Chapter Three
SHANE WAS ON the phone the next morning, when Bayley finally woke to make her way into the kitchen. He seemed quite distressed and animated but she couldn't piece together what he was discussing from his side of the conversation. Pouring herself a cup of coffee, she instead went to her computer, waking it from sleep to check her daily news sources.
For over an hour, he paced around their apartment, talking to whoever was on the other end of the line. He disappeared into the bedroom for a while and she didn't hear much of anything, but his constant movement and fidgeting with whatever he could absentmindedly pick up was making it impossible for her to do any real work. After exhausting all of her regular blog feeds and reloading each of her social networks for the tenth time, she finally got up and tried to catch his attention.
“Is everything okay?” she mouthed, so as not to be heard by the other party on the call.
He shook his head no and raised his index finger to indicate that he'd only be one minute longer. “Okay, I understand... Yes... Of course, Mom... I love you too... I will... Okay... Bye.”
“What was that all about?”
Shane fell heavily into his work chair and looked up at her as though just noticing her in the room for the first time.
“My great-aunt is dead.”
“You have a great-aunt? I don't think you've ever told me about her.”
He ran his hand through his hair and stared at the far wall. He was only
half-there
in the room with her, and she was having a difficult time gauging exactly how affected he was by this news.
“I didn't really know her that well. No one in the family really did. She and grandma never really got along and when grandma died, I think we all just sort of forgot about great-aunt Helen.”
“Is there going to be a funeral?” She pulled out her own office chair and sat across from him.
“No. She'd made arrangements to have her remains cremated before any of the family was notified. Her ashes have already been interred in an old family plot and she specifically requested that there be no gathering for the purpose of mourning.”
“It sounds like she really planned this all out.”
“My mother said the rest of the family is quite upset. No one got along with her, but now everyone is mad about her cutting them out of everything. I guess she donated all of her money to charity in the end.”
“So no one gets anything?”
“Not exactly. She left me her house.”
Bayley's mouth opened, but she couldn't quite find the words to ask what that meant for them. She reached out to take Shane's hands in hers and squeezed them to comfort him.
“Great-aunt Helen was a bit of an eccentric lady, but she was also quite wealthy. She donated nearly a million dollars to a children's hospital and the only thing left
now
is her old house. I don't even know if I've met her before. I have this vague memory of her coming to visit when I was young, but that was so long ago. I'm really not sure why she left it to me.”
“Maybe this is a sign that things are supposed to work out for us. Wouldn't it be great for us to have a proper home of our own?”
Shane looked around their apartment, taking in the clutter and the tight space. “It would, but it's not that simple. The house is out in the country and it's a little run down. There's also the matter of the inheritance and future property taxes. It would actually cost us more every month to live there than it does here, and we'd be far away from the friends and lives we've made for ourselves.”
“Couldn't we sell it and use the money to help us buy something here?”
“I guess. With the location and the state of the real estate market, it's a long shot to sell right now, though. My mother suggested I hold on to it for at least a few years before trying to sell it.” He swiveled in his chair and pressed the power button on his computer monitor. “Here. She said the lawyer was going to email me some information.”
He clicked through to his email and downloaded a folder containing several legal documents and a few image files. He promptly double-clicked the image files, and they both gasped softly when the first photo of the house loaded on the screen. It was a large old three story house that was bigger than the small apartment complex they currently lived in. Large oak trees blocked some of the view, but it was clear that this old house was more of a mansion than the simple cottage or farmhouse they'd imagined.
“Maybe we should at least consider moving in,” said Bayley, trying to contain her excitement.
“It wouldn't hurt to go take a look at it.”
“I'll call Erica and ask if we can borrow her car. They mostly use James' car when they go out, and she's offered it to me before. I'm sure she won't mind under the circumstances.”
Shane clicked through the photos. Each room was lavishly appointed with furniture and decorations that looked to be about a hundred years old. They'd want to update several of the pieces, but at least they wouldn't have to worry about trying to furnish such a large house with the meager possessions they currently owned.
“Bayley, this place has six bedrooms and five bathrooms. The kitchen alone is bigger than our entire apartment.”
“Erica said we could borrow the car any time. When do you want to go?”
Clicking away from the photos, Shane opened his calendar and scrolled through the next week of deadlines and appointments. “I've got a few days before my next major push. Should we go today? If we leave after lunch, we can be there before it gets dark out.”
“I don't see why not. I don't have any assignments right now, so we might as well just go look at it.”
Bayley reached over Shane and hit the keyboard combination to tab back to the photos. Clicking through each of the shots depicting the interior, she began to giggle. “I'm sorry, I know you just lost a family member but this place is incredible! Can you believe it's
ours?
”
A smile spread across Shane's lips. “It is pretty amazing. I'd be more upset about losing my great-aunt, but honestly, I barely knew she existed and I can't believe she wanted me to have this place.”
“We'd better pack if we're going to leave in a few hours. I'll fix us some lunch and tell Erica we'll be by to pick up the car at one. Does that work for you?”
Shane mumbled a confirmation and scrolled through the photos one last time. Their relationship had been tested on an almost daily basis by their lack of money and the strain of sharing such a small space, and now, for something like this to have happened just seemed too incredible to believe. A knot of excited tension formed in his stomach, and he went to throw some clothes into an overnight bag.
This could be the break we both desperately need,
he thought to himself as he pulled a few shirts out of his drawer. It could finally be a way to start moving forward instead of barely getting by.
The moment Sandra Ross held her first romance novel when she was ten, she knew she was going to write romance. At thirty now, a prolific reader and a freelance writer, she's since then expanded her preferences from just romance to romance with a dash of now trending sub-genres--paranormal, fantasy, sci-fi even, and erotica. She loves challenging herself and would write on a dare. On a normal day, she would be found in her herb garden collecting spices for her kitchen or ingredients for her potions; in her huge eclectic Provencal kitchen with the big modern oven cooking pots and pans of food for her family of one husband and three kids (an ardent daughter and two boisterous sons) that'll probably last for weeks; in her library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and an e-reader in her hands as she reads the latest erotic hit; or scribbling pages upon pages of different erotic lifestyles, searching for the one that feels like it was inspired by just the right mix of passion, story line, and sex. Aside from these activities, the rest of the time she'd be found in front of her laptop typing the latest Sandra Ross concoction for her readers.
About the Book
Love Isn't Blind 2
By Sandra Ross
Published by Publications Circulations LLC
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