With Emily out of town, Boone figured now would be a good time. It would provide just the distraction he needed. Since he wasn’t counting on Emily’s quick return despite her promise, he suggested, “Monday, the day after, if you can pull it together.”
“I’ll make it happen,” Pete promised.
And with luck, Boone thought, by the time they were back, Emily would be home.
* * *
Naturally Emily’s flight connections hadn’t gone as smoothly as she’d hoped, so she arrived Monday at mid-day, too late to meet Sophia at home. She had to go directly to the property under consideration for the safe house. In a way, it was probably better. Sophia hadn’t been able to color her expectations about the property. She would see it with fresh eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” she apologized to Sophia and the two women with her, one from the board of directors of the shelter, the other a Realtor. “The flight from Atlanta was cancelled. I had to wait till this morning for another one.”
She glanced past the women to the house. Built on a sizable corner lot, she could immediately imagine its potential, but it required a real stretch of her imagination. Right now the yard was overgrown and littered with trash. The paint on the stucco exterior was peeling, so that patches of an original turquoise color showed through a more recent faded pink. The downstairs windows were behind bars and mostly broken. The concrete porch steps were crumbling and dangerous.
Emily glanced at Sophia and lifted a brow. “Seriously?”
Sophia only grinned at her. “Oh, don’t even try to pretend you’re not intrigued,” Sophia chided. “You know you can’t resist a challenge like this, Emily.”
Emily tried to keep her expression dismayed, but couldn’t. Sophia knew her too well. “How’s the interior?”
“Worse than the outside,” the board chairman said direly. Marilyn Jennings, the wife of a major movie studio president, didn’t look hopeful.
“But promising,” Taylor Lockhart argued, spinning it as only an excellent Realtor possibly could. “Right, Sophia?”
“Beyond promising,” Sophia insisted optimistically. “Emily, you’re going to love it. I know it.”
“Then let’s take a look,” Emily said, following them inside.
Almost immediately, she saw the room that Sophia had envisioned as a children’s playroom. The kitchen, though a disaster of outdated appliances, peeling linoleum and obviously rusty plumbing, was roomy enough for a large communal table.
In fact the biggest recommendation for the entire house was its size. All of the downstairs rooms could accommodate multiple adults with children underfoot. The drawback was the lack of a downstairs bathroom.
Upstairs there were a half-dozen bedrooms large enough for a mother and child to live comfortably, or perhaps two children with the use of bunk beds. One sunny room was large enough for, perhaps, a mother with three smaller children. Emily could already envision trying to make maximum use of the space and turning each room into something homey and comfortable with simple furniture, bright colors and textures. That, she knew, would be a godsend for many of these single-mom families fleeing bad situations. They needed a safe, clean, comfortable environment, not luxury. The bedrooms would give them privacy. The playroom, living room and yard would give them much-needed space.
“There are only two bathrooms,” she noted. “That’s a problem. With this many people, we should have at least three, and four would be better. I’m not sure how we can do that without giving up one of the bedrooms. I’ll have to check into code requirements.”
“Come with me,” Sophia said, leading the way to a door at the end of the hall. She opened it to reveal a sizable storage closet. “Could you work with this? It’s right next to one of the existing bathrooms, so the plumbing wouldn’t be a nightmare, right?”
Emily studied it thoughtfully. The space wasn’t huge, but it would certainly accommodate a sink, toilet and walk-in shower. “I’ll get with the plumber and see what he thinks,” she said, making a note on her phone, where she’d already stored other observations and preliminary measurements, along with photos of every room they’d been in.
“Want to see the attic?” the Realtor asked.
Emily’s excitement stirred. “There’s an attic?”
Taylor grinned. “Wait till you see.”
Though access now was through a pull-down staircase, that could easily be changed to something more permanent, Emily thought, making another note. As she climbed the steps and emerged into a huge room filled with sunlight, she gasped.
“Two more bedrooms, at least,” she said at once.
“Or a dormitory style room with a bath for the older kids,” Sophia suggested. “A room with beds and desks, so they can study. It would give the moms and the teens both a little more privacy.”
Emily nodded. “Not coed, of course.”
“Of course,” Sophia agreed.
“Some moms won’t be comfortable being separated from their kids,” Marilyn commented. “They need to know they’re close and safe.”
“The little ones, for sure,” Sophia said. “But the teens? I think they need this tiny little taste of independence.” She regarded her friend with a coaxing smile. “We’ll talk about it some more, okay?”
“And you’ll win,” Marilyn responded with an air of resignation. “You always do.”
“Only because I’m so often right,” Sophia joked. “Okay, Emily, you’ve seen it all. What do you think? Can you pull off a miracle?”
“Do you still want this open by Thanksgiving?”
“Absolutely,” Sophia said, her expression unyielding.
Emily hadn’t expected any equivocation, and she’d prepared herself for an impossible schedule. “What fun is ordinary when we have a chance to perform a miracle? Let me spend tonight and tomorrow making some calls.” She glanced at the Realtor. “Can I have access again, maybe late tomorrow afternoon, if I can line up some people to take a look and get started?”
The woman chuckled. “You’re asking the wrong person. If the board signs the papers this afternoon, they’ll be able to give you all the access you want.”
“You’re moving that quickly?” Emily asked, her gaze on Sophia.
“We don’t have time to waste. I’ll have a set of keys sent over by courier as soon
