Page 67 of What a Wolf Wants
She laughed. “That works for me.” But she suspected he would help her with customer complaints too. “So about this place, what do you think?”
They went out on the back deck and looked at the view of the ocean. The deck was even bigger than the other home’s.
“Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right about this being perfect for us and for a family. How about we make an offer on the house, and then if we buy it, we’ll fix it up the way we want before we move in?”
“And furnish it just like we want so it’s a combination of our tastes?” she asked.
“That will be perfect.” he said.
She smiled and told him the listing price. “The couple who own the home are divorced and they are looking to get the most money they can, of course, so they can split the proceeds between them. But Jennie said that she felt she could get them to come down on the price. It has just been listed, so it’s possible someone else might snatch it up. They haven’t even had an open house yet.”
“Let’s make an offer.”
“All right. Let’s do it.” She was so glad he was ready for being with her.
They walked out to the driveway where Jennie was in her car speaking on the phone. She quickly ended the call and left the car. “I’ve got a couple of people who want to see the house already and so does another Realtor. What do you think about it?”
“What’s the lowest offer the owners will take?” Ethan asked.
“Five thousand less, that’s if no one else wants the house.”
“I’ll pay cash, no loan, no getting it approved. It will be a done deal,” Ethan said.
Charlene thought the same, but she was surprised Ethan stepped in to say it first. Was he planning on spending his own money on the house?
“Okay.” Jennie had them sign the contract with the offer and Ethan gave her the earnest money. “Let me call them and see what they say.” Jennie called the owners in a conference call. “You have an offer on the house.” She gave them the dollar amount. “The offer is cash, so no loan approvals, which can be a real incentive to sell quickly. Sometimes theloans fall through, so you have to start the process all over again with someone else, and getting a loan approval can take a lot longer. We haven’t shown it to anyone else, but they need to do some work on the place—painting, replacing the carpeting, and refinishing the deck.”
Jennie waited for a minute and then smiled. “All right. I’ll draw up the contract and get the ball rolling on this. Thanks so much.” Then she smiled at Charlene and Ethan. “You’ve got another house.”
“Yes!” Charlene said.
Smiling, Ethan squeezed Charlene’s hand.
“I’ll email the contract to you within an hour if that works for you.”
“Yes, perfect. We want to look through the house again one last time before we leave,” Charlene said.
“Yes, by all means do.”
Charlene and Ethan walked back into the house, and she threw up her arms and said quietly, “Yes! I would have paid the full price. I think if the couple didn’t jump at the chance to sell the house to us, they might have had some other offers. Maybe even a bidding war since it had just been listed.”
“They were too eager to just sell the house and split the proceeds,” Ethan said, gathering Charlene in his arms and kissing her soundly. “Which worked out great for us. I’m so glad we got it. I should have talked to you first about me paying cash for the house, but as a couple, my money is yours.”
“We’ll have plenty of funds to do any renovations we want and fully furnish this house too then.” She kissed himback, loving how kissable he always was. “Let’s take this other business to our other home and get on with it.”
“All right. Now you’re talking.”
They left the house and thanked Jennie and headed home. When they arrived there, Noah let them into the house. “No one came by. What happened?”
Ethan told him what had occurred. “Grainger was glad we caught Thor, even though Renault now knows I’m not retired. He told Renault he can’t tell anyone else at work.”
“Oh, that’s not good. But at least following Renault resulted in capturing another of the men we needed to take down.” Noah sounded pleased. “How did the house hunting go?” Noah asked Charlene.
“We found the perfect place to buy and made an offer and it was accepted, so we’re just waiting to sign the contract and get it done,” Charlene said.
Noah looked a little surprised that she saidwe. Then he nodded. “Great. Did Ethan tell you I’ll grill steaks for us when you want to have dinner at my place one of these nights? Maybe tonight and we can celebrate both successful endeavors today.” Noah looked hopeful that they could. Charlene felt sorry for him. Not only had he lost out on Charlene as his girlfriend, but he hadn’t even been able to help take down Thor.
“Yeah. Tonight will be great. Will six be good for you?” Charlene asked.
