Three Sisters. Сьюзен Мэллери

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      BEING LEFT AT the altar is not for sissies. Aside from the humiliation and hurt, there are actual logistics to worry about. Odds are if a guy is willing to leave you standing alone in front of three hundred of your closest friends and relatives, not to mention both your mothers, he isn’t going to sweat the little stuff like returning the gifts and paying the caterer. Which explained why three months after going through that exact experience, Andi Gordon was putting her life savings into a house she’d only seen twice, in a town she’d only visited for seventy-two hours.

      Go big or go home. Andi had decided to do both.

      After signing the final paperwork and picking up the keys, she drove up the hill to the highest point on Blackberry Island and stared at the house she’d just bought. It was known as one of the “Three Sisters.” Three beautiful, Queen Anne–style homes built around the turn of the last century. According to the Realtor, the house on the left had been restored perfectly. The ice-cream colors reflected the style and fashion of the year it was built. Even its garden was more traditionally English than casual Pacific Northwest. A girl’s bike leaned against the porch, looking modern and out of place.

      The house on the right was also restored, but with less period detail. The slate-gray trim framed stained-glass windows and there was a sculpture of a bird taking flight in the front yard.

      The house in the middle still had a For Sale sign planted in the unkempt grass. While like the others in style and size, the house she’d bought had little else in common with its neighbors. From the roof, with missing shingles, to the peeling paint and broken-out windows, the house was a testament to neglect and indifference. If the building hadn’t been historic, it would have been torn down years ago.

      Andi had seen the seller’s disclosure—listing all the problems with the house. It was pages long, listing every major issue, from an electrical upgrade done twenty years before to lousy and nonfunctioning plumbing. The building inspector Andi had hired to look over the place had given up halfway through and returned her money. Then her agent had tried to show her a lovely condo overlooking the marina.

      Andi had refused. She’d known the second she saw the old place that it was everything she’d been looking for. The house had once been full of promise. Time and circumstance had reduced it to its present condition—unloved and abandoned. She didn’t need a degree in psychology to understand she saw herself in the house. She understood the pitfalls of believing if she fixed the house, she would also be fixing herself. But knowing and doing, or in this case not doing, weren’t the same thing. Her head might be busy pointing out this was a mistake of mammoth proportions, but her heart had already fallen in love.

      Given her recent, very public broken engagement, falling for a house seemed a whole lot safer than falling for a man. After all, if the house abandoned her at the altar, she could simply burn it down.

      Now parked in front of the three-story disaster, she smiled. “I’m here,” she whispered, offering the promise to both herself and the house. “I’ll make you whole again.”

      The past three months had been a nightmare of logistics and recriminations. Buying one of the “Three Sisters” had given her something else to think about. Emailing documents for her loan was a lot more fun than explaining to her second cousin that yes, after dating for over ten years, Matt really had left her at the altar. He had actually said their decision to marry had seemed sudden and that he’d needed more time. And yes, he had run off to Las Vegas two weeks later, marrying his receptionist. She refused to think about the conversations she’d had on the subject with her mother.

      But knowing that she would soon be leaving Seattle for Blackberry Island had kept her going. She’d focused on her escape. Then she’d packed up her place in the city and headed north.

      Andi squeezed the keys her real estate agent had handed her, feeling the metal dig into her skin. The pain brought her back to the present, to this moment where there were only possibilities.

      She got out of her car and stared at the broken house. But instead of boarded windows and a sagging porch, she saw what it would be. New. Shiny. A home people would admire. Not a castoff. Because when the house was restored, Andi could call her mother and talk about that. It would be a far better conversation than listening to the woman list everything Andi had messed up in her life. Like not allowing Matt to guide her into changing herself and how she’d foolishly let a good man get away.

      Andi turned to admire the view. On a clear day the water of Puget Sound sparkled. Granted, clear days were relatively rare in this part of the country, but Andi was okay with that. She liked the rain. The gray, drizzly sky, the squish of her boots against the sidewalk. All that gloom made her appreciate the sunny days.

      She turned west, looking out over the sound. The houses had a perfect view. They’d originally been built by sea captains, oriented to watch the ships sail in. In the late 1800s, seafaring had still been important to the area, not yet overtaken by the lure of logging.

      This was right, she thought happily. She belonged here. Or she would belong, with time. If the renovations started to get to her, she would simply look at her view. The dance of the water, the peninsula beyond were far different from the high-rises of downtown Seattle. The city might only be a couple of hours away by car, but it was another planet when compared to the small town that was Blackberry Island.

      “Hello! Are you the one who bought the house?”

      Andi turned and saw a woman walking toward her. She was of average height, with long dark red hair that flowed halfway down her back. She wore jeans and clogs, with an ivory cable-knit sweater that just grazed her hips. Her face was more interesting than pretty, Andi thought as she approached. High cheekbones and large green eyes. Her pale skin was probably a result of both genetics and a complete lack of sun exposure since the previous September.

      “Hi. Yes, I am.”

      The woman smiled. “Finally. That poor place. It’s been so lonely. Oh, I’m Boston. Boston King.” She pointed to the house with the sculpture of the bird on the lawn. “I live there.”

      “Andi Gordon.”

      They shook hands. Weak sunlight broke through the clouds and highlighted what looked like a dark purple streak in Boston’s hair.

      Andi fingered her own dark hair and wondered if she should do something as dramatic. The most she’d ever managed was a trim.

      “Any relation to Zeke King?” Andi asked. “He’s the contractor I’ve been emailing about the house.”

      Boston’s expression brightened. “My husband. He and his brother own a local firm here on the island. He’d mentioned he’d been in touch with the new owner.” She tilted her head. “But he didn’t say anything about you, and I’m dying to know the details. Can you spare a few minutes? I just put on a fresh pot of coffee.”

      Andi thought about the cleaning supplies in the back of her SUV. With the moving van arriving in the morning, she had plenty to do to get the place ready. But there were only three houses on the small cul-de-sac, СКАЧАТЬ