Page 23 of The Summer We Kept Secrets (The Destin Diaries #4)
T essa stepped into Dusty’s home with a whole different mindset than when she’d been here for the open house.
For one thing, she wasn’t late this afternoon, and she really would meet with the selling agent.
For another, after the Realtor gave her an official tour, she had plans for a dinner date with the man who owned the house.
A date that Tessa was looking forward to even more than the showing.
She tapped on the front door and it instantly opened, revealing a woman around Tessa’s age with thick brown hair and a sparkle in her espresso eyes.
“Tessa Wylie?” She extended her hand as she opened the door wider. “I’m Lorna Gonzalez, the listing agent. It’s lovely to meet you.”
“Hello, Lorna.” Tessa shook her hand and stepped into the cool house, which felt spotless and staged, and every bit as appealing as the last time—minus the equally appealing owner. “Thank you for the showing, since I missed the open house you held.”
“Oh, it’s my pleasure.” She gestured her into the house and tugged at the lapels of a crisp navy jacket.
“I turned the A/C down to ‘please don’t let me ruin another linen blouse with a hot flash’ level,” she joked.
Then she gestured to Tessa’s arms, bare in a sleeveless dress that she’d picked more for the date than the showing. “But if it’s too cold…”
“I’m fine,” Tessa assured the other woman, glancing around. “Anxious to finally see the place. I don’t need my own agent, do I? Because I’m just starting the process, and I haven’t found one?—”
“Absolutely not,” Lorna assured her. “Let’s take a peek around, and if it isn’t quite what you’re looking for, let me know what is, and I bet I can find it. I know Destin and the whole surrounding area like my own name. I was born and raised here.”
“Really? I spent summers here as a teenager,” Tessa told her. “From Ithaca, New York.”
“Oh, speaking of cold.”
“It is, but our summers in Destin were special. In fact, that’s how I met Dusty—well, he was Dustin then.”
Lorna smiled. “I knew him as Dustin, too, but Kelly pinned the nickname on him and it stuck. She said she refused to be married to Dustin from Destin.”
Kelly…his late wife, Tessa recalled. “So you knew her as well?”
She nodded. “We were friends since childhood,” she said. “Losing her was…hard.”
“I’m so sorry,” Tessa said, reaching out to her. “Dusty hasn’t talked a lot about her, but it’s clear they had a happy marriage.”
“Very much so,” Lorna said. “But years of it were spent with him taking care of her. And I can’t blame him for wanting to leave this house, but I tell you, now? You cannot recognize it as the ranch they bought shortly after they got married. Total gut and reno. Come on, let’s take a tour.”
Tessa appreciated the easy transition back to business, as she followed Lorna into the kitchen. The agent carried a tablet open to the listing but didn’t need it for reference, moving through the house as if she knew every inch of it as well as her own.
Efficient and not at all pushy, Lorna pointed out every feature and all the upgrades to the remodeled kitchen and family room, which was lined with sliding doors that overlooked a deck and a spacious backyard.
A dry spacious backyard.
“Don’t tell me, you were hoping for a pool,” Lorna said, obviously adept at reading a buyer’s expression. “You could easily put one in. There’s plenty of space. Come look.”
Outside was beautiful and lush with palms and foliage, but all Tessa could see was what it wasn’t —the Gulf with sunsets and white sand and an endless horizon.
“You don’t look thrilled,” Lorna said, eyeing her.
“I’m living in a lovely place on Gulf Shore Drive.”
“ Ooh . Wear your money.” Then her eyes widened with a soft intake of breath. “And you’re selling?”
“It’s not mine,” she admitted. “I’m staying with friends—actually, the family we vacationed with when I was a kid. They owned the house and did a massive rebuild.”
“On Gulf Shore?” She narrowed her eyes, thinking. “The three-level showstopper with turquoise shutters? Not far from the marina?”
“That would be the one.”
“Oh. How could you leave?” She pressed her hand to her chest, reflecting Tessa’s precise sentiments.
“Because it’s not my home,” she replied, realizing yet again how much that bothered her and how ready she finally was to put down roots. “I want to buy but, yes, I’m spoiled by the view and location. I’d give my right arm to be able to see even a sliver of the Gulf.”
“You and everyone else who comes to Destin, or anywhere up and down 30A,” she said, referring to the beach highway that had become synonymous with this part of the Panhandle.
“Can I have a water view, if not water front ?” Tessa asked, already knowing the answer.
“Not for under seven figures and, even then, it’ll likely be a fixer.” Lorna added an apologetic look. “Now, if you’re handy like Dusty…”
“Not in the least.” She glanced back into the house, accepting reality. “So, if I give up water, then I want something new or recently remodeled, close to my friends, and big enough for at least one office to run my business.”
“This house is all of that and more,” Lorna assured her. “Come on, let’s see the rest.”
They continued through the rooms and while Tessa liked it and could even see herself living and working here, it was just a little too…landlocked. And despite an excellent renovation, she knew a man had lived here with his sick and dying wife.
The house simply wasn’t for her.
“Not quite what you want?” Lorna guessed when they worked their way back to the kitchen.
“I’m just starting to see what’s out there, and I’m afraid I’m looking for a unicorn.”
“Not if I’m your agent,” she quipped, gesturing toward the table. “If you don’t want this house, why don’t we get specific about what you do want, and I’ll find it for you?”
Tessa took a seat and let out a sigh. “Okay, but be prepared for a few things. One, I don’t know what I want until I see it.”
“Totally normal.”
Tessa shrugged because maybe it was. “And two, I’ve never owned a home before.”
That made Lorna look up, surprised. “Well, what a wonderful new adventure for you,” she said with the practiced ease of someone who sold for a living. “Let’s make that happen, shall we? I’ll start with a peek at MLS right now. About two thousand square feet and in this price range?”
“Yep.” Tessa leaned back while Lorna tapped the tablet, looking around and thinking more about the man who’d lived here than the square footage.
“I have to admit,” she said, “the last person I would imagine as a caretaker or house remodeler was wild and rowdy Dustin Mathers.”
Lorna smiled and her fingers slowed, following Tessa’s gaze and train of thought. “It was Kelly,” she said. “That woman was like the balm on Dusty’s broken life.”
Tessa frowned, angling her head. “Broken?” she asked. “I just thought he was…immature and maybe a little reckless. I guess I didn’t think it was worse than that.”
“So much more.” Lorna set the tablet down.
“I hope I’m not talking out of school, but since you knew him, it’s only fair you see the side he kept covered.
His father was an alcoholic. A mean one, too.
And his mother? She wasn’t around much. I heard she’d come back now and again, then disappear.
I have no idea why, but I doubt it was good.
Did you ever meet his older brother, Brendan? ”
She knew none of this. Were these people the ghosts mentioned in Vivien’s diary?
Tessa shook her head, her heart already aching for the man she had a date with—something she suspected Lorna didn’t know or she wouldn’t be spilling this much tea.
“Well, you won’t ever meet Brendan because he spent years in prison and came out…rough. Their dad died pretty young, and I honestly thought Dusty was headed in the same direction as his brother but, then, wham . He and Kelly got together and a year later? He was a changed man.”
“Really?” Tessa tried to imagine a woman having that kind of power and patience. “She must have been…something.”
“She was awesome,” Lorna gushed. “Helped him get into school and get a degree, then an advanced degree that led to a very successful therapy practice. He’s volunteered for years at AA, helping people going through what his father did.
Then Kelly got diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, spent her life in and out of the hospital, and he was… everything to her.”
Tessa blinked, her heart cracking with a million different emotions. Pity, admiration, and a new respect for a boy she’d always thought was just young and dumb.
And, if she was being honest, she also felt a twinge of envy, which was shameful, since Kelly was gone and Tessa was sitting here considering buying her house.
Still, she was human and couldn’t help wondering…what would it be like to be loved that way? Well, she knew. Her father had loved her mother that way. But Tessa had never had a relationship like that in her whole life.
So maybe it wasn’t envy, exactly, but a deep and powerful longing. Oh, men had pursued her—always. But no one ever wanted to sacrifice for her. It hurt to think about.
“It all went on for a long time, too, Tessa,” Lorna continued, oblivious to the effect her story was having.
“Through all the years, Dusty never wavered. Not once. My husband and I watched him carry her through that. And then Kelly’s father died, and her mother came to live here, and that woman was no picnic.
She also got very sick, and he took care of both of them.
Gave his mother-in-law his office as her bedroom until the day she died, and ran his counseling practice from the garage back then.
Didn’t sleep much, but he still showed up for everybody. ”
Tessa could feel the prickle at the back of her eyes. She pressed a knuckle gently to one of them. Dusty was changed all right, by life and duty and a history she’d known nothing about.
“That sounds like a lot for one person,” she said.