Page 85 of Family Bonds- Garrett & Justine

She laughed when he said it and it reminded him how happy she’d said she was. Or had been.

“It’s a good thing,” she said. “Lots of good things happening.”

He reached his hand over to lay it on hers. “I think so too.”

He pulled off the ferry, then drove to his place. It was less than ten minutes since he had a view of the Atlantic rather than Plymouth on the other side of the island.

“I hadn’t realized there were houses this close together with a view,” she said when they were driving down his road.

“We are high enough up to have the view, but it’s not as if I’m close to the water. That is fine with me. I don’t need it and am not much of a beach person. The view is good enough from my deck. You’ll learn a lot of houses on the island are built like this to maximize the view.”

“It’s a nice feature for sure,” she said.

They pulled into his garage and he shut the door while they got out. She wanted to see his place and there was no reason he couldn’t bring her here before they went back to her apartment.

“I almost didn’t care about the view that much when I was looking. I told myself that I just wanted a quiet place to come, but then said part of the appeal of being on the island was seeing the ocean. So that narrowed my search down. Thankfully I wasn’t in a hurry.”

It’d taken him almost a year to find a house, and by the time this one came up, he didn’t care about the fact that it needed work or didn’t have a primary suite. Location was the important thing.

“It doesn’t look as if you’ve got much of a yard either,” she said. “Not from the front.”

He laughed. “No. The back is mostly taken up with a deck and patio. I’ve got someone that mows for me since I’m not around and it doesn’t take them long.”

She laughed, “You mean you’re not going to mow it yourself now that you’re here?”

“No,” he said. “I’m lazy that way. I’d rather spend the time going for a run or spending it with you than mowing my lawn or clearing out snow.”

She nodded and looked around his place. “The best thing about renting,” she said. “I don’t have to worry about any of that stuff.”

“The good with the bad,” he said. “But you don’t have space and privacy either.”

Though there were times he had little privacy here and was thrilled he could pull in and not see Vanessa outside or even looking out a window for his return.

“You’ve got it in both places,” she said. “And you’re right. This is much different than your condo. There is charm here. How old is this house?”

“Close to a hundred years old,” he said. “It’s built solid. I feel as if the older homes were. It’d been updated a few times, but when I moved in I added a shower to the half bath someone put in about fifty years ago.”

“And then you most likely had to change all sorts of things like electrical and plumbing,” she said. “Which probably turned into a nightmare.”

He laughed. “You got it. So since it was happening anyway, I did a bunch of things at once, but I did keep a lot of the charm. The floors are original but have been refinished. I love the built-ins, but I painted everything white rather than the dark brown it was. I lightened the color of the floors when they were refinished too. The rooms are small, but it works.”

She moved over to look at the bowl of Laine Connor’s on a shelf and then some pictures of family around it.

“You’ve made this a home.”

“I’ve tried,” he said.

If he wanted it to be a place he came to relax, he needed to be surrounded by things that helped accomplish that.

“Do you eat at this table?” she asked, running her hand along the white-painted wood.

They had moved out of the living room to a small dining room off the kitchen. Could be considered part of an eat-in kitchen in some people’s eyes.

“Not really,” he said. “I had the kitchen updated and made sure there was a lip on the counter to put two stools. I eat there or on the couch. What about you?”

“Almost always on the couch,” she said, smiling. “It’s not fun sitting at a table alone, even the two-person one I’ve got there. It makes me feel like a loser.”

He spun his head and then noticed she was laughing.

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