“That was it.”
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll know when we get there.”
“Are we going wine tasting? Are we going to vineyards?”
“No. How’s your grandma doing?”
“She’s fine. She’ll be with us for Christmas. How about your grandma?”
“Blanche isn’t doing that well,” he said. “She’s really deteriorating. She doesn’t make sense a lot of the time, poor old girl. But I think she’s getting along okay at the nursing home. She has always had a gift for making friends. Even if she can’t remember them or their names an hour later.”
“Where are we going?” she asked a bit more forcefully.
“Just up the road. Not very far. San Rafael. Have you been there? It’s really close but I think I only drove through it or past it before. It’s not a bad-looking little town. Good roads, lots of older neighborhoods with real nice yards. Have you? Been there?”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “What’s in San Rafael that you want to show me?”
“Just give me five minutes, Jenn.”
“I don’t know why you don’t just tell me.”
“Okay, look. You gave me an idea and I started looking at houses. I got a Realtor and gave her the parameters—has to be fairly close to work, has to be at least three bedrooms, solid, not run-down. I said I could do a few things, cosmetic things, but I’m not a builder and I can’t do anything major like electrical or plumbing or putting on a new roof. I’ve looked at a few houses.” He whistled. “They’re pricey. But my dad left me some money, and my mom told me when they originally wrote their wills they wanted to help us afford a house. Because it’s so hard to buy a house in California. So, I had a little money, I have a great job, I looked around. And I found this sweet little house in a nice neighborhood. The houses are kind of old but the owners aren’t—most of the neighborhood is young.”
“You’ve been looking at houses?”
“This is the block. Look how nice it looks and it’s the beginning of winter. The lawns are so neat, the gardens meticulous. Most of the houses have freestanding garages in the back. I know, there are a lot of cars parked on the streets. That’s the one.”
There was a mission-style house, a woman in a suit and heels standing in front on the sidewalk.
“Oh my God, it’s pink!”
“Yeah, that’s a downside,” he said. “Come and see the inside...”
“It’s pink! Not slightly pink. Pepto-Bismol pink!”
“I know, but come on. The inside is amazing.”
He introduced Jenn to Maura Cummings. “Thanks for taking time on a Sunday to show me this house again. I really want Jenn’s opinion before I make a decision.”
“Perfectly reasonable,” Maura said.
“It’s really pink,” Jenn said.
Maura laughed and said, “It sure is. That can go away in a few hours. We can even make it a condition of sale.”
The front door was beautiful, had an arched doorway in the Spanish influence. The foyer was large, the living room and dining room generous, and you could see through the house to a cozy covered patio. The rooms were tiled in burnt-orange Spanish tiles with thick, soft area rugs throughout. The kitchen countertops were off-white quartz. The kitchen was big—work island, breakfast bar and all. It looked as though it had been recently remodeled. To the right of the kitchen was a large bedroom and bath with shower, to the left of the living room, a main bedroom with a large bath containing both tub and shower. There was a third bedroom next to it.
“Three bedrooms, two baths, almost sixteen hundred square feet, recently remodeled kitchen and main bath. The owners had it inspected and it’s in excellent condition.”
“Wow, it really is nice inside,” Jenn said.
Maura walked over to the dining room sliders and opened them. “Take a look out here. The owners enjoyed entertaining outside and went to a lot of trouble to make sure it was attractive and inviting. They will, of course, leave that wonderful gas grill, if you want them to.”
The backyard was lush and expertly trimmed with trees mature enough to block their house from the neighbors’.
“Come look at this,” Mike said, taking Jenn’s hand. He pulled her to the side of the house and showed her a walkway on that side, edged by mature plants, a couple of plum trees and a tall wooden gate.
“And look at the trees. Plum, lemon, lime and peach. And that’s the garage.”