Page 14 of Lost Love Cove
“Thank you,” Matt said, his shoulders relaxing a bit. “I’d appreciate that.” He pointed down the street. “It’s this way.”
They walked side by side, a set of shadows that kept pace with the awnings. Carrie's senses opened the way they always did on streets she did not know well. She counted storefronts without trying. She noticed who stood in a doorway and who kept moving. A delivery driver eased a dolly down a curb. A woman with a straw hat crossed the street with a bag of ice tucked under her arm. Normal life made a soft, steady sound around them; that sound helped.
She kept her tone light. “Sometimes property sits on land that is leased. Did you buy a long leasehold, or was it a standard sale?”
“It was a sale,” he said. “Outright. It is mine.” His jaw set on the last word.
She nodded. It matched what she had expected him to say. Leaseholds occurred, although not often in places like this, and when they did, they came with a pile of clear language about the terms. A sale that looked clean on paper and then buckled undera word like probate did not match any version of simple she had ever seen.
The office appeared around the next bend. White stucco walls that had weathered well, a shaded glass door, and black letters above the awning with a name on it that Carrie didn’t even glance at because her eyes were drawn to the center of the glass window, where a paper notice sat taped at four corners. The edges of the tape lay flat against the surface. The corners lined up with the frame as if whoever had put it there had taken time to press each one smooth.
Closed indefinitely.
Carrie did not move closer right away. She looked at the door, then at the lockset, then at the lines where paint met glass. Whoever shut the office must have planned for it, because they had printed out the standard county’s closing form and placed it with a steady hand.
Matt stood a step back from the door like he did not trust the air close to it. His shoulders squared. “What on earth is going on?” he said. The words came out controlled, which was somehow worse than if he had raised his voice.
Carrie kept her face neutral. She could feel her pulse pick up. “Maybe they moved,” she said. The line came out because it was what people said when they needed one inch of hope, even if they did not believe it.
She stepped forward and read the small print at the bottom right corner of the notice. There was a number for record inquiries. She took out her phone and took a clear photo of the sign.
“We’re going to need this,” Carrie told Matt, not registering she’d just made a silent decision to help him get this sorted out.
Carrie stepped back and looked up at the company’s name on the window:Key Developers.
The name hit her like a freight train, and her heart leaped into her throat.Oh, no!Her mind screamed.No, this can’t be right.
“What now?” Matt’s voice was low, and his shoulders were slightly slumped.
Carrie pulled her attention away from the company name on the glass. She shifted her weight and chose a softer entry to the next question that she really didn’t want to ask but knew she had to. “Who did you deal with directly when you bought the house?” She swallowed. “We’ll need a name.”
He kept his gaze on the notice for one more second. Then he looked at her with something raw in his eyes that she recognized from too many kitchens and too many porches after bad news. She felt the pull to fill the silence for him. She let it be his instead, waiting for him to answer, her breath catching in her throat.
A car rolled past at an easy crawl. The driver looked ahead with the blank focus of someone who had things on his mind and a list on his dashboard. Sun caught on the windshield and flashed across the door. A gull coasted above the street and settled on a roofline three stores down. A woman came out of the nursery with a fern tucked against her chest and a smile for a text on her phone. And the silence between them was thick with the question hanging in the air. Matt looked at the sign one last time before looking at her, his eyes dark with emotion.
“Trevor Carlton,” Matt said, his eyes holding hers. “Lori’s husband.”
THE END
