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We grab the luggage and all pile into Maxon’s SUV, jumping quickly into house-hunting talk.
“Everything you sent me looks great,” I begin. “I think I know which is the best investment, but I’d like your local insight. I’m also going to hang on to my Seattle condo for a while, see how much I need to travel back and have a base there.”
“Smart. And it will only appreciate,” Griff points out.
“Absolutely.” Maxon nods. “So, based on the listings we sent you, are you leaning more toward a house or a condo?”
“I see the upsides to both.” Then I pause. If Nia marries me, I won’t be the only one living in this place. I should ask her thoughts. Becca never cared, but Nia has an opinion about everything. “What do you think, honey?”
When the endearment rolls off my tongue, she turns a slow, questioning glance at me. Then her eyes widen. Yes, she remembers the last time I said that word to her. I was running my tongue up her neck and telling her that’s what she tasted like. I very much want to have my tongue someplace else on her body right now to see how much sweeter she can be.
“Um…both sound great.”
“But if you had to choose?” I prompt.
She shrugs. “What suits your needs? If you don’t want a yard or the maintenance of a house, a condo is probably the way to go. You like yours now, right?”
I didn’t consider the likability of the unit, only the practicality and suitability for my purposes. I know Nia views living quarters from a totally different perspective. “What do you like? You didn’t go the apartment route. What was your rationale?”
“I’m afraid it’s nothing terribly logical. I can’t stand cookie-cutter stuff. I don’t care much where I live as long as it has character. I’ll take odd and quirky over predictable any day.”
Given the little bit I saw of her cottage, I believe that. I reach into my computer bag and pull out the listings my brothers sent earlier. “What do you think of these? I’ve looked but…”
I’m aware of Maxon watching us in the rearview mirror as I hand the folder to Nia. She opens it and flips to the first description and its accompanying pictures.
“This seems nice,” I prompt her. “A good investment.”
She tries to smile but it’s more like a grimace. “Twenty-nine million dollars?”
“I have the money, and price per square foot is actually an exceptional deal for that corner of Maui.”
“Maybe, but what are you going to do with nine thousand square feet? And an acre? The maintenance alone…”
That’s a reasonable point. “So, too big. Got it.”
“Besides that, look at this place. It’s…”
“Sleek?”
“Island modern?” Maxon suggests from the driver’s seat.
“It looks kind of like a cruise ship. A new one, granted. A nice one…but who lives there?”
Griff laughs, then turns to Maxon. “Told you.”
“Well, since Evan’s place is on the contemporary side, I thought this might be his vibe,” Maxon defends.
“I bought that for the investment. It came decorated.” I was never there enough to change it, and Becca never said she wanted anything different.
“What about this one?” Griff points to one in the stack. “It’s only fifty-five hundred square feet. And you’d be pretty close to me and Britta.”
Nia flips through it halfheartedly. “It’s still twenty million. Sorry. It’s not my money, but I think that’s silly. Plus…it looks a little Golden-Girls-go-on-vacation.”
“What does that mean?” Her reference is lost on me.
“The Golden Girls? TV show about four older women who share a house in Miami? Betty White?” I must still look blank because she sighs. “The decor is little on the eighties side.”
I frown. “The age or the decade?”
