It was something in his gut that told him he should go straight over to his mom’s, pick up Brendan, and get right on the road. But Kate had made him promise, if he was tired, to wait until Monday morning. And for a number of reasons, he was tired, bone-tired.He hadn’t slept at all the night before, going over details in his mind for the open house—what to serve, what needed staging, what needed tidying or rearranging. He’d run around like a crazy person all day, getting everything ready, putting up signs, sending e-mails to his favorite clients, making calls to people who’d reached out to him in the past. It’s one of my favorite houses ever, he’d said about a million times. And it was true.By the time four o’clock rolled around, everything was perfect. He was hopped up on Red Bull. His partner, Jane, was there, ready and raring to go. It was the first house of the year that wasn’t being sold out of sheer desperation. In his heart, he felt it heralded a recovery for the market.
