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“No,” Olivia said. “I was with a client, and our meeting ran late, so he drove me over here to pick you up.”
“Oh,” Izzy said.
“Is that okay?”
“Sure. That’s fine.” Izzy hesitated for a second, then got into the back of the car. Olivia got back into her own seat.
“Hey there, Izzy,” Charlie said.
Olivia could have slapped him.
“Hi,” Izzy said. “You’re the client?”
“Charlie Coldwell. Nice to meet you.”
“Hang on,” Izzy said. “I know that name.”
Olivia gritted her teeth.
“Yeah,” Izzy realized. “Your family owns that big mansion by the water.”
“That’s the one,” Charlie said. “Although not for long, thanks to your sister here.”
“You’re selling that house?” Izzy asked, and Olivia saw her eyes widen in the rearview mirror. “Are you serious, Olivia?”
“It’s not that big a deal,” Olivia said. “It’s going to require a lot of fixing up, and I’m advising Mr. Coldwell on how he can best get it ready for resale.” She shot Charlie a glare. The last thing she wanted was for her family to find out the full details of what she was working on before she was ready to tell them. Until she had the money from this sale securely in her bank account, she didn’t want them planning for or dreaming about a windfall. It would make it that much more difficult if something went wrong.
“Oh,” Izzy said. She didn’t appear to be thinking too deeply about it. “That’s cool, I guess. Can I come see the house?”
“If we do an open house, you can come see it,” Olivia said. “Until then, we wouldn’t want to intrude on Mr. Coldwell’s property.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” Charlie said genially.
“See, he wouldn’t mind,” Izzy said.
“We can talk about it later,” Olivia said. There was no way she was having Izzy over to the house. All of her own things were there, and Izzy would figure out in an instant that something strange was going on.
“And you can call me Charlie, by the way, Izzy,” Charlie went on. “Mr. Coldwell is way too formal for me.”
“Okay, Charlie.” Izzy grinned. “If you’re moving out of that big house, are you still going to live here in Old Prescott?”
“No, he’s not,” Olivia said. “He’s going to be moving back to Boston, which is where he’s from. He inherited that house when a family member died. He doesn’t live here permanently.”
“Well, I don’t know,” Charlie countered. “Old Prescott is really nice. I’ve always liked this town, and now that I’ve been spending a little more time here, I’m starting to think it might be a good place for me permanently. What do you think, Izzy? You’ve lived here all your life, right? Do you like it?”
“Yeah, I like it,” Izzy said. “I think it’s good if you like small towns. But I’ll leave when it’s time for college.”
“Where do you want to go to college?”
“I’m thinking of the west coast.”
This was news to Olivia. “You are?”
“California,” Izzy said dreamily. “I could learn how to surf.”
“Izzy, you’d be going to college to get an education. Not to surf.”
“Learning how to surf would be an education, Olivia.”