How could she be ready to move on to another house when they still owned this one? Aaron was a one-house-at-a-time man. He needed to see this one through to the end before he could focus on the next one.
“What time are you meeting my dad?” Bonnie asked, moving the brochures back to where she had them after he moved them an inch to the right. “You know you can’t be here when the open house starts.”
He’d been told that repeatedly. Everyone was so worried he was going to oversell the place. He had to trust that Bonnie knew what she was doing, so Sasha and David were coming to get him and they were going to shoot pool until the open house was over.
“They should be here any minute.”
“Wow! Look at this place!” Sasha’s voice boomed through the house. “It looks so different with stuff in it.”
“Please get him out of here before he wears a path into the wood floors with his pacing. Go, have fun, and when you come back, I’ll tell you all about the nice people who want to make an offer.”
Aaron scanned the open living area one more time for any noticeable flaws. There were none. This place was perfect. He left with Sasha to meet up with David, who was sitting in the car.
“You did good, kid. For your first flip, you handled all the setbacks with grace,” David said once they got to the pool hall and ordered their round of drinks. “I hope you feel like you learned something.”
“I learned don’t go poking wasps’ nests behind old pantry doors, never give Bonnie a sledgehammer and don’t trust this guy—” he pointed at Sasha “—to be paying attention when using a nail gun.”
Sasha tried to defend himself. “It was one time. And it was Bonnie’s fault for distracting me.”
“Well, hopefully you learn from some of my successes as well as my slipups,” David said.
“You were a great teacher.” Aaron held up his glass. “I can’t wait to see what we learn on the next house.”
“When we can hire a bigger crew,” Sasha said, raising his.
“And can use local contractors,” David added, holding up his ice water.
“And don’t have anyone breaking in to wreck it right at the end.” Aaron clinked his glass against theirs. “Seriously, I could not have asked for two better people to get me through this first flip. I really appreciate all your hard work. Drinks and pool are on me today.”
Sasha and David readily agreed to that. They spent the next couple hours laughing and giving each other a hard time. Before he knew it, the open house was over and Aaron could go back and find out how things went.
David gave him a little pep talk as they walked inside. “Now, just remember, an open house hopefully brings in some potential buyers, but it also attracts nosy neighbors and people who want to see what you did to update the place. You’re going to get people looking at this place for the next couple weeks. Open houses give Bonnie feedback. Don’t be upset if people don’t go write up offers today.”
Keep expectations low was the overall message Aaron was getting from that little speech. Bonnie was cleaning up in the kitchen when they arrived.
“How did it go? Please tell me it went well even if you have to lie to me.”
She wore an easy smile. “It went great. Lots of people. Lots of questions. Lots of interest. I had a few Realtors walk through so they could speak about it to potential buyers down the road. They thought we had it priced right. They loved a lot of the things you did here. It was a good day.”
“Anyone talk about making an offer?” he asked, forgetting all about lowering those expectations.
“I did have one couple say they might go home and talk about it.”
“Really?” Sasha said. “But did you have anyone actually write up an offer like this one?”
Aaron’s brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”
Sasha pulled a folded piece of paper out of his back pocket. “Bonnie and I wrote this up last night. I think you’ll find the offer is quite fair.”
Aaron snatched it out of Sasha’s hands. Sure enough, his redheaded friend wanted to buy the house for five thousand dollars over the asking price.
“You want to buy this house?”
“I love this house. I love this town. My family is here. My friends. I think it’s time I settle down, and I can’t think of a better house to do that in than this one.”
Aaron was speechless. He wrapped his arms around Sasha the best he could and hugged that giant of a man hard. “Why did you torture me all day when you knew I had a sale all along?” he asked the three of them.
“We wanted you to have the full experience,” Bonnie said. “You won’t be selling every house to the guys who helped you build it moving forward.”
He knew that would be the case, but he was happy that the first one would be somewhere he would be welcome to visit in the future.
“I guess we can go look at that house on Timberland.”
“Which house on Timberland?” David asked.
“Bonnie wants me to look at a house over there for my next flip.”
“Not the house on Timberland?” David asked Bonnie, who shrugged coyly.
David shook his head and laughed.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Bonnie replied, giving her dad a warning look.
“It’s clearly not nothing. What’s up with the house on Timberland?”
“It’s her dream house.”
“It’s not my dream house. It was my dream house when I was little. Who knows how I’ll feel about it as a grown woman?”
Aaron placed his hands on her hips. “You want me to flip your dream home?”
“So much for flipping houses your crew won’t want to buy,” Sasha noted.
“If I flip your dream home and you buy it, I’m going to have to live in
