LOL,I swear this time I will remember.
Dean:
I’m holding you to it, James.
I put my phone down and turned the shower on. I glanced toward the mirror and noticed the large goofy-ass grin on my face. I quickly schooled my features.Just friends, Addison, you are just friends. All you can be is friends.
We took Walker’s truck to meet up with Caroline, but first stopped off at PrimCup so he could grab his caffeine fix. Mrs. Williams looked up from the register and saw Walker. She immediately came around the counter, arms opened wide, and swallowed him in a hug.
“Walker! You’re home! We are all so proud of the season you had. We missed seeing you around here.” She stepped back, smiling up at him.
Walker laughed. “Thanks. I missed being here. Nice to be home.”
“So, what can I get you? Your usual?” Mrs. Williams asked.
“Yeah, the usual black coffee.” Walker chuckled.
A few other locals who knew Walker growing up stoppedand chatted with us, all singing his praises and complimenting his great pitching this season. The town was proud of him.
After we got our drinks and a blueberry scone for me because they were the best, we walked out of PrimCup and headed toward the truck. Walker came to an abrupt stop. I stopped next to him and followed his gaze to what caught his attention.Shit.I totally forgot to tell him. There across the street and down about three storefronts was Wildflower Interiors, Farrah’s interior design office space. She originally planned to find a place in her hometown of Forest Park, but when the office space off of Main Street opened up here in Primrose Hill, she couldn’t resist. It was prime real estate, and the building was full of charm.
I cleared my throat to break the silence. “Uh, sorry, Walk. I forgot to mention that Farrah’s office was over here.”
He shook his head, and the corners of his mouth curved up slightly. “She finally did it,” he said quietly to himself. I could hear the pride in his voice.
“Yeah, she started her own business a year or so ago, but was working out of her house. She just got her own office space a couple of months ago.”
I looked up at him. He was still staring at the building.
“All right, we’ve got to get going or we’re going to be late for our appointment,” I said, tugging on Walker’s arm and directing him toward his truck.
“Yeah, uh, sorry. Let’s go.” He looked at the building one last time before following me to his truck.
Walker pulled up to a large steel black gate and typed in the code that Caroline gave us to enter the property. As we eased our way through the gate and down the drive, I surveyed the property, completely in awe. The driveway stretched ahead, white fencing tracing pastures that seemed to roll on forever. A few smaller paddocks sat closer to the barn, but it was the barn itself that took my breath away. It was beautiful. White walls, the lower half faced in pale stone, topped with a black metal roof that caught the light like polished steel. Each stall had its own window with neat black shutters, practical but charming, and flower beds bloomed all along the base, softening the lines with a splash of color. Off to one side was a large riding arena, and on the other, a round pen completed the picture. Everything about it was thoughtful, purposeful. It was everything I’d dreamed of—beautiful, functional, and exactly the kind of place that I could see myself building a future in.
Walker’s low whistle broke my trance. “Nice place, Adds. This looks perfect for what you need.”
I nodded and smiled, quickly making my way out of the truck to meet Caroline, who was standing at the entrance to the barn. “Hey, Caroline! This is beautiful. How is it even available?”
Caroline waved at us and handed us each a pamphlet detailing the features of the property as well as the price. “Hey! I know, right? Nasty divorce.” She began leading us toward thebarn. “So, I walked the property earlier, and it is perfect. Exactly what you wanted. It has a fifteen-stall barn with two wash stalls, a round pen, two massive pastures each containing a small pond, and four smaller pastures. There’s one large riding arena, and the tack room has both air-conditioning and heating. There’s a bathroom / laundry room combo off the tack room. There is also a large one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with a small kitchen and living space over the tack room for your future barn manager. Off to the right, near the hills, there’s quite a bit of land where you could eventually build a house if you wanted to live on the property in the future.” I nodded, listening intently as Caroline listed everything this place had to offer. I walked down the aisle of the barn, peeking into all the stalls and then the tack room before we made our way up the stairs to check out the apartment.
This place was everything and more, but also a good deal outside my budget and what I had been approved for from the bank. I turned toward Caroline. “I love it here. This place is perfect, but I don’t know how I can make it work. It is quite a bit outside of my budget.” I sighed heavily.
Before Caroline could answer, Walker cut in. “This place is it. It’s exactly what you were looking for. Your business will thrive here. Don’t worry about the price, I’ll cover it. I need an investment property anyway.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shrugged as if we were arguing over who was going to pay for dinner.
All I could do was just stare at him. “Walk, no, it’s too much.”
“Not for me it isn’t. The property is a good investment, andyouare a good investment. I’m buying this property either way, so either you run your business out of it or I can find someone else who will,” he challenged me. “Plus, your birthday is coming up, so consider it a gift.”
I laughed because that was absurd, and my birthday was nine months away. “At least write up a loan or something so I can pay you back over time. I don’t just want to be handed this place. Please, it means a lot for me to buy you out over time,” I pleaded with him. I was going to earn this place, not be handed it. Period.
Walker sighed and took a moment to think it over. “Fine. I’ll write up a loan agreement.”
Caroline smiled. “Well, if we are all in agreement, let’s write up the offer so we can get this place off the market ASAP!”
Walker looked over at me, waiting for the go-ahead. I smiled and nodded at Caroline. “All right, let’s do it.”
The following afternoon, I was feeling antsy, since I still hadn’t heard anything from Caroline, when a welcome distraction came my way. Dean texted me to see how the showing went, and as we were chatting, I decided I owed him lunch for helping me out with Dahlia. So we met up at Red Door Café, a small family-owned restaurant that had great scratch-made soups, salads, and sandwiches.
