“See, she has to have a fairy tale princess wedding. She made me listen to a ton of those girlie princess books. She told me it was to teach me how to be the perfect prince for my own princess. I don’t like girls but mom says that will change. I really think she’s wrong cause girls have coodies. It’s okay if dads like girls though,” he said as if he was bestowing his greatest wisdom.
“We will give your mom the fairy tale wedding then. You can help me to make sure everything is right, can’t you?” he asked. Jacob’s eyes widened in awe as his father bestowed that honor on him.
“Of course,” Jacob said with his most serious expression.
“Good then, that’s all settled. Do you want some breakfast?” Derek asked, as he tucked the book under his arm.
“I can take that,” Jasmine said and held out her hand. Derek ignored her and walked out of the room with her book, leaving her alone, irritated and feeling a bit left out.
She was tempted to crawl back down under the covers and fall asleep again but she knew she was far too stressed to even close her eyes.
She threw the blankets back, like a child having a tantrum and stomped into the bathroom. She decided she didn’t like men very much right then. She took her time in the shower and then finally decided to face the day and walked out to the kitchen with her head held high.
Chapter Ten
“I know you really like your house but it’s simply too small. I’m going to contact an agent today and set up some appointments. I did a cursory look last night and there are some really great places on the market I’d like to see. I’d prefer to build my own place but it takes too much time and I want us to get settled as soon as possible,” Derek said, as they were sharing a picnic in the park.
Jacob was playing soccer with some other kids, leaving them alone together for the first time that day. Her whole body tensed at his words. She liked her home. She knew it was small but she’d been paying for it all on her own and she didn’t want to give it up.
“I don’t want to sell my place,” she said, while crossing her arms and glaring at him.
“You don’t have to sell it. You can rent it out if you want or just let it sit empty. I can hire a cleaning crew to come in once a week to make sure it doesn’t get moldy or damaged,” he offered.
“Do I get a choice?” she snapped at him. She knew the place was too small and she knew they would be more comfortable with extra space but her world was being uprooted and she felt like she had no control over anything.
“I’m not your enemy Jasmine; I’m trying to do the right thing for my son. How does me wanting to watch him grow make me the enemy?” he asked her with exasperation.
When he worded it like that she felt like the bad guy. It wasn’t fair he was twisting things around. She was going to have to get over her feelings of betrayal over him walking away from her, or the next nine years of her life were going to seem like forever.
“You’re right, I’m being difficult but you have to realize Jacob and I have been fine for the past nine years and it’s hard to change,” she conceded.
“Can we call a truce for now, for the sake of our son?” he asked.
“That sounds good to me,” she answered, wanting some peace.
Derek made a few calls while Jacob was playing and within the hour he had appointments at six different locations. She was amazed at the speed the man was able to get things done.
Jacob came running up to them and dove into the food. All his playing made him very hungry.
“Hey buddy, want to go look at some houses?” Derek asked him.
“Why?” Jacob asked, with no interest.
“We’re going to find a bigger place to live so you have more room to play,” Derek told him. Jacob was very interested after that. He couldn’t wait to leave the park and look at houses. The first few they went to left Jasmine in awe. She’d grown up in the biggest house of her town and she thought it was fancy but it didn’t compare to the places they were looking at now.
Each house had electronic gates, requiring a key pad to even enter the driveway. The homes were enormous and she was afraid she’d lose Jacob if they moved into one of them. She was making sure he didn’t leave her sight as they toured each one. She didn’t know what Derek was looking for but the places weren’t holding his interest. She was actually grateful for that. She was hoping the other places were scaled down a bit.
Each time they left one of the places the real estate agent seemed disappointed but Jasmine was impressed with how well she covered that. Jasmine was sure the woman was going to make a killing off of the commission if Derek purchased one of the homes, as their price tag was in the millions.
The forth house they went to had a similar gated drive and was just as big as the others but seemed a bit different to her. It didn’t seem as cold, like the people who lived there, were perhaps more real. It was a colonial style that had a huge three story entranceway that was done in white rock. The door was big enough to drive a truck through, she thought, as they entered.
“This home is only three years old and was built to entertain. The man and his wife had it custom built but he has to go back overseas for a few years and they decided to go ahead and sell because he’s not sure where they will be when they come back. I know his wife is saddened to leave this spectacular home,” the agent began.
“There’s so much to offer, as you can see from just walking in the front doors. Some key features of the home is the property contains twenty useable acres, a full sized tennis court, a full size outdoor and indoor basketball court, along with both outdoor and indoor pools. Apparently the sellers had teenage kids who also built a paintball course on the south end of the property but if you’d like that to be taken out it would be an easy task,” she said as she eyed Jacob, thinking he might like that feature.
“There’s a nice open room back this way, which can easily be used for conferences, dances, or whatever form of entertainment you would like. It features this beautiful chandelier from Italy they had made specifically for the home,” she continued talking as they walked from room to room. Jasmine was thinking the chandelier was probably worth more than her house.
“There are separate living quarters above the garage that many people like to use for either guests or for relatives to live in. It has its own separate entrance for privacy,” she said as she looked at Derek. Jasmine could feel her face heating with anger as she realized she was listing a secret place he could go to for an affair as a selling point. She no longer liked the real estate agent at all and glared at her back as they continued.