Page 5 of Through the Dark Night
“Yeah, I don’t know what you saw, but maybe the pics were doctored on the internet. Sometimes that happens. Although I do believe that’s illegal for real estate agencies to do.”
“If it’s not, it should be,” she said. But she felt like she had to be honest. “I didn’t see any doctored pictures though. I just wanted the inn, and no one could have talked me out of it.”
Dominic raised his brows and nodded, lifting his eyes to the big building in front of them. “She is grand, isn’t she?”
“I vaguely remember in my childhood it being a bustling place. But even then, it was slightly derelict. I remember my parents saying itwould be nice if someone would restore it to its former glory. I think they remembered it when it was really something to see.”
“I think there are some pictures in the Blueberry Beach library of it in its glory days. That’s probably something you might wanna look up if you’re interested in restoring it to a similar state.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. I don’t know that I want to be historically accurate as much as I want to be financially responsible as well as paying close attention to safety and also modern conveniences. People aren’t going to want to use outhouses.”
“I don’t know whether every room would have an attached bathroom or not. I suppose that’s something we’re here to see, right?”
“That’s right,” she said as she dug the key out of her purse. “Shall we?” she asked, holding it up.
He took it from her, and they walked to the front door. She had no idea which door the key actually worked for or if it was even locked.
As though reading her mind, Dominic tried the doorknob before he even put the key in the lock. It turned easily in his hand.
“Looks to me like this was just for show,” he said, holding up the key with a little smile.
Shannon smiled back, but a part of her was concerned. She was planning on sleeping here. This was where she was going to live. If there were no locks… But the place was quiet, deserted, hardly the place where gangsters or worse might hang out. In fact, if she were running from something, this would be the perfect place.
“Do you know if the electricity is on?” Dominic asked as he stepped inside.
“It’s supposed to be,” she said, hitting the switch on the side but not holding her breath that the lights were actually going to go on. The way the place looked on the outside, she really did think it might be better if they just bulldozed the whole thing.
To her surprise, the lights worked.
“Wow. That is a pleasant surprise,” she said. She couldn’t keep the relief and excitement out of her voice. She needed some kind of lift, and the electricity provided it. Sometimes a person just got so down that one more thing was going to be the last thing they could handle, and she felt like she was almost at that point. The electricity shot her up a fewnotches, so she felt like maybe she could take a little more before she quit.
But what did quitting look like? She didn’t even know. She didn’t have anything to quit to. Everything that she loved had been taken from her or else left, although it wasn’t fair to categorize her children like that. They were doing what kids were supposed to do, weren’t they?
It was a good thing the electricity worked, and she had that lift, because as they walked through the building, there wasn’t much to recommend it. Walls were peeling, everything needed to be painted, most of the lights were out, even though the electricity was on, and on the north wing of the house, it looked like perhaps there was even a water leak.
By the time she and Dominic had finished walking through it and had come back to the kitchen, which was probably the room that needed the least amount of attention, she was feeling very despondent.
“I have to ask, are you sure about this?” Dominic said as they walked into the kitchen and stopped at the island.
She put her purse on it and looked up at him.
“I’m just asking because this is a lot of work. It’s going to take a ton of money. You’re going to have something amazing when we’re done, but… The time and the work and the money… You’re looking at at least a year probably. You might be able to open it a little bit at a time, but it’s going to be a year before everything is done.”
That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Although, the part of her that really wanted to be successful, to recover from the tragedy that had been her life so far, and to actually build something worth having said yes, absolutely, she could do this.
“So you think it’s too much?” she asked, looking at him steadily. She could handle it if he said yes. It was his professional opinion, and while she might get a second opinion, she wasn’t going to discount what the man said. He did this for a living.
“There’s endless potential here. It’s a historic property, and it’s perfect for someone who believes in second chances.”
Shannon blinked. She wasn’t expecting him to go there. That was almost word for word what the description had said on the real estate website.
“My wife, Vera, always says that broken things can be made more beautiful than they ever were before. If you look at our lives, we lost our son, and we almost lost each other, and now our marriage and our family is more than I ever dreamed it could be. Sometimes I think Vera is prophetic, because she’s right. Sometimes something has to be broken before it can be made whole, if that makes sense.”
“You’re starting to sound like a poet, and I wasn’t expecting that from my contractor.”
Dominic grinned, a little self-effacing. “You can blame my wife. She’s the reason for all the goodness in my life. Along with the Lord.”
“I think she’s wise.”
