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WE FOLLOW LUCILLE, the real estate agent, down a dirt road for about a mile. The road is full of large divots from the recent rains. Our SUV is bouncing all over the road, but nothing compared to the sedan we’re following.
“I’m already not liking this property.” Gabriel maneuvers the SUV around another large crater in the dirt road. “I don’t want the girls to navigate this road.
“Agreed.” Matt says as he grabs the overhead handle from the front passenger seat. “If we decide on this land, then the first thing we do is pave this road.”
The sedan ahead of us pulls over to the left and stops in a cloud of dust. Gabriel parks the SUV. “Well, this is remote. It has that going for it.”
We climb out and approach Lucille. “I know it doesn’t look like much, but imagine it cleared with your beautiful new homes built.” She waves her chubby hand through the air across the area. “Gabe, you could put a beautiful Victorian home over there, and Matt, you could put a wonderful Craftsman over there.” She skips over me because she thinks since I brought my brothers out to see the property that I’m already sold. She’d be wrong. This property would take at least a year, maybe two, to get it habitable.
“How big is this property?” Matt asks.
“Sixty acres all zoned agricultural. You can place a barn on that side of the property so the kids can have horses.” Lucille points to the other side of the property. “There are great schools both public and private and, of course, there're no homeowners’ association, so you’ll save money there.”
I laugh internally because we all pay homeowners’ association fees at the condo, but Gabriel owns the building. She’s shooting herself in the foot there. I see Gabriel roll his eyes.
“What about utility lines?” I ask as I watch Matt wander into the brush a bit.
Lucille turns to me, “Great question. The utility lines have been run, water, sewer, gas, and electric, to the property line at the main road we turned off of. You’ll need to have them run to your homes once built.”
The four of us are just wandering quietly through the brush when suddenly I hear it. I turn to Matt and Gabriel and they’re looking at me. They heard it, too.
“What the hell was that?” I turn to Lucille and see she’s blushing.
We hear it again. “Was that a lion roaring?” Matt’s voice is a full octave higher than normal?
The three of us are all backing out of the brush and working our way to the SUV. I’ve got my hand resting on my Glock that’s in the small of my back.
“Relax, gentlemen. Yes, those are lion roars from the drive-thru safari on the other side of the property. This property is adjacent to theirs. Periodically, when the wind is just right, you can hear some animals. Charming, isn’t it?”
We turn to each other and we all know what we are each thinking. This property is a big ‘Nope’.
“Lucille, why don’t you lead the way to the other property with the model homes? We’ll follow you.” Gabriel gets in the SUV as Matt and I follow him.
As he navigates around the potholes and divots in the dirt road on the way back to the main road, Matt says what we are all thinking. “Just to be clear, I’m not living next to a lion’s den where the potential, no matter how small, of a lion escaping and eating my family.”
“Agreed.” Gabriel and I say in unison.
“I don’t want to frighten the girls when they hear that at night. The last thing I want to do is build a house and then have to move because my children refuse to get out of the car.”
About a half hour later, Lucille turns off of the main road and onto a smaller road, but at least this one is paved.
“I’m liking this one already.” Up ahead of us, I see the end of the road and it’s a cul-de-sac. Each home is next door, but about an acre apart. The homes are all built, but sitting in the last phase of construction. There’s no landscaping, fencing, a driveway, or paint. There are also no construction crews here. Lucille was right, there’s still work to be done.
We pull onto one pad where a driveway should be and park. I’m instantly drawn to the home all the way to the left, but we all three follow Lucille to the front of the middle home.
“All three homes are similar in size, around ten thousand square feet each, give or take. These two have five bedrooms and five bathrooms. That one over there has five bedrooms and six bathrooms.” Lucille points to the house on the right. “I’m going to let you boys wander. All three homes are open for exploring. Take your time. I’ve got to make some phone calls, so if you need me, I’ll be in my car.”
The three of us head to the house in the middle. “So, who gets what?” Matt asks.
“If we’re doing this, I want that one.” I point to the house on the left. “Actually, I don’t care what y’all’s house looks like. I’m going to go look at that one.” I cut across the dirt to the Arts and Crafts style house. It has three peaks on the main house, a three-car garage, three chimneys, a huge wrap around front porch, and mostly all windows. As I walk inside, I see the entire house is done. Floors, cabinets, carpet, lighting... the works. Even the power is on because the house is being cooled by the air conditioner.
The first floor has an entryway, an office that will come in handy when I’m working from home, and then an opening that leads to the great room. The kitchen, the dining room, and the living room are all separate, but connected to make a great room. Just past the great room are the doors to the backyard and the pool, which is installed and working.
I go upstairs and find five bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. One of these rooms will work great as a gym. The master bedroom is twice the size of the other rooms and has a balcony overlooking the pool and patio. When I step out onto the balcony, I notice there’s a lake off in the distance. I wonder if that’s part of the property.
This place is too big for one guy and his dog, but it’s nice and I’ll have all the privacy I could want once I put up landscaping and a fence to contain Bella.
I go through the sliding doors off the great room on the first floor and notice a pool cabana off to the side of the house. When I open the doors, I see it is the gym. Of course, a place this big would have its own gym. Perfect.
As I walk out the front door to go meet my brothers, I realize from any vantage point in the house, I could not see either of the other homes. That’s perfect. Close, but not too close. Gabriel is standing by the SUV, texting on his phone as both Matt and I walk up to him. Lucille is still in her car on the phone animately talking to someone.
“So, what did you two think?” Matt asks.
“I love the one I saw. You?” I look at Gabriel.
“I’m texting Olivia to be ready when I get home to come look at the place. She’ll love it. The only thing I see as a problem is how remote this place is. Before we move in, I’ll want a full security system in place.”
“Actually,” Lucille interrupts as she approaches us, “the place comes with top of the line security.”
Matt laughs. “Not the kind we’ll put in. Tell me about this road. Is it public or private?” Matt points to the road we drove on to get to the homes.
“Private. The developer was going to fence off the road and put a gate at the entrance, but funds ran out and he had to liquidate his business. His loss, your gain.”
“I noticed they already staged the houses for selling. What is included in the price of the entire property? You said it was seventy-five acres?”
Lucille nods, “Yes. Seventy-five acres, three homes, a lake, a private access road, all utilities, the works. Everything you see is included.”
“What’s the asking price?” I ask.
“Well, the developer wants seventy-five million all in, but I believe we can get him down to sixty million all in. He’s desperate.” She wiggles her eyebrows.
“No lions, right?” Matt laughs.
She shakes her head, “No lions.”
We each look at each other, then Gabriel says, “We’ll need to see the property again tonight, if that works for you. The wives need to approve.”
“Works for me. Wanna meet me here around seven?”
“It’ll be just them and their wives. If they’re good, then I’m good.” I tell her as we all climb into the vehicles.
“Lucille, can you send me the contracts? I want to send them to our attorney so he can look them over. I’m assuming the seller wants a quick close.”
She laughs. “If he can sell it tomorrow, he would. I’ll see you tonight.” She gets in her car and drives down the private road. We sit in the SUV looking at the property.
“So, are we doing this?” I ask.
“It’s a lot of money, but I think it’s worth it. But I want to install security, a gate on the access road, a fence around the entire property with security, and a fence around the pool to protect the kids.” Matt says, looking around.
“I also want a fence around that lake... just in case.” Gabriel agrees.
He puts the SUV in gear and drives us off the property. “This was a good idea, Owen. It’s going to cost us, but a good idea.”
“I have them once in a while.” I smirk at my older brothers. “Measure how far the office is from the property.”
Gabriel hits a button on the dashboard. It won’t really matter how far the office is from here, because it already feels like home.