Page 4 of Home for Nathan
Wow.
“Oh? Are you moving in?” She raised her eyebrows, then lowered them. It was grand.
“I am. A friend of mine convinced me this was the place. Kaleb Raleigh.”
“Ah the eccentric bazillionaire.” She winked. “He’s a nice guy.”
“He is! So. I love old sports stuff. Weird old radios. And I desperately need a hall tree or a console table for my entryway.”
“Oh my God, really? I have the perfect thing. Come on, come on to the back.” Carrie gestured to him, moving surprisingly spryly for someone who simply didn’t seem like she ought to be and was using a cane.
She led him through warrens of shelves and displays, and he saw at least twenty-seven thousand things he needed immediately. There were a couple of old baseballs, and there was a cricket bat and…oh my God, there was an entire wall of radios.
And she kept moving, tugging him along. “Come on, come on. Right back there.”
“Oh, but?—”
She shook her head at him. “This is special. You can look later. I promise it will all be there. You can have all the radios, I’m sure. She’ll totally sell them to you, but here, come here, come here, come here.”
She led him back to a room that had gorgeous furniture in it, and Zion kind of blinked. “What’s this?”
“This is where we keep the good stuff.”
All right. Confusing. “Um, why do you keep the good stuff in the back?”
“Because, silly, this is the Crapitorium. This is a junk store. It’s just sometimes we tend to get something really, really cool and that we kind of keep behind for people who need something really, really amazing. And I have a super wonderful, stunning antique Victorian tiger oak hall tree.”
“Okay.” All right, he had to admit, that sounded intriguing. She walked over and pulled down a sheet like she was unveiling a painting.
Standing there was this amazing Victorian monstrosity. It was carved, and it had hooks and a seat and arms and a mirror, and it was gigantic, and it had scrollwork and a cornucopia, and he was in love.
He was absolutely one hundred percent certain right now this had to be his or he was going to die in love. It even had feet. “How much?”
“Thirty-three hundred, but I can throw in three radios.”
“Sold. I want it.”
She bounced and nodded. “I love my job. I always know. It’s like my thing. That’s why I love to work here. Someone will come in, and I’ll know that this is the perfect thing. What’s your name again? Did you tell me?”
She was something else. “I didn’t? I’m Zion.”
“Hi, Zion. I know I told you I was Carrie. I’m going to mark this as yours, and then I’ll let you browse, and when you’re all done, then we’ll ring you up. And you’re welcome to look back here if there’s any more good furniture you need. Are you in town? Out of town?”
“I bought a piece of land on this side of the river, but out farther—like beyond the hotel?”
“You bought the old Stone house, didn’t you?”
“Yes, the one with the mill.” Which was wooden, not stone, just like the house, but the mill owners had been called Stone, so the Stone house it was.
“That’s so cool. Are you going to restore it?”
“I don’t know if I’m going to restore it, but I’m going to make sure that everything good stays. I love it. It’s got lots of room, and it’s near the mountain, but it’s still got some land. It’s just perfect. And this is going to go in beautifully.”
“I’m tickled. Seriously.” She clapped her hands together once. “Oh, wait. Before you go wandering off to look, I do have one more thing to show you.”
He had to wonder how much this was going to cost him. “I can’t wait.”
She buzzed around for a second and then suddenly waved him over to look. Propped against the wall was this huge, ornate frame.
