I Wanna Know What Love Is

Chapter 2

After the tenth house that the agent showed him in a two-day period, Bucky just began walking in and right back out in less than five minutes. Sarah and May were tag teaming him and often he'd leave them in the house with the real estate agent friend of May's debating whether he should get it.

It didn't take long for Bucky to realize that May was also using the house hunting as a set-up for the agent, Melissa, to meet Bucky. The first day it was just the two of them and she seemed to know excessive amounts of things about him and his life, including things he suspected were not out in the public domain. Many times, she hinted at him being single and reminded him how single she was, like she expected him to ask her out. And she touched him on the hand, arm, and shoulder excessively, even his lower back once. She was pretty, he supposed, but not his type. Mainly, he didn't think she realized how disrupted his life was at the moment. He couldn't handle dating normally, there was no way he could do it with this additional stress. He had just gotten his life to a semi-stable point.

So, the next day, he brought a buffer with him, or rather he brought four: Sam, Sarah, and her boys. The kids ended up being useless as buffers because they were off and running around the house and outside exploring. But at least they helped him see the house through kids' eyes and the dangers the house had. Sam kept suggesting he just take Melissa out until Bucky threatened to throw him out of the car. Sam just wanted Bucky away from Sarah.

What it all boiled down to was Bucky wanted to find a house and get it setup, not find a date. He became a guardian to three children less than a day ago, not to mention a designer dog, so the only woman he needed in his life was likely a nanny. And he wasn't hard-set on the nanny being female. Just someone who knew what they were doing that wouldn't expect him to be social all the time.

Bucky got frustrated soon into the process. Every house he looked at was wrong. When he picked his apartment, it took him looking at two different apartments and he took the second one. He needed little. But constantly in his mind were these three kids who have lost everything and are being sent away from everyone and everything they knew to live with a complete stranger. So, this house had to be perfect.

It may have been the twenty-first home or the thirtieth. He gave up counting. But the last house they planned to see was a rent to own, so if they wanted to stay, they could. From the outside, it looked like his grandma's house, which scored instant points with him. The real estate agent warned him it was almost one hundred years old. Chuckling, he told her that wasn't a problem. It was on a narrow but deep lot. There was a driveway, and the fenced-in backyard with a storage building or workroom. The yard wasn't huge, but it was a decent size plus the driveway extended past the gate so the kids could ride bikes or skate within the fence. Or maybe he would install a basketball ring.

His favorite part was the porches. There were two, one on the front of the house that went all the way across and had a porch swing and one on the back side that was screened in. He had hoped for a brick house and this one was mostly brick. Only the front side was wooden siding. The porch was so large, the kids could play there or the back porch or even the front yard. This was also safest section of Brooklyn. He could hear kids laughing and screaming close-by, plus he saw two neighbors talking in the driveway. They nodded to him when he looked over. Seemed friendly enough without being intrusive, at least he hoped. The house was at the end of the street so they only had one direct neighbor. It appeared they were a family, judging by the kids bikes and toys in the backyard.

Going in the house, Bucky liked the layout. He could tell that May and Sarah weren't as swayed as he was. With all the appliances, including washer and dryer provided, it was easier for him too.

"The bathrooms and kitchen need to be updated. And the hardwood floors need to be restored. But it does have the nice built-in shelves in the living room, a hutch in dining room, and two of the bedrooms upstairs have built-in desks and shelves. There is also full basement which is rare for this area and even a walk-up attic," Melissa pointed out. When she led him upstairs, he saw the master bedroom was large but the other two bedrooms were pretty small.