Chapter 6

The second house sat three concessions over, a white frame place with a sagging porch and a For Sale sign that had been in the yard long enough for the grass to grow around the post. Emily had seen it online and asked Cole to walk it with her before she called the listing agent. He knew the building. Everyone local did. It had been empty two winters.

They went late Friday afternoon. The air was heavy and still. Cole parked in the rutted drive and they walked the exterior first. Foundation looked better than the porch. Roof would need work. The back of the lot sloped toward a line of old maples and a tangle of uncut grass.

“Kitchen’s been stripped,” he said, peering through a side window. “Someone started and quit. Wiring’s a gamble. You’d be buying a shell with good bones.”

“That’s what I want. Fix it, sell it. Same as the next one, if this works.”

Inside, the rooms were bare and close. Original floors under years of cheap laminate. A staircase with a decent banister. Two bedrooms up, one down that would make a proper primary once the walls were honest again. She took photos with resale in mind: light, layout, what a buyer would walk into when the work was done. He tested joists with his heel and named what would have to come out.

They were in the backyard when the sky broke.

There was almost no warning. One low rumble, then rain like someone had dropped a lake on the field. It hit so hard it stung. Emily swore and they ran for the porch, already soaked before they reached the steps. The overhang was narrow. They crowded under it, laughing because there was nothing else to do, water streaming off the roof in a sheet an inch from their feet.