“I would, but we aren’t going to put it up for sale,” Phoebe said as Minnie dropped the stick at her feet again.
“Why not?” It didn’t make sense to keep the cabin if no one was living in it, unless…oh God. I hoped like hell Phoebe wasn’t about to tell me she was moving to Vermont.
“My dad’s going to use it as a rental property,” she said.
“What? Why?”
“So he can keep it in the family,” she told me. “He grew up here, you know? And so did I, at least part-time.”
“Oh no,” I blurted. “But who will take care of it? The rosebushes? The trails out back?”
“My dad will hire someone, I imagine,” Phoebe said, attempting to ignore Minnie as she nudged the stick against her shoe.
“Please reconsider,” I said. “Name a price, and I’ll do my best to meet it.”
“We’re not going to sell it,” she said, and when she met my gaze this time, I saw something new in her expression. Phoebe wasn’t sixteen anymore. She was a twenty-nine-year-old woman who’d been working at some kind of corporate job in Boston for the last seven years. Finance, I thought. “I’m just here for a few weeks to fix it up to rent.”
This was just business to her. She hadn’t visited her grandmother very often the last few years. Why hadn’t she? Had the family even asked Margery what she wanted? Surely, she wouldn’t have wanted her home to be a party pad for tourists.
“This is a mistake,” I said.
“That’s your opinion,” Phoebe said. “But in the meantime, this house isn’t sitting vacant anymore, so you should probably find a new place to walk your dogs.”
I gaped at her for a moment before my temper kicked in. “Wow, not even a thank-you for keeping the place up?”
“Taylor…”
But I didn’t want to hear it. I patted my thigh, calling Minnie to me. She picked up her stick and trotted over, tail wagging. I headed around the side of the house, past the purplish-blue Nissan sedan in the driveway that must be Phoebe’s. Minnie trotted over to sniff the tires before following me onto the street. Mountain Laurel Road was barely wide enough for two cars, so I clipped Minnie’s leash onto her collar to keep her close for the walk to my parents’ house.
Usually, I drove here to hike, but since my parents lived just up the road and I was joining them for dinner tonight, I’d parked there today and walked. The proximity to my parents was another reason I’d hoped to buy Margery’s house. I’d worked hard the last few years to save up for a place of my own, and after Margery passed away last fall, I’d realized how perfect her cabin would be for me. It had been my home away from home growing up and had one of my favorite hiking trails right on the property.
Maybe it wasn’t Phoebe’s fault that her father had decided to use it as a rental property, but this felt a little bit like being rejected by her all over again. My face flushed hot. She certainly hadn’t needed to take an attitude with me about it, especially after the way she’d treated me thirteen years ago. If anything, she should have been apologizing.
I tugged the dogs closer as a car went past on the road, stirring the air around us. Blue pinned his ears against his head, pressing his shoulder against my thigh. He was my shy guy, my foster dog. Currently, I could only foster one dog at the time while I was living in an apartment. Once I had a house of my own, I could keep as many fosters as I wanted.
If only I wasn’t going to have to restart my house hunt from scratch…
I sighed as I turned into my parents’ driveway, releasing Minnie from her leash so she could bound ahead of me up the front steps to the house. I followed with Blue, grabbing the stick from her mouth before I opened the door. She knew better than to try to bring it in the house.
“It’s me,” I called, giving Blue a reassuring rub. I walked toward the kitchen, where my mom was finishing up dinner. Minnie raced around the corner to greet her while Blue stayed by my side.
“How was your hike?” Mom asked as I entered the kitchen.
“Good.” I reached for the bowl my parents kept for my dogs. I filled it with water and set it on the mat on the floor. “I bumped into Phoebe Shaw while I was there, though.”
“I hadn’t heard she was back in town,” my mom said, drying her hands on a dish towel. “Are the Shaws finally putting the cabin on the market?”
I shook my head, watching Minnie as she drank. My mom didn’t know Phoebe and I had been high school sweethearts. No one knew, which meant I couldn’t even properly vent about all the ways this sucked. “She says they’re going to use it as a rental property.”
Mom frowned as she slipped oven mitts onto her hands and bent to pull the casserole out of the oven. “Oh, Taylor, I’m sorry. I know how much you were hoping to buy it.”
I sighed. “Yeah. I’m pretty disappointed.”
“Well, it’s time to call Matty, then,” she said, naming a longtime family friend who was a Realtor. “He’ll find you something just as good.”
“You’re right,” I said, even though I already knew there weren’t any other houses for sale within walking distance of my parents. I mean, I didn’thaveto live near them, but we’d always been close, and I liked the idea of being able to drop by whenever I liked, and vice versa. Maybe I should ask Phoebe to reconsider…
“Will you tell your father dinner’s ready?”