“You’re kidding! That’s so awful,” Phoebe said. She followed Ivy up the porch steps and paused to look out at the surrounding scenery of cedars, oaks, sycamores, and pine trees. A few late-season leaves were drifting through the cold air, and at the bottom of the hill cars moving down the county road looked like toys.

“But this view!” Phoebe said, inhaling deeply. “I can see why you fell in love with this place.”

“I know,” Ivy agreed. “It’s so peaceful and quiet out here.” She pointed toward a nearby oak. “There’s an owl who must have a nest up in that tree. I hear her hooting every night. At first, I thought it was creepy. I mean, I never heard an owl in Atlanta. But now, it’s sort of comforting. You know?”

Phoebe laughed. “You’re such a city girl. That owl is probably hooting to her partner that she just caught a tasty field mouse for dinner.”

Ivy shuddered as she opened the front door. “One less mouse to creep into my house, right?”

“It’s just beautiful,” Phoebe said, trailing her fingertips across the fireplace mantel after she’d toured the house. “This place is like something out of a storybook. I wish Cody and I were going to have an old farmhouse like this to move into.”

“Where will you live? After the honeymoon?” Ivy asked.

“My place. It’s just a crummy efficiency apartment in a complex at the edge of town,” Phoebe said. “But the rent’s cheap, and this way, we can start saving up a down payment for a house of our own.”

“What kind of work does Cody do?” Ivy asked.

“He does something in high-tech surveillance in the Army, and he’s already gotten hired to work as a mechanic at a car dealership in Asheville, but he wants to go back to night school at the technical college and get a degree in computer programming,” Phoebe said. “Cody’s crazy smart. He reads, like, five books a week.”

“My ex and I lived in a garage apartment for the first year we were married,” Ivy said wistfully. “We both had a lot of student loan debt. We couldn’t even afford cable. I think that was the happiest year we spent together.” She looked around at the worn wooden floors and rustic ceiling beams of the farmhouse. “I guess the lesson is, if you have love, you don’t need a whole lot else.”

“But a sofa would be kinda nice, right?” Phoebe joked.

“Exactly. I’m now deeply regretting my spur-of-the-moment decision to get rid of the Roses’ old stuff,” Ivy admitted. “It was pretty snobby of me. The woman from the moving company did say a claims adjuster will be in touch, but in the meantime, I hadn’t budgeted buying this house and buying all new furniture. So I guess I’ll have to wait for the insurance company to cut me a check.”

“Hey,” Phoebe said. “I still haven’t met the girls.”

“That’s right. I moved their box into the kitchen. Right now it’s the warmest room in the house.”