The drive had taken Jay and Erin out into rural Connecticut, eventually up a country road upon which they hadn't seen a single car heading in either direction for more than two minutes. Jay already envied the people who lived in the area for the tranquillity. Judging by what little he could see of the sporadic houses set back from the road, they were all rich folks like the Voights.
The sat-nav on Erin's phone, sitting in a holder on the dash, showed that they were nearing the destination, so she slowed right down. Shortly, they came to a driveway that was guarded with an electronic metal gate. A silver Mercedes was parked there. It was a cheaper model than Jay's, he noted. The guy inside would be the real estate agent.
There was just enough room for Erin to pull off the road and tuck in behind the Merc. As she did so, the real estate agent got out and approached. He was bald, maybe fifty, and had glasses on that made him look more like a professor or something, Jay thought.
Erin lowered her window.
"Ms Voight? Good morning. I'm Roger Smith of Bishop and Smith Real Estate. We spoke on the phone."
Erin shook his hand through the window. "We did. Nice to meet you. This is Jay Halstead, my boyfriend."
Jay greatly enjoyed hearing her say that. He nodded a greeting as Smith lowered his head to look into the car.
"Hi. Would you guys like to follow me up to the house?"
"Let's do it," Erin said brightly.
Watching Smith go over and type a passcode into the keypad beside the gate, Jay noted for the first time that the house's name was on a plate fixed to the brick pillar that the keypad was mounted on. 'Eagle's Nest.' He couldn't imagine owning a house with a name rather than a number, even if it was quite a cool name.
"Eagle's Nest," he commented. "If this place doesn't have an impressive view across the hills, I'm going to be disappointed now."
"Let's go see," Erin said, her tone implying she knew more than she was letting on.
The gate slid open and Smith got back into his car. He drove slowly along the driveway that wound upwards around the hillside. Erin followed him, and as they rounded the corner, an entire valley opened up in front of them. It had been hidden from the road by the hill. Further up, the house sat on an plateau that had presumably been created prior to construction. It was a big house, but not enormous in the way that Jay had pictured it. It was a modern steel and glass construction, with what looked to be an entirely glazed wall facing the valley. Beside the house stood a double garage that was connected to the house by a short, enclosed steel and glass walkway.
"Very nice, Erin. And what a view. I can see why you were interested in this for sure. And I guess I know why they called it Eagle's Nest."
"I love scenery like this," Erin said. "Hard to find in this area."
"Even harder to find when you're looking at apartments in New York," Jay quipped.
Erin giggled. "Idiot. Come on, let's go look around." Having parked up in the area out front of the house that was big enough for a couple of cars with room to spare to turn one around to go back down the drive, she killed the engine.
As Jay got out, he noticed that it was distinctly colder here than it had been in New York. That would be one down side of living on a hill on the side of a valley. He also noted Erin wince after she got out. Sports cars were not good for hip injuries.
"Still hurting?" he asked sympathetically.
"Generally it's improving, but getting out hurt just then for sure."
The painful move had made her limp get a little worse. Jay had observed that it hadn't been too bad when they were leaving the hotel earlier. Now, the real estate agent noticed it enough to pass comment.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I'll be fine," Erin assured him. "I recently bruised my hip in a wrestling match."
"In a... okay," Smith said, deciding not to pursue that line of questioning. Instead he went into his spiel about the house.
Jay paid attention, learning that they were out front of a four bedroom, three bathroom, single storey house that was only three years old. Smith started going into more particulars, but Erin cut him off.
"Can we just go in and look around?" she requested, rubbing her gloved hands together. Getting out of the cold seemed to be her priority.
Smith nodded. "Of course. Would you like me to accompany you, or should I wait outside? The house is empty, so either way works."
Erin didn't look to Jay for an opinion, or take any time over the decision. "Open the door and leave us to it. Thank you."
"You got it," Smith said. He went over and opened the front door, and Jay followed Erin inside.
"I'll be in the car if you need me," Smith said.
Erin's attention was already on the house. They were in a small entrance area, where coats, footwear and the like could be left. To the right there was an open door to a similarly sized room.
"That'll be the utility room," Erin said.
It wasn't exactly a grand first impression, Jay thought. But he wasn't going to start talking the place down right off the bat.
"Let's go through," Erin said. She opened the door to the main body of the house, and gasped at what lay in front of them. Jay's reaction was similar.
"Wow," he breathed.
They were in an enormous open plan kitchen and living area that would also be big enough for a dining set. The room had entirely glazed walls on it's two exterior sides. The view was absolutely breath-taking, and due to the way the land sloped quickly away from the house, the living area seemed to be floating over the side of the valley. Eagle's Nest indeed, Jay thought. He also liked the polished concrete floor that shone almost like glass.
"Jay, look at this. I'm in love," Erin said, walking through to the far corner, where the two glazed walls met.
"It's stunning," he said. "There's room on that opposite wall for a big TV, and plenty of room here to have a living area with couches and a separate dining space over there closer to the kitchen."
"That's how the previous owners had it in the pictures I saw. The place was still furnished when they were taken. It's an ideal size for sure. And look at the kitchen."
Jay went over and took in the white kitchen units and island with black marble tops. The built in appliances were all silver. Kitchens didn't do much for him, but he could tell this was an expensive one.
"Doesn't it look great?" Erin asked him.
Even with his limited social skills, Jay realised he was supposed to say something more positive than 'kitchens don't do it for me'. So he did. "It's very nice, Erin. You sound made up about this place already."
"That's why I wanted you to come view it with me."
"Oh." He hadn't considered that he might be being brought to look at the place because she was pretty sure she wanted to buy it.
They toured the rest of the house, checking out the large master bedroom, which had a walk-in wardrobe and a spacious bathroom, two other reasonably-sized bedrooms each with its own bathroom, and finally the smaller fourth bedroom.
"This would be my home office," Erin said.
"Good use for it," Jay agreed. Then they heard Roger Smith's voice as he came through the house towards them.
"Ms Voight, I just had a thought. I need to open the back door so that you can view the roof terrace."
"You didn't mention a roof terrace," Jay said to Erin.
She giggled. "I might have forgotten there was one."
They accompanied Smith out of the back door and up an external staircase to the roof terrace. On this particular day it was freezing up there, but Jay knew that in nicer weather it would be an excellent place to spend evenings or eat breakfast, with the stunning view of the valley in front of them.
"I'll be out front when you're done," Smith said, making himself scarce again.
Looking out at the view from the terrace, Erin took Jay's hand and stood close to him. "So, what do you think?"
"It's an incredible house, no doubt. Anyone would be lucky to live here. The only negatives I see are that it's remote, which makes me worried about your safety up here."
"Already thought about that. I'll get a dog. A big one."
"What about when you're at the office, or even worse, on the road?"
"I'll get a dog sitter."
"Fair enough," Jay said with a chuckle. He couldn't help finding how matter of fact she was amusing. "You should look at getting a gun, too."
"Let's not talk about that kind of thing right now," she said, her expression conveying her distaste. "You said negatives, plural. What else?"
"Only one more. Isn't it too big for you by yourself?"
Erin looked at him for a moment as if trying to figure out whether he was serious or not. "I don't plan on living her alone for the rest of my life, Jay," she pointed out after a moment.
"Right," he said, feeling stupid. "So, uh, what happens now?"
"I think I make an offer," she said excitedly. "Come on, let's go find the guy."
A minute later, they were back out front. Smith got out of his car to speak to them.
"Was everything to your satisfaction, Ms Voight?"
"It was. Have you had any offers yet?"
"Not yet," Smith said candidly. "But the property is new to the market and I expect it to sell reasonably quickly."
"Then I have an offer for you to put to your client. I'll offer the full asking price, with the following conditions: One, the house comes off the market immediately. No one else gets to view it. And two, there are to be no discussions with any other potential buyers who have seen it already. I'm not interested in an auction. I have the money available and I can complete quickly, so tell your client that so long as they don't mess me around, I won't mess them around."
Businesswoman Erin was fully hot, Jay thought, watching and listening with interest. Sometimes, you could definitely tell she was Hank Voight's daughter.
Smith also listened to the offer, then checked his leather bound folder for the property details, as if he didn't know them. He wasn't fooling anyone. "The asking price is... one point four million."
Holy shit, Jay thought. What was the 'budget' that Hank had given her?
"That's right," Erin said calmly.
"I'll make a call now," Smith said. Taking out his phone, he walked a distance down the driveway for privacy.
"I'm crossing my fingers without even thinking about it," Erin commented after an anxious minute or so dragged by, looking at her right hand.
"With sexy gloves on." Jay didn't even know why he said that, but he saw in Erin's eyes for a second that she liked it a lot. It probably turned her on. But this wasn't the time, especially because Smith was already coming back. Erin looked at him eagerly, and Jay found himself mentally crossing his own fingers.
"I put your offer to my client, Ms Voight, along with your conditions and your promise of rapid completion. On that basis, he decided to accept the offer."
Erin looked at Jay with wide eyes and a big, beautiful smile on her face. "I'm buying a house!"
He hugged her and kissed her on the lips, sharing in her joy. "You're buying a house!"
A/N: What do you think of the house that Erin has decided to buy? Might Jay also call it home one day?
