Chapter 1 Eli Miller
Summer of 2013
Sometimes a girl just had to do what a girl had to do. It was simply time to move on and move out of El Paso. She’d waited long enough to put the wheels in motion on getting a new start.
It likely wouldn’t happen overnight. It had to happen, eventually. A trip was the first step along that journey. She had the money that she needed. There’d never be a better time to buy her dream house in the forest of East Texas.
The drive to Tyler was long. The Moonlight was a nice comfortable ride.
Eli liked her truck. Hands down, it had to be the best vehicle she’d ever owned. There was no chance she was trading it in. The nearly paid off truck ran like a dream.
She’d left in the early morning hours so she could arrive before it was dark. She drove through the desert. Nothing to see except a few more cacti.
Eli wanted to see a bit of the town of Tyler and its inhabitants. Maybe she’d have time to take some pictures.
She’d been to Tyler twice in the past. It was just big enough to offer her what she needed as far as employment and city life went, and just small enough that she could get away from all of that as well.
She was excited. Her realtors had lined up quite a few prospective properties for her to look at. Surely one of them would be the right one.
The realtor team who offered to show her the houses worked around her crazy long-distance relocation needs. Her financing was all in place. She hoped it was enough to get what she needed.
She drove straight into the downtown area. The old bricked streets were quaint. She was a historian and taught history to high school students, so the quirkiness of old-world charm meeting present-day travel needs appealed to her.
Eli parked, plucked a loose thread from the lapel on her blouse, and twirled it between her thumb and forefinger before letting it fly away on the light breeze. She walked around the old downtown and took pictures of the skyscrapers, the square, and the old churches. After the long drive, she needed to move around a bit to get rid of the stiffness.
She found herself some dinner and got hit on, which was flattering. He was handsome, not her type, and probably a bit too young.
She flirted with him under a false name for a bit. She wasn’t staying and felt that leading the man on was wrong.
So she politely let him off easy and skipped out of the restaurant after going to the Ladies’. She’d already paid for her meal before ‘handsome’ showed up.
The last thing she needed was to go from one failed relationship to another. It was time she focused on Eli Miller for a change.
After dinner, she located her hotel and checked in. For the first time in a very long time, she was truly alone. She’d traveled by herself. The relationship between herself and her children’s father had soured to a point where she’d just needed an escape.
Catching Javier cheating seriously wounded her heart. The constant going out, partying, and staying gone whole weekends had ruined it all long before that. The cheating had led to ugly fighting, bickering, and so much tension between them that neither of them spoke often with one another, even though they occupied the same residence as they had rented her house. It was far better not to be in El Paso.
The forest of East Texas with the towering pines interspersed with maple, oak, sweet gum, poplar, and other deciduous trees made the tiger inside want to purr. She could roam the forest at her leisure.
Eli could almost feel the dappled light of the shadowed forest floor and smell the leaf litter as it moved beneath her clawed paws. That appealed to her far more than any offer any man might make to her at the moment. Her tiger didn’t like the desert.
Eli shivered with unrestrained delight at the prospect of finally being able to regain her freedom and start her life over in a place as beautiful as Tyler. The next week was going to be great.
She showered and dressed for bed. She set her alarm so she wouldn’t be late to meet the realtors. Then she read a book on her phone for a while before she turned in for the night.
Eli had a week to explore before anyone would miss her. That would give her plenty of time to look at properties and think over any offer she wished to make. She hoped the trip was a successful one, and she left Tyler with a house.
The next day, she saw several properties in the morning. None of them seemed like what she was after. That dampened her enthusiasm. She was sure her realtors felt the change in her energy.
They took a break and had lunch before looking at some more houses. The third house after lunch was it. She knew it as they pulled into the driveway.
It was huge and perfect. The brick was gorgeous. It had a beautiful oversized front entry door with leaded glass in the window. She looked at the two realtors and demanded to know what was wrong with it before they ever got inside.
There was no way it was possible for her to buy a house that size at her price point unless it had structural issues, needed an entire renovation, and might collapse into a sinkhole or something equally negative.
“The older lady who lived there passed away in the house. Ms. Ellington is the neighbor that makes sure everyone knows it. The children could not sell it. It isn’t a murder scene or a suicide. The lady simply had a heart attack. She called for help, but when the paramedics arrived, she couldn’t be revived.”
“If you don’t want to see it, we’ll understand, but this house has everything on your wishlist right down to the swimming pool, the fireplace, and two office spaces.” The quieter realtor spoke up to convince her to at least look the house over.
“Okay. Let me see it.” They walked into the foyer, and Eli was home. When she saw the kitchen with the breakfast bar, she smiled widely. The master bathroom was exceptional.
“They professionally cleaned the house. All the floors had tile. They repainted the walls. This house comes with a warranty, and everything works.”
Her realtors were nodding and offering her more information. They’d pointed out things throughout the entire tour.
Eli chewed her bottom lip for a minute. “What is the lowest offer you think they might entertain? I mean, I’m not afraid of ghosts, just don’t tell my daughter about any of it. I like this house.”
The two realtors smiled. They gave her a few minutes to walk back through the house and take pictures of everything on her phone. Satisfied, they headed back to the realtor’s office to write up an offer.
Eli toured the town and visited the tiger sanctuary, the zoo, the state park, and the lake over the next several days as the negotiation went back and forth. She had time to be her tiger. Her vacation was amazing.
By the end of the week, they’d settled on a price. It was far below the appraised value of the house, and she felt she negotiated the best deal.
When push came to shove, her realtors reminded the seller that the house could either go to Eli or sit vacant for two more years. As she was preparing to drive back to El Paso, Eli knew that life was finally going to change for the better.
A month later, she was driving back to Tyler to sign for her house at closing. The excitement over having the keys was too much. It took a couple of years before the house became her full-time residence, but Eli had started along the path toward a different life that summer, and that felt good.
Thank you for your support! Welcome to the dream… Sincerely, -OK
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