“Yeah, well, you don’t know my family. It’s complicated. Because my granddad, when he died, left the house to my dad and his two cousins, one of which I’ve never even met. From the time I was a little kid, while my grandparents were alive, my whole family, all the cousins and aunts and uncles, we used to spend every summer at the Tybee house. But Mavis and my dad never got along, and she super hated my mom. There was a big fight about the house, because she was too cheap to spend the money to keep things up. Like, wouldn’t even allow us to put central air in the place, after my dad offered to pay for it. Then, after Hurricane Irma hit, and the roof got blown off, it turns out she hadn’t kept up the insurance. It was gonna cost, like, forty thousand to put a new roof on the place. The up-north cousin refused to pony up for it, and Mavis and my dad got into a huge fight. That’s when she changed the locks, and that’s when the house went to shit.”
Hattie was at a loss for words. “Sorry, but that’s not my problem. If your family wanted to save the house, they could have. But you didn’t. You could have bid more money to buy it, but you didn’t.”
She put the truck in reverse, but Holland Creedmore didn’t move. His big, meaty hands were clamped on the truck’s window. “You’re right,” he said. “Absolutely right. Look, I’m willing to buy the house back. Right now.” He dug into the back pocket of his jeans and brought out a checkbook. “Okay? Say, forty thousand? That’s a sweet ten-thousand-dollar profit right there.”
“No, thanks,” Hattie said. “I bought the house fair and square and I plan to restore it. Gotta go now.” She began to slowly back out of the parking space. He loosened his grip on the door, but kept walking right beside her.
“Okay, fifty thousand. I’ll write you a check right here.”
“Not interested,” Hattie repeated. She pulled onto Butler Avenue. When she looked in the rearview mirror, Creedmore was standing in the middle of the street, shouting at her. She sped away.
14
Buyer Beware
Shortly after noon on Thursday, Mo Lopez’s phone dinged. He looked down at the incoming text photo.
It was a house. A huge, half-dead palm tree obscured the front of the wooden structure. There was definitely a front porch. Two stories, with the remnants of a screened porch on the second floor. Boarded-up windows and doors and a sign that read NO TRESPASSING, THIS PROPERTY CONDEMNED.
The message was from Hattie Kavanaugh.
Is this enough of a fixer-upper for you? Hope so because I just bought it.
His fingers raced across the keyboard.
Awesome. It’ll be the ultimate BEFORE. Where is it? Are you there now? Don’t touch a thing. Have you been inside? Send me the address.
Fifteen minutes later he was on the road to Tybee Island.
* * *
Hattie and Cass sat in the truck’s cab, parked in the sandy driveway. The bed of the pickup was piled with tools. Tug’s truck was parked on the weedy shoulder of the road.
He’d been appalled when Hattie called to tell him what she’d done.
“A condemned house? Are you out of your ever-loving mind? Sight unseen?”
“It was the only house I could afford,” Hattie told him. “Please don’t be mad at me, Dad. I know we can turn this into something. Think about it—a hundred-year-old house on the Back River. How many original houses are there on that stretch of Chatham Avenue? Think of the sunset views. Of porches, looking out on Little Tybee? It’s gonna be magical, I swear.”
“Think of the sunsets?” Tug retorted, with a snort of disbelief. “Think of the termites. The rot, the decay. The bad wiring, crappy plumbing. I bet it doesn’t even have heat, let alone air-conditioning. Mother of God, Hattie! Think of the money it’ll cost. Thirty thousand’s no bargain if we have to sink another five hundred thousand just to bring it up to code. And no bank’s gonna touch a project like this. Not with a ten-foot pole. Not with a twenty-foot pole.”
Hattie had anticipated his reaction.
“Mo says the network’s advertisers will give us product in return for on-air plugs. So, like, we’ll get all the HVAC equipment donated by the manufacturers. Same with the kitchen cabinets and appliances, the hardwood flooring, and the insulation. And the paint and the roofing material…”
“And our subs? You think they’re gonna work for free too?”
“I think they’ll at least cut us a break because it’ll be great advertising for them. And Mo says the network will kick in some money for labor and materials.…”