Stormy Surrender - By Nicole Andrews Moore Page 0,20
she was before. In fact, Marti mused, everyone but Joey had been really warm and inviting. Or maybe it was just the men who were so difficult. Luckily, she was married so she wouldn’t have to find out. It seemed like the dating pool for the sleepy little town was pretty shallow.
“Hey, gurl,” Deborah called when she saw Marti enter the office. “So, did you find anything you might like to look at?”
Marti beamed. “There is one that I am dying to see. Can we go look at Dogwood Lane?”
Tilting her head to the side, Deborah looked at Marti. “You do know that house needs a lot of work, right?”
Smiling, Marti nodded her head enthusiastically. “I want to keep busy. I want to make a place my own. And remodeling a big old southern home is my dream.”
Deborah opened her mouth to talk to her once more, but decided that words alone were simply not going to sway Marti. She’d take her to the house and let her see from there. That house had been on the market for over five years. In that time, windows had been broken, it had fallen into deeper decay, and the chimney had crumbled some in the back. The porch was starting to resemble Swiss cheese. The plumbing was suspect. The electrical was worse. And though it had once been the glory of the street, maybe even the whole town, someone could easily make a case that it should be condemned. Shoot. She knew of at least one person who had. Joe would not be happy as long as that house continued to stand. But…he might get over it if someone brought it back from such a state disrepair.
They hopped in Deborah’s gray Honda Civic that she had parked out in front of the realty office. She locked the door behind them after flipping the sign explaining that she was out showing homes at the moment.
“People don’t mind?” Marti asked, gesturing to the closed sign.
“Nah,” she replied, waving her hand to dismiss that notion. “There really aren’t enough people around for it to matter. The town isn’t what it used to be.”
“Oh, well, when I saw that they were expanding the roads and building sidewalks…” Marti’s voice trailed off.
“This town had money that had to be used up. And that’s how they decided to spend it. I swear that someone read a marketing book on our town council and is applying the ‘fake it until you make it’ theory to town planning.” Deborah chuckled. She had pulled up in front of the house on Dogwood Lane. The property looked as forlorn and dilapidated as she remembered. She exited the vehicle, slammed the door, and watched Marti for a reaction.
The woman was completely enchanted. She was walking around and practically floating on air.
“You’ll need these,” Deborah said, passing her to keys. “Now be careful. There’s no one to sue if you get hurt.” She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. She had been in that house a hundred…maybe even a thousand times. It was a happy home, filled with love and laughter. There were holiday parties that took up the entire first floor of the home in the winter and garden parties out back in the spring and summer. The ladies garden club used to meet there. So many happy memories. And then, Mrs. Stowe passed away. She was the heart and soul of that home. Mr. Stowe was the last in the line, since their son had died in the war and he was an only child in a line of only children. There was no one to pass the home onto. There was no one to maintain it when he gave up. And as the house fell into shambles, so did the rest of the town. It might be nice to see it restored to its former glory.
Before walking up the front steps, Deborah turned and looked at the house across the street, the Masters place. She knew from the truck in the driveway that Joe was home and she couldn’t help but wonder if he was watching this. She smiled reassuringly in the direction of his front windows just in case, then turned and headed into the house.
“Have you seen this place?” Marti was calling from upstairs. “I swear it’s the house that time forgot.” She went from room to room, opening doors with glass handles, squealing in delight at the claw footed tub she found in the upstairs bathroom.