Hot Mess - Elise Faber Page 0,48
months of storage charges.”
Anger swept through her, and she sucked in a breath, biting her tongue until it bled.
“We’re done here.” Brian turned away from her, took a key out from his pocket, and handed it to the movers. “You’re parked in front of the correct house? 5421 Oceanfront?”
Finn stiffened behind her.
The mover nodded, took the keys.
“Brian,” she gritted out. “You need—”
“Wait,” Finn murmured into her ear. “Just wait for one second. I’ll be right back.”
He disappeared, footsteps quiet on the deck. Shan heard him, heard his words, but she was more focused on Brian. On the movers.
“She can take until the end of the day,” Brian said, as though he were giving her the greatest courtesy.
“Brian,” she said.
He turned away, headed for the steps.
“Brian!”
“Hash it out with your lawyer,” he said. “Or better yet, deposit the check and shut up for once in your life.”
He walked around the corner of the house, his footsteps loud in the still quiet morning. She heard his car door slam, the engine start, sand kick up against the undercarriage as he drove away.
The mover cleared his throat, moved as though to unlock the front door.
“Take one step into my house and—”
“It’s my house, actually.”
Finn’s voice made her jump and turn around. He had a folder of papers. “I purchased this place several weeks ago. Here’s the paperwork”—he extended a thick packet toward the mover—“It’s all there. I can call whoever it is that you need in order to verify I made the purchase.”
The movers looked at one another. “Do you want her stuff moved?” one asked Finn.
“No.”
“Are we still getting paid?” asked the other.
“Yeah. In fact,” Finn said and pulled out his wallet, extracting a few bills, “buy yourselves some breakfast, call it an early day, and get on with your weekend.”
They looked at each other again, nodded.
“Cool,” the first one said. “But if our boss—”
“I’ll let your boss know.”
The second one blew out a breath. “That’d be great, dude. I can’t lose another job, otherwise my mom said I would have to move out.”
“Can’t have that,” Finn deadpanned.
“Nope.”
More looking. More standing around.
“You can go,” Finn said.
They nodded, started for the stairs then stopped. “Are you Finn Stoneman?”
“Yeah.”
“Can we get a selfie?”
“Not today, boys,” he said, “Catch me in town sometime for it, okay?”
“Okay.”
They waited.
“You can still go.”
They shook themselves. “Oh . . . yeah. Okay . . . see you around.” With that, they disappeared around the corner and she listened to their doors slam, their truck engine start up, sand in the undercarriage as they backed slowly down the street.
When it was quiet, she turned to face Finn.
“You bought my house?”
The sun was coming up, highlighting the chagrin in his expression. “I didn’t mean to,” he said quickly, setting the papers on the table and coming over to her. “I knew that I wanted to spend more time here, more time with you, and so I had my assistant buy me a house.”
There were several things wrong with that statement, but probably the biggest one was, “You bought a house without seeing it?”
His gaze dropped to his feet. “I . . . uh . . . yes?”
“Is that a question or an answer?”
A beat then, “An answer.”
“Have you done this buying-a-house-without-seeing-it thing before?”
He made a face.
“Oh my God,” she exclaimed. “That’s a yes. How many times?”
A sigh. “Three? No, with this one, four.”
“Four?” And she didn’t know if she was more shocked by the fact that he had four houses or that he’d bought four houses without looking at them.
“I mean, normally I see pictures,” he said quickly. “But I liked the town so much. I liked you and Ry so much, that I told him I didn’t care about the inside or outside so long as it was on this beach.”
She shook her head. “That’s why the sign was down,” she said. “I thought Brian came to his senses, that Alberto had worked some magic with him, but of course, he didn’t. Brian’s not capable of sense and Alberto would have called me back with news if he had any.” She rubbed her temples. Fuck, what a mess. She’d have to move after all. Luckily, she didn’t think Finn would make her do it today, but—
“I’ll call today and take care of it.”
“Take care of what?” she asked.
“Selling you the house back.”
Relief before her heart sank deeper. She couldn’t afford to buy the house back, even with the check in her pocket, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to