look like an older plantation home. The electric and the plumbing need to be updated or replaced and there’s a fair amount of damage to almost every room, because the roof has needed to be replaced for several years. The owner has only been living in three rooms and has kept the rest of the house shut off.”

That would take money to repair, but I could live in the same three rooms until I had a tasting room up and running and had some more money coming in. Not to mention, it would make a perfect bed and breakfast and save me the expense of building one. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s see the land.”

I expected to get back into the car, but Mary Ellen led me up a small rise where we could see acres and acres of cleared land spread out before us. “The owner’s family bred horses and raised beef cattle,” Mary Ellen said, “so they kept the land cleared. The owner let the business go after he got too old to keep it up any more, so there’s some brush grown up, but nothing you couldn’t clear in a couple of good weekends.”

I could see that Mary Ellen was right. Despite her love of revealing clothes and gossip, she knew her business and she’d understood what I was looking for and given it to me. I’d have to get soil samples to make sure the land would support a vineyard, but everything else about it was perfect. “How much are we talking?”

“He’s asking more than you have, but only by about ten grand. I know he’s ready to get out of the house before it falls down around his ears and, just between you and me, he’s quite well off, so I think you could talk him down.”

“Do it.” I took the soil samples I needed, but it wouldn’t be the deciding factor. The land and the house were too good to pass up and I could buy my grapes elsewhere or purchase other land for a vineyard later. The views alone would attract tourists and wine lovers.

We walked back to her car and I signed the necessary paperwork. She put in the phone call while I listened. She talked a long time and told the owner exactly what I was planning to do with the land. She also told him my name, which I didn’t much care for, but it sounded like she knew him. She hung up and looked at me. “He wants to meet you. He says if we stay here, he’ll be back for lunch at the house and we can discuss the deal.”

My mouth dropped open in complete shock. “I’m paying you to negotiate with him.”

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. “Look, Cody. I’m going to be honest with you. Bart is my great-uncle and his sons, my cousins, are worried some kind of sick about him being out here in this big old house all alone. He was holding onto the property for his grandkids, but they don’t want it. Uncle Bart is very particular about who gets a hold of his land. He won’t sell it to you until he’s convinced you will use it in such a way that will benefit the town and not create a blight on our beautiful countryside.”

I just stared at her. I’d thought Catalpa Creek was a progressive, well-populated town, but she was acting like…Well, she wasn’t acting like a realtor ought to act. “You do understand that what you’re doing is highly irregular, right?”

Her expression got serious, like she was frustrated, but also ready to fight. I recognized the professional, calculating business woman in her and I respected it. “Listen, I’m trying to help you and my uncle, Cody. I know you have no reason to believe me, but I will not personally benefit from this sale beyond the commission I make from your end of the deal. Another realtor, from a different firm, is handling the selling end of the deal.”

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