Only One Regret (Only One 5)

I take a deep breath. "Yeah, I think so," I say, and she opens the door. We step into the entryway. We must take three steps in, and she gasps from beside me. There is a winding staircase to the upstairs level, but it’s the roof. It is all windows so the sun beams down.

"If you don’t buy this house," Erika says, stepping into the house and turning around in the center of the room. "I will." I laugh at her. "You need a table right in the middle with a huge bouquet."

"I have a four-year-old and a two-year-old," I remind her.

"Okay, so in ten years, I’ll buy you a table and flowers," she concedes, walking over to the left-hand side and seeing the dining room. "Does this come furnished?"

"Zoe said that this is all staged, so I could keep anything I wanted." I see a white marble table in the middle of the room with eight big chairs around it. A crystal chandelier in the middle of the table falls right between two vases of white flowers. Gray carpet matches the curtains that are hanging and tied in the middle. "It’s a bit too …"

"Small?" she says, looking at me.

"No, I mean white. But I mean, it’s not horrible." She walks to the other side and sees an office. "This can be the computer room," I say, and she nods. "For the girls to do homework and hang with their friends."

We walk around the staircase and come to my favorite part of the house, the family room. "When I was growing up, my parents bought this big house, and it had the family room that was attached to the kitchen with a huge island." I look the other way and see the massive island. "It was our favorite place in the house." I walk toward the kitchen. "It was the meeting area, and when I saw the pictures, I knew that this was perfect." The big white island has eight stools around it.

I walk toward the island, not even caring about the fridge or stove when I stop and see that there is a breakfast nook on the side with floor-to-ceiling windows, showing you the huge backyard. I feel her stop next to me, and she gasps out. “It’s crazy, right?"

"This is it," she says, and I smile. "This is definitely it."

"We didn’t even see the upstairs.” I look toward the staricase, and she shrugs.

"When you know, you know. Can we go and see the backyard?" I grab her hand, then walk over to the door and step outside. A covered lanai fills the whole back of the house. One side with a table, and the other side with a sitting area facing a television and fireplace, just like her house.

"There isn’t a lot of grass," she says. "But look at this. It’s like a dream." She steps forward, and the pool is massive with stones all around it. A hot tub sits off to one side, and then you see the waterfall from the built-in slide. "I can see two happy girls who will use that slide until they have their own kids." The pictures that fill my mind are of the four of us running around the pool on a Sunday afternoon, and I literally cannot wait to move into this house.

When we finally go upstairs, she steps into the master bedroom. "You don’t even have to knock a wall down." She looks around the empty master suite, stopping in front of the fireplace that is in the room. "If you get a bear rug, I’m going to vomit." I can’t help but throw my head back and laugh.

I take my phone out and FaceTime Zoe, who answers right away. "Don’t tell me," she says before she even says hello. "It’s the third house."

"Yeah.” I smile, and Erika claps her hands.

"Is that Erika?" she asks, smiling, and Erika walks over to me.

"It’s perfect," she tells Zoe. "I hate to say this, but this is even better than my house."

"I know," Zoe says, laughing. "But it wasn’t on the market when you were looking." Zoe is also her realtor. "But you get to enjoy it."

"Oh, I will," she says, smiling and looking up at me. "I definitely will."

"How fast can I get into the house?" I ask, and she laughs.

"The owners are already out of the house. I spoke with the agent, and you can get in there as soon as the offer is accepted," she says. "Let me call the agent and get back to you."

"Let’s do it," I confirm and then look over at Erika as she walks around the empty room.

"This is really something else," she says and then walks to the bathroom and then looks over at me. "Holy hell."

I laugh, making my way over to her and look in. "It’s very fancy,” I say of the white marble flooring that goes up the walls with gray inside. "That tub fits at least two people." She points to the massive tub that faces the window and the glass shower right next to the tub with jets all over the wall. "I hate you," she states.