“Yeah,” Hilde said with a touch of sarcasm. “In a past you’re living out in your present.” Her eyebrows shot up, but then she looked away.
“I love him,” I said quietly, not bothering to look at Hilde as I spoke. Hell, I was a little shocked I’d said it out loud. “I don’t know what a life looks like with him.” I finally looked at her. “But I know I want that life anyway. And you’re going to have to deal with that.”
Hilde took a deep breath.
“He’s not going to hurt me. He’s not going to leave me. I know him. He knows how hard it was on me when he left the first time. He wouldn’t do that again. I trust that.” Nothing I said to her was a question. But my tone was pleading nevertheless.
“You truly believe that?”
I nodded.
There was suddenly a knock on the door, and I gave Hilde only a moment of eye contact before I looked away and walked toward the door.
The man standing in front of me looked familiar, but for the life of me I couldn’t place him.
“Well, hi Sam,” Hilde said as she stepped up beside me. “How are you?”
“Hilde, good to see you.”
And then I remembered him. He’d graduated in Hilde’s class. Sam Clausen.
“Helene, right? Hilde’s younger sister. I remember you.”
I held my hand out to him. “That’s me. The obnoxious little sister.”
He chuckled as he shook my hand, but then his brow furrowed in what appeared to be confusion. “Can’t say I expected to see either of you here. Is Kane around?”
“No. He had to run to town. I was just helping him out with a few things this weekend. Hilde stopped by to bring us some lunch.”
“I see. Glad to see you two are still friends. You two were thick as thieves if I recall.”
I smiled, backing away from the door so Sam could enter. He had a folder in his hand, and as he stepped by me, he commented. “I’m going to be the listing agent on the house. If you’re curious why I’m here.” He laughed. “Mind if I look around. I’d like to take some notes, so I can start researching comps. Haven’t been here since just before he started renovations, so I’d like to see the changes.”
“Of course.”
“Hey, Sam, it was great to see you,” Hilde chimed in. “I’m heading out, but I’m sure I’ll run into you soon enough.” She patted Sam on the back.
“Tell Mark I said hi. Sue and I would love to have you both over for dinner sometime. Mention it to him, will you?”
“I’ll do that. Sounds wonderful.”
Hilde gave me a small hesitant smile, and she squeezed my elbow. The smile I returned likely wasn’t very convincing, and once she was out the door, I sighed. I hung back in the living room as Sam showed himself around, and it wasn’t more than five minutes before he found me again.
“Wow.” His eyebrows shot up. “I’m impressed. He’s made smart decisions in where he chose to put his dad’s money. This is going to significantly increase the sale value.” He was still looking around, and when he finally looked back at me, he smiled. “Oh,” he said as he glanced down to the file folder in his hands. “Almost forgot. These are the absent seller agreement docs he started filling out.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Well, you know, when the seller isn’t expected to be present or easily reachable during the listing period, showing, negotiating and sales process, these documents give me a few additional negotiating rights, so I don’t have to worry about constantly being in contact with the seller.”
I nodded. “Oh, sure. Because his father is in skilled care.”
“Oh, no, Helene. Kane’s the power of attorney. He doesn’t need his father’s permission to sell the home. I mean because Kane isn’t going to be present.”
My heart stopped.
I stared at Sam’s chest blankly for a moment. My pulse was racing, and my stomach seemed to be trying to stuff itself up my esophagus all of a sudden. I was panicking.
“Right,” I feigned understanding, hiding the absolute confusion I was really feeling.
“Has he mentioned to you yet where he’s going? When I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, he knew he wouldn’t be around, but … he couldn’t seem to nail down where he was going to be or how I would be able to reach him. I just thought perhaps he had some additional information on that.”
I stared at Sam, trying to get a response to form on my tongue, but I couldn’t. My brain was simply shutting down. I finally settled on, “A couple of weeks ago? That’s when you spoke to him last about this?”
A couple of weeks. Not a few months ago. Not even one month ago. Only two weeks ago?
“Yeah. Listen, the only reason I ask is that section five specifically requires at least the location of where the seller is going to be and a contact number of someone who can get a message to the seller. I don’t know if he’s going to be somewhere remote or if he simply hasn’t decided where he’s going to be, but given how quickly the renovations are coming together, I’m going to need something soon.” He smiled at me.