“Ten neighbors in this area. We all have access to the pond. Anyone does, but no one comes out here much.”
“Just the way you like it.”
“That’s true.”
“So, get to it,” I say. “Tell me how you ended up in this house.”
He lays the cheese on a cutting board and slices it. “I had some money. And I wanted … Wait. I had some green money. Very green.” He looks up at me from where he’s spreading hot honey on one of the slices of bread. “That’s two adjectives if you want to keep count.”
“You’re ornery today.”
“I think you like it when I’m ornery.”
“Carry on.”
I do like it when he’s ornery. A lot. It’s this rare playful side of him that feels like something I own anddon’t have to share with the rest of the world. I like it too much.
“Okay. Well, I had very green money. And I wanted to be very much alone.”
“You can’t keep using very.”
“Okay. I wanted extremely peaceful solitude.”
I nod.
“And I was thinking a house should be something permanent. A place you set up a life.” His face grows serious, a cloud passing behind his otherwise bright blue eyes. “I wasn’t in a good headspace.”
“Had you just come back?”
“It was about six months after.”
The expression on his face tells a thousand stories—ones I know he’s carrying inside himself forever.
“We lost Zach. I wasn’t … It was a lot.”
“Oh, Greyson.” I reach my hand out and place it over his. “I’m so sorry.”
He looks up at me and I catch a glimpse of the soldier boy at the station inside this man. Our hug goodbye. The way Zach was so full of life.
He places the cheese on the bread. Then he pulls out a Tupperware of precut peppers and onions.
“Yeah. So, I wanted to invest in something but it had to be secluded. I never needed all this space, but there was something about this property. It was the first house the Realtor showed me. We walked through from the front porch, upstairs and out to the back just like I took you. And when we got to the spot at the railing and I saw the woods sprawling out past the yard, I looked at her and said, ‘Sold.’”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. She made the offer. Let’s see. She made a generous, fair, immediate offer.”
“Stop!” I giggle.
He has me giggling.
“And the next day I was in a short, efficient, straightforward escrow.”
“Greyson!”
He chuckles. “And this big, oversized, excessive, rustic home was mine a month later.”
“A-plus for adjective use.”
