“It’s about the people.” I took a sip of my beer. “Meeting people that buy the kinds of houses I was looking at can lead to bigger sales later. Besides, I enjoy dabbling in the residential market. It’s relaxing.”
“You know what else is relaxing?” he asked, and I knew from the tone of his voice that I was going to have to order two bottles of bubbly once the waiter came back our way. “Drinking, dancing, and then ending the night with a good ol’ fuck before passing out.”
Sure enough, I heard a prim throat clearing behind me. I twisted in my seat to face the old birds again before pressing in the corners of my mouth and shrugging. “Sorry. How about two bottles? Will that do the trick?”
“Just order them already,” one of them grumbled before they stuck their heads together and started clucking again.
I motioned to the waiter and asked him to bring our check after adding the champagne to it. Andrew and I nodded goodbye to the ladies, then made our way through the club and waited at the valet station for our cars to be brought around.
“I’ll be back at the office in about an hour,” he said when he was handed the keys to his brand-new low-slung Italian sports car.
“Where are you going?” I narrowed my eyes then laughed and shook my head when I saw his lids lower. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. Enjoy your afternoon delight or whatever the fuck it’s called these days.”
“I’m planning on it.” He tossed me a wave before getting into the shiny black beast he’d had imported. With the rev of his engine, he tore out of the lot while the valet stared after him with longing in his eyes.
“Might want to wipe the drool off your chin, buddy,” I said, laughing as I gave the guy a tip for bringing my car out after Andrew’s. “Thanks for not getting a scratch on either of them. He would have bawled like a baby if anything had happened to that thing, and I just don’t have the time to take mine to the shop.”
The valet looked surprised that I was talking to him at all. Then he nodded and hurried away. I sighed as I climbed into my own vehicle, an equally ostentatious but, in my opinion, far more sexy Mercedes Geländewagen.
I had hardly settled in behind the wheel when my phone started ringing. I smiled when I saw who was calling, a genuine smile that only one woman in the world elicited.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Taytay,” her warm voice said through my speakers. “How’s my baby boy doing?”
“Thirty-two and at the helm of a massively successful company, but she still calls me her baby boy,” I teased.
She tutted, laughing softly. “You’ll always be my baby boy. I don’t care what in the world you achieve or how old you get. One day, you’ll have kids of your own and then you’ll get it. Now answer my question. How are you?”
My mother still liked to believe that I was going to get married and make her some pretty grandbabies someday. I’d tried to shatter the delusion countless times, but she clung to it like an addict to their next hit.
“I’m good, Momma. How about you?” I laid my head back against the sinfully soft leather of the seat.
“Everything is going well here. You know how it is on the farm, always busy.”
“True.” I closed my eyes. “How’s Dad?”
“He’s doing well. He asks about you.”
She was lying, but I loved her for trying to make my father look as if he cared. “Yeah? Tell him I said hi.”
“I’ll do that. Listen, sweetheart. I don’t want to keep you. I have to go soon anyway. I just wanted to check in to say hi and make sure you’re still breathing. You really ought to remember that a phone works both ways.”
“Sure, Mom. I will.”
She sighed. “You know what else works both ways? An airplane and a car. You should come visit us sometime soon. It’s been too long since I’ve hugged my baby.”
For a good fucking reason. “I’m sorry, Mom. Things are crazy around here right now, but maybe soon, okay?”
When she brought it up again in another month or two, I’d have another excuse ready. I always did.
My mother didn’t question me, though. She knew better than that. “Okay, sweetheart. I’ll look forward to it. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” I really did.
If there was one thing I wished for that all the money in the world couldn’t buy, it was to be able to spend more time with my mother. It really was too bad that she was married to my father, and there wasn’t enough money in the world to convince me to go to the home she shared with him.
Chapter 5
Elsie
Using two fingers on my dresser to balance, I stood on one leg and pulled on my shoe as I cradled my phone between my cheek and my shoulder. “I’m actually on my way to an open house right now.”
Beth squealed into the receiver. “Really? Wow. You’re not wasting any time. Here I was, calling to find out if you wanted to drink wine and shop for a place online later just to get a feel for where you want to be, but you’re way ahead of me.”
After pulling the strap of my kitten heel through the loop, I straightened out. “That’s the thing. I haven’t been in the Bishop’s Hollow area for years, so I do want to go to get a feel for the place.”
“Bishop’s Hollow?” she asked after a beat. “That’s expensive. Can you really afford something there?”
“If it’s small.” I chuckled as I smoothed out my turquoise shirt dress and grabbed a brown leather belt from the rail in my closet. “There are a couple of open houses in the area and there’s one property with a few smaller places on it that I’m particularly interested in.”
“Okay, but why there?” I heard the surprise in her voice. It didn’t come as a shock to me that she would be surprised. I had been surprised myself when I’d first started opening links to look at properties in that area.
The more I thought about it, though, the more it made sense. If I was going to buy a property, it would have to be somewhere I could live long term, and Bishop’s Hollow checked all my boxes.
“It’s close enough to school for me for now and there are good opportunities for a career around there once I finish. Some of the best schools in the city fall within that district, and since I’d like to keep working with children, that’s something I need to consider.”
“I hear you, but I’m still not sure I follow. Why not just rent a place close to school for now and take it from there?”
“I don’t want to waste any money, and buying property is an investment. If I find a nice place to rent, I’d consider it, but the price would have to be right.” After cinching the belt around my waist, I applied another sticky layer of gloss and smacked my lips at myself in the mirror. “Anyway, I have to go. I want to get there with enough time to take a walk around before the open houses start.”
“Okay.” She still sounded uncertain. “Good luck. Let me know if you want me to join you later.”
“Thanks, Beth.” I smiled, said my goodbyes, and hung up the phone a minute later.
Dragging in a deep breath, I studied my reflection. I thought I looked nice, or at least as nice as a girl could look when she was carrying more than a few extra pounds, but I didn’t know if I looked nice enough to be taken seriously as a potential home buyer.