Tempting Fate by Jane Green Page B

front of the car, Gabby in the rear, as their realtor turned onto a pretty street close to town, with picture-book cottages lining each side.
    The house, a grey shingle, was set back from the road with a beautiful dogwood tree in the front garden. There was a natural-wood barn in the backyard, a large copper star hanging on the side of it. Once upon a time it had been a horse barn, but it was now used for storage. The house was a small Cape style; too small for Gabby and Elliott and their two young girls, the realtor pointed out, seeing how excited they were.
    The downstairs had been added on to extensively and now had two newer, light-filled rooms: a sunroomand a playroom; but the upstairs had just two bedrooms and one bathroom, all of them tiny.
    ‘Couldn’t we add on above the sunroom?’ Elliott peered out of the window, pointing out the flat roof.
    ‘You could,’ she said doubtfully. ‘But I just don’t know how much you want to put into this house.’
    ‘Surely adding a bedroom and bathroom would be an investment?’
    ‘Yes, but only if you got it at the right price. They’re asking about thirty thousand too much, and so far they’ve refused to move.’
    Elliott turned to Gabby, whose face had lit up. ‘I love it,’ she said.
    ‘Me too.’
    They made their offer, and raised it twice, only to have it rejected. Losing heart, they settled on a sixties ranch on the other side of town; it had a huge backyard, and no charm whatsoever.
    The day they were going to sign the contract their realtor phoned. The owners of the cottage had rethought. They would now accept the third and final offer if Elliott and Gabby still wanted the house.
    ‘We do,’ Elliott said, ‘but I have to offer lower because of the money we’ve spent since then.’ He named his price, shockingly low, even to the realtor, while deciding not to tell Gabby unless and until the offer was accepted.
    Three months later, they moved in.
    Empty, the house needed more work than they hadimagined. Paintings that had been removed left huge rectangular stains on the walls; wooden floors were stained and thirsty as they emerged after hiding underneath rugs for more than twenty years.
    They worked evenings and weekends to restore the house, while the builders worked during the day to build Olivia’s bedroom, and reconfigure and enlarge the rooms that were there. The job became larger, the contractor pointing out how easy it would be to cut off a chunk of the now-oversized master suite to create a walk-in closet and a spare bedroom. How could they not?
    The walls were covered with fresh paint, the floors stripped and sanded before being stained a dark brown then oiled with Tung Oil for a glossy, rich finish. Gabby ran up simple curtain panels in a pale mushroom linen, the same panels in a fuchsia pink for the girls’ rooms.
    They had little money back then. Their furniture was a mix of consignment store and hand-me-downs. If ever anyone said they were getting rid of anything, Gabby and Elliott took it, regardless of what it was, what it looked like, or whether they had room.
    What they couldn’t use was stored at one end of the barn. The other was turned into a workroom where Gabby would restore furniture for their home. A huge old dresser they found at the dump one day, covered in a vile shade of green paint, was transformed into a beautiful bleached-pine period piece. Lined with linen it was perfect for their Crate & Barrel plates and bowls.
    Gabby became an expert at stripping furniture andrepurposing it. Where others would see a heavy, dark, utilitarian chest of drawers, she would see an object of beauty, and once stripped and painted a soft ivory, the intricate and ugly brass pulls replaced with pretty, antique, crystal knobs, these pieces of furniture were invariably more stunning than even she expected.
    Elliott made the outdoor table, and the pergola under which it sits. Gabby collected old mason jars of all shapes and sizes, filled them with