Page 5 of Who’s Playing You (In The Nick of Time #1)

I called Joyce as soon as I got off the draft stage and told her I was finally ready to buy Scottie’s dream house. Well, the dream house she’ll never admit is her dream house.

Scottie doesn’t care about stuff , so ergo, she wouldn’t care about a house.

But let’s just say that I’ve made it my business and I can confidently say that Scottie loves Victorian houses for their artistry and design.

She loves the details that time has preserved, and hopefully the stewards of the houses themselves have helped preserve them too.

She loves the big wrap-around porches, the sometimes stained glass windows but definitely the bay windows, and the overall asymmetrical design.

But I knew she actually loved them because she felt a spiritual connection to them.

Once she showed me a picture, one that was well-loved with its ragged edges, of a woman holding a baby in front of a beautiful old Victorian.

Scottie didn’t share who the woman was but said she was the baby, she then divulged that she feels a connection to these types of houses due to the spirit they have.

Scottie’s love for these old houses piqued my curiosity. And the more research I’ve done, the more I fell in love with these beautiful old ladies too. These houses are pieces of art.

And for years I’ve been driving by one in particular.

She’s the queen of them all. She’s just on the outskirts of New Hope, where she sits up high on a hillside overlooking the town and college campus below.

But beyond that, she looks over to the Catskill mountain range to her west while peeking glimpses toward the Hudson River in her eastern direction.

She also sits on a plot of land that’s over 100 acres, half of which is an apple orchard.

There are also horse stables and other old barns and structures with trails that zig-zag all throughout the property.

It’s all been neglected for way too long, sadly.

I’ve been itching to breathe new life into it and make it shine once more.

I had once heard Scottie tell Nat that apple picking was her favorite part of fall and that she had always dreamt of owning a horse.

This farm had both, and that was just one of the many reasons that it was perfect for Scottie and me.

But Joyce has known the deal since I first met her.

She knew that I wanted this house, but that I was waiting on a “deal” to go through so I could buy it.

I’m not sure if she took me seriously at first. But the closer that I got to the draft, the more often I was touching base with her and having her start working up my offer.

The very next day after the draft, once I’d signed with the Rage, she submitted my offer to the owners. It was full asking price - cash - so long as we closed in 30 days or less.

The property had been on the market for over two years, apparently no one wanted to take on one hundred acres with an old apple orchard. The property was an outlier because people either wanted up to 50 acres or above 200, so this property had a lot working against its sale.

Beyond that, it was considered a liability by some due to the chemicals that were the norm to spray the apple trees with in the 80s through the early 2000s.

But I’d done my research, and the Smith family, who’d owned the property for two generations, were naturalists.

They never used any chemicals beyond purely natural ones.

But I was more than happy to have everyone believe their inspectors and insurance agents or whoever else provided them with information, because it kept the property on the market until I was able to snag it.

I had also done my research about the amount of work that would need to be done.

All said and done, the house wasn’t in horrible condition.

It just needed upgrading and some TLC, which it immediately got.

The very day I got the keys, I had a construction crew at the property.

After all, I needed my new place set up and up to my standards by the time camp started. And they got it done.

The place is gorgeous. Think Victorian age meets Scandinavian modern.

I doubted that the construction crew would be able to pull all the permits and not just make the renovations and upgrades, but to redo all of the bathrooms and kitchen.

But alas, it was all done with two days to spare on their timeline.

I rewarded the company heftily with a bonus, but they had already turned their efforts to finishing the infinity pool, which had been an additional item and not on the house’s timeline.

I’d always dreamt of having a pool in my backyard, and honestly, it was also the best form of exercise so I deemed it a necessary luxury once everything else on the farm was fixed, renovated and updated.

The queen had now been restored to her prior glory, and then some!

She’d never shone so bright. The queen was now ready for my queen.

And I wondered if Scottie had noticed that she’d sold and was being given a second chance at life.

I’d find out soon enough because I was getting ready to make my next move.