Christmas Home (The Coming Home #6)

9. Ruther

nine

Ruther

R eal estate was in my blood. I knew it was foolhardy. I wouldn’t be in Crawford City long enough to start or manage a new project, but I couldn’t help myself from looking. The little motel facing the local bar at the edge of town was for sale, and it’d caught my attention.

Well, not so much the motel as the fifty acres that came with it. I could tell the property wasn’t attractive to most investors because, behind the motel, the land dropped down into a ravine. There was also an old railroad track that separated the land from downtown.

A quick search online told me it was unlikely the rail line, which came out of Nashville, would ever be restored. More likely, it would go the way of so many other abandoned railways across the country in becoming a running and biking trail.

Of course, that just made it that much more appealing to me.

When Corey looked over my shoulder to see what I was looking at, I quickly closed my laptop, but not before he caught sight of the search.

He squinted but didn’t say anything. I did a lot of research when it came to property. Corey knew it was just how my mind worked. Being stuck here in the little town where so much had happened to me, things I’d far from overcome, it helped to keep my brain busy.

Corey got up to take a phone call, and since I was just across the road from the property, I decided to look for myself.

There was a trail around the motel into the woods—too many years in New York told me not to enter the woods alone. Crawford City didn’t strike me as a place where a lot of dangerous street people posed a threat, but one could never be sure.

Not only that, but lessons from my childhood told me there were snakes. No, I’d just explore from the street.

The ravine wasn’t as bad as I’d thought. It descended quickly, but because of it, there was a natural separation between the land and the commercial development of the motel property. That made a potential residential development possible. I’d have to ask Emanual and Amos what the town needed.

I also remembered that Amos said his son was in construction. Maybe this was something I should consider. I was just about to walk back to the condo to ask Corey to get in touch with Jake about renting the condo long-term when I collided with the handsome guy from the restaurant.

When he bounced off me and hit his head against the building behind him, I immediately reached out to steady him. I can’t say I got romance novel electric shocks as I touched him, but my body certainly took notice.

I took the opportunity to study him close-up. Cropped chestnut brown hair curled stubbornly against his head, making me wonder what it would be like to see those locks grown out. That made me think about running my fingers through them, and just as the heat of the day got significantly hotter, he pulled away and all but ran toward the motel.

“Crap,” I said to myself—way to be a creep. I didn’t really have control over my attraction to him. He was handsome and in every way my type, but he was certainly not looking to get involved. Based on his reaction to me, though, I was almost sure the server had been correct in that he played for my team.

I watched him rush away, then realizing I was still being creepy, I forced myself to move on. The man had not left my thoughts as I entered the condo to see Corey working on his laptop. “Hey, I’ve got a question.”

Corey looked up, and his eyes narrowed again. “You’ve got that look,” he said. I laughed. There was no use denying it. Corey had worked with me long enough to know when I’d found an interesting project.

“Just ask Jake if we can keep the condo longer, and before you get upset, you don’t have to stay. Corey, I need to make peace with this place, and a project will help me do that. Crawford City holds absolute horrors for me. I need to replace that with something else, something good.”

Corey nodded. “I’ll make inquiries, but, boss, if you’re staying, I’ll be here for you.”

My assistant seldom showed anything but professionalism in his demeanor, but for a brief second, I could see his concern. Corey had become so much more to me than an assistant over the years. He’d dealt with my father’s narcissism while he was still alive, helped me through the loss of my cousin, and now, well, Corey was family.

Yes, that was sad because I paid the only person I considered family besides Yamato, who was actually a cousin-in-law, but I knew that relationship would change now too. Yamato was still a young man. He’d been significantly younger than my cousin, and I knew he’d eventually remarry.

Maybe knowing how little family I had left—well, family I associated with—was another reason I needed to come to terms with my childhood. I needed to fill in the gaps in my past so I could move toward my future. Whatever that might look like.