Page 2 of Wilde's End
Hart snatches his phone back and skims the listing. “It’s a town for sale. And?”
“And?” A spark of excitement hits. “Holy shit, we could afford that!”
I only get a blank expression back.
“Listen, if we buy a whole fucking town, we can do up those shit boxes and sell them off one by one. It’s like a gold mine.”
Hart’s pale green gaze flicks back to the listing. “It’s far away.”
“We don’t have to live there forever. We’ll leave Sonny to manage our Bell contracts, move to that place while we work, do it up, then sell it on.”
“What’s it called?” Kennedy asks, pulling out his phone.
“Wilde’s End.”
He spends a few minutes looking it up, and I’m not sure if it’s the alcohol or this incredible spike of excitement that’s making me all head spinny, but this could actually be it. The thing that pulls us out of this rut and gives Hart some goddamn purpose in his life.
I crawl across the floor to steal the phone back. The listing shows a few ugly houses down one side of the street and a few ugly shopfronts down the other. When they say small town, they obviously mean it, but the land size is enormous. We could build whatever the fuck we wanted, wherever the fuck we wanted … right? I don’t actually know any of the logistics, but if we own the town, that sounds pretty fucking cool.
Before I stop to think it through, I send an email with my details, almost going cross-eyed with how close I bring the phone to my face to make sure I’ve typed my shit out right.
“I’m not finding anything on it,” Kennedy says. “Think it’s a scam?”
“The real estate is legit.” I think. It looks familiar. I need my brain to brain better.
Hart chuckles darkly and folds his arms over his face. “Wake me when you two are done with this.”
I thump him on the thigh, but he ignores me. “For that, I’m not renaming the street Hartwell after you.”
“Oh no …” he monotones.
“And you’re getting the smallest of the houses.”
“The houses we won’t ever have.”
A flicker of bullheadedness hits me. “You don’t think we’ll do this.”
“I think you get excited over things and they fizzle out.”
“What about our building company, dick?”
“That was all Kenny.”
“Fuck you.”
He flips me off and doesn’t look up.
“I’m going to buy this stupid place, and you’re going to be sorry.”
He peels one arm back and pins me in a stare. “It’s an abandoned piece of shit in the middle of nowhere. Why would you even want to?”
Abandoned? Okay, I definitely missed that part. This would be the perfect time to pretend to pass out or play it off as a joke, or … or …
Hart’s lips twist in a humorless smirk. “Exactly. All action, no thoughts.”
I shove to my feet and almost launch over the coffee table but catch myself in time. “We’re doing this.”
“Uh-huh.”
