Page 167 of True Blue

“This one has been tricky,” she said in her office, typing my information into her laptop. “Had a woman back out almost too late back in July. Poor thing was devastated by it. How did you hear about it, or did you drive by?”

“My… uh… girlfriend,” I stumbled over the word, because she was my girlfriend at the time, but not anymore. “Uh—we toured it back in January.”

Her fingers paused, and she blinked as if something just dawned on her. “Indie?”

I sat up straight in my chair, the answer Gina needed.

“Yeah, she put a down payment on the house, and we were under contract,” she said, looking intrigued, her brow raised. “In July, she called and said she had to back out. Said she had just broken up with her boyfriend.”

My body went still.

Indie had bought the house for us.

She was no doubt going to surprise me with it. But she didn’t tell me. Not that I gave her much confidence that I was coming with her. God, I could only imagine how much it broke her heart to have to back out of this house.

“Yeah,” I said, my throat tight.

Gina’s eyes narrowed. “So, you’re buying this house for her? To win her back?”

"To make it right," I corrected.

Just another thing I had ruined that I wanted to fix.

First, the vacation.

And now, this.

Gina snorted. “Well, that’s one way to do it. Let’s get this rolling.” She smiled, her fingers moving even faster. “I have another bidder on the house, but I think they want to demolish it and build fresh⁠—”

“I’ll go fifty thousand over their offer,” I said instantly. “Cash.”

No way in hell am I losing out on this house.

Not again.

“Oh, the owner will like that a lot,” Gina said, her smile spreading across her face like the Grinch as she picked up her phone.

She only spoke for five minutes, but I heard a loud cheer down the line after she told him the cash offer.

Gina smiled and stuck out her hand for me to shake.

“Sold.”

So, I’ve been staying here while making the necessary repairs to the house.

And necessary repairs are needed desperately. The house has been unoccupied for five years, and Gina said a rumor circulated that it was cursed because the former owners had passed away there.

The thing was, they were a married couple for over sixty-five years who had passed together in their sleep. Indie had thought it was romantic when the first realtor told us. I had agreed, and from the old photos of the home Gina showed me, it was clear they had lived a life full of love there.

Some curses needed to be broken, so I signed my name happily on the paper.

I will give the house to Indie, transfer her name to the deed if she wants. Or if she wants to buy it from me, which I know she is going to—I will charge her a very fair price.

$1.

But to do that, I need to fix up the house, and I can’t do that with a squatter in the form of a fat raccoon. The inspector warned me I needed to get the attic sealed because of the wildlife, and it was on my to-do list, which had grown insanely long and overwhelming very fast.

The house needs everything gutted and updated, brand new. First things first, I’ve been working on the electrical—a slow-and-steady process for this 1890 house.