No Place Like Home

by Leigh Michaels

  “They’re really very anxious to sell,” he said. “I think you and Graham should make your offer right away. It’s the best value on the market in this city right now, and you will never see a house like it again.”

  “Frankly, Mr. Winchester, if they were asking a dollar and a half for that house I wouldn’t be interested.”

  “Well...” For the first time, he seemed to falter a bit. “Of course, a good decorator could do a lot with it, Kaye.”

  That was the final straw. “And I don’t recall asking you to call me Kaye!”

  She told Graham all about it that night, and was in tears by the time she had finished.

  He seemed to think that she was being a little ridiculous. “Honestly, darling, what does it matter what he calls you?” he said, patting the couch cushion in an invitation for her to sit beside him.

  Omar stared at the glitter of Graham’s cuff-link, and pounced.

  Graham swore and pulled back, eyeing the cat malevolently. “Andy’s right about it being the best value on the market just now, you know. The Aynsleys aren’t even asking the full amount that the appraiser said it was worth.”

  Kaye didn’t sit down; she was too agitated. “Graham, you haven’t even looked at the place. How can you be so certain you’d like it?”

  “I haven’t looked at it,” he said reasonably, “because we decided that looking for a house was your job. When you’ve found the one you like, then I’ll go and see it.”

  She collapsed on to the sofa beside him, feeling suddenly exhausted. “Well, I haven’t found the one I like. I have absolutely no intention of living in the Aynsley house.”

  Graham sighed. “Very well. I’ll tell Andy that we aren’t interested in making an offer at this time.”

  “Or at any other time, either,” Kaye said obstinately.

  “Kaye, darling, do be reasonable. We’re looking for a very large house, and there just are not many in town.”

  “You’re the one who had the long list of requirements,” she pointed out. “I asked for a convenient place to do the laundry, and a big kitchen.” That wasn’t quite accurate, but Kaye felt that she was under attack.

  “And I’ve tried to tell you that you don’t need to worry about those things. You don’t think I’m going to let these beautiful fingers get hurt by dishwater, do you?” He picked up her hand. “Find yourself a pretty house, my dear, and let the maid worry about how far she has to walk with the laundry. You’ll be far too busy with your friends, and with the parties, and with the children.”

  She sighed. “All right, Graham,” she said. “I’ll stop looking for the perfect house, and if I find anything reasonable, I’ll consider it very carefully.”

  “That’s my girl.”

  “But I just can’t work with Andy Winchester,” she pleaded. “I simply don’t trust the man, and I don’t think I can honestly evaluate anything he shows me.”

  Graham looked wary. “What are you suggesting, Kaye?”

  She sighed. “I’d like to go back to the other agent that I was working with,” she said finally. The one, she reminded herself, who is so sure he can sell me a house that he bought himself a BMW on speculation... Oh, stop it, Kaye, she thought. It’s none of your business. Besides, he was only joking. Probably.

  “Who is this upstart, anyway?”

  “His name is Brendan McKenna.”

  Graham shook his head. “I’ve never heard of him. What do you know about him, anyway? Do you have any references? Have you talked to any satisfied clients? Do you even know how long he’s been in the business?”

  “No,” Kaye admitted, “but I trust him.”

  “Kaye, you’re a babe in the woods. You are so innocent, my dear.” He sighed. “All right. Have it your own way. But I’m putting some conditions on this. If he finds a house you want, I’m going to have it inspected right down to the last square inch of tile in the bathrooms.”

  “Fair enough,” Kaye said.

  “And I’m going to check on your Mr. McKenna.”

  “I don’t think you’ll find anything shady.”

  “You’d better hope I don’t. Now,” Graham said, putting his arm across the back of the couch, “can we talk about some fun things? Like us, and where we’re going on our honeymoon?”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “WELL?” Emily demanded the next morning, before Kaye had even taken off her heavy coat. “Was it the dream cottage you’re looking for?”

  Kaye thought about the Aynsley house and grimaced. “It certainly wasn’t.”

  Marilyn came out of her office. “Don’t be discouraged, Kaye,” she recommended. “I get the urge to go house-hunting once a year or so, and I look till I get depressed. I haven’t found anything yet, and my needs aren’t nearly as involved as yours.”

  “I didn’t know you were thinking of moving.”

  Marilyn nodded. “Our big old home is getting to be too much for me to handle.”

  “Big?” Kaye asked brightly. “Old?”

  Marilyn laughed. “Neither big enough nor old enough to suit you and Graham, I’m afraid. It’s not exactly in Henderson Heights, either.”

  “Actually, I looked at a house the other day that might suit you. Why don’t you call Brendan about it? Or I could mention it to him. I’ll be talking to him this morning.” She was looking forward to calling him. He would be so pleased— and surprised—to hear from her.

  “Would you, Kaye? I like to look at houses now and then, even if I don’t ever find what I want.”

  “I’m sure it would be fun,” Kaye said, “if I wasn’t in such a hurry to have the whole thing settled.”

  “Of course you are, dear. You certainly don’t want to keep Graham waiting.”

  “Are you sure it’s all right with you, Marilyn? I’m taking an awful lot of time off work to go rummaging through houses.”

  The customer who had just walked in came over to Kaye’s desk with a smile. Angela Warren was a friend of Graham’s; in fact, her husband was Graham’s lawyer. Kaye saw her at the club every week or two, but they had only exchanged small talk in the ladies’ lounge.

  “Darling,” Mrs. Warren said, reaching out both hands to clasp Kaye’s. “I was so pleased to hear the news!”

  “News?” Kaye said, feeling a little blank.

  “Of your engagement, of course. I heard it at the club last night, and I’m so happy for you both.”

  Some secret we’re keeping, Kaye thought. I knew when Graham told Andy Winchester that it would be all over town!

  Then she scolded herself. It might not have been Andy who had talked, after all; she certainly couldn’t accuse him without proof. At any rate, the only way to handle it now was to be gracious. “Thank you, Angela. It was very thoughtful of you to stop by.”

  “Oh, I just had to come and give you my best wishes. Graham’s always been one of my favorites, you know.”

  “We hadn’t planned to make a formal announcement right away,” Kaye warned, “because we haven’t set a wedding date.”

  “I see that you aren’t even wearing your ring yet. And I understand perfectly. Don’t worry; I can keep it under my hat,” Angela Warren added airily. “Actually I came in for something else as well. My grandson wants to come and visit us next month, but his parents can’t come along. Will any of the airlines let him fly by himself?”

  “I’m sure we can make arrangements,” Kaye said, turning to her computer terminal. “How old is he?”

  She sensed, rather than saw, Marilyn’s satisfied smile. Her strategy, the woman seemed to be thinking, was working; Kaye’s new connections could be very profitable for Gulliver’s Travel.

  When she called the real estate office, Brendan answered, and the surprise in his voice when she identified herself was all she could have hoped for. “You didn’t like the house you saw yesterday?” he hazarded.

  “No, and I liked the person who showed it to me even less. I told Graham I wanted to deal with you, or nobody.”

  “That wasn’t
very wise of you.”

  Kaye was silent for a long instant. “What does that mean?” she challenged. “Don’t you want my business any more?”

  “Of course I want your business. But you really shouldn’t start handing down ultimatums to the man until the knot is tied. It isn’t wise to make him wonder if you’re really going to be the respectful little wife he thinks he’s getting—you know, with the house in the suburbs, the two-point-four kids, the dog, the bridge club, and the station wagon.”

  “You know, it sounds deadly dull when you put it that way.”

  “Precisely,” he said cheerfully. “Which is why you don’t want Graham to start thinking about it. If he does, I won’t get my BMW, and you wouldn’t want that to happen, would you?”

  “I thought you said you’d given up the idea.”

  “Oh, I have. It would be a terribly impractical car for me, anyway—I need space when I’m driving clients around. But it’s fun to think about.”

  Kaye laughed at his airy tone. He was only joking, she told herself in relief. I should have known it. I’m just too sensitive to things like that! “If it makes you feel better, I didn’t really give Graham an ultimatum; I just said I’d rather work with you. Do you have anything to show me this afternoon? I’ll buy lunch; it’s my turn.”

  “Can’t. I’ve got plenty to show you, but I have another appointment. How about tomorrow?”

  How absolutely ridiculous to feel disappointed, she told herself flatly. She certainly hadn’t expected that he would hang around the office waiting to hear from her— or had she, half-consciously? She should be glad that he had other prospects.

  “All right,” she said finally. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

  “Don’t fret,” he said. “Nothing you want is going to sell in the next twenty-four hours.”

  Emily had answered the other line while Kaye was talking, and now she banged the receiver down hard. “That is the sixteenth call this week,” she said irritably. “One of the other agencies is pushing a tour, and everyone is confused and calling us about it.”

  “What is it?” Kaye asked idly. “It must be a good deal, to excite that much interest.”

  “You don’t know about it?” Then Emily answered her own question. “Of course not. You’ve been out house- hunting instead of here answering the telephone.”

  “Sorry, Emily. What’s the tour?”

  “They’re taking a chartered plane to the Bahamas for one day. Can you imagine anyone flying halfway across the country for a few short hours in Nassau?”

  “Yes,” Kaye said. She could almost feel the warmth of the sun on her bare back, the scrape of the sand against winter-softened toes, the kiss of the blue water against delicate skin.

  “The plane takes off at some dreadful hour, just to get to the Caribbean while it’s still morning, and they’ll be on their way home before the sun even goes down. But people are wild about it.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  “I’d go,” Kaye said. “Even one day in the sun, on the beach... but I don’t have the money.”

  “You,” Emily said tartly, “will probably be going twice a year. You’ll be able to do anything you like, while the rest of us are stuck here answering the telephone for the rest of our natural lives.” It rang imperiously, and she picked it up again.

  Kaye wanted to say, It isn’t going to change me, Emily. Then she decided that silence was the wiser course, and turned back to her own work.

  Being engaged to Graham might not make her into a different person, but she sadly concluded that it had already altered other things. Marilyn’s treatment of her had certainly changed, and so had Emily’s attitude.

  Emily put the telephone back in place. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I sound like a jealous witch, don’t I? I don’t mean it. I’m glad everything is going so well for you, I really am. I’ve just got cabin fever, I suppose.”

  Kaye nodded. “I know, Emily. It seems as if winter will never end, doesn’t it?” But she didn’t forget the outburst, and she didn’t think that Emily did, either.

  *****

  She found the house on Friday. It clung to the side of a hill in the steepest and newest section of Henderson Heights. The house was only three years old, Brendan told her, but its cedar-shingled exterior had weathered to a silvery grey that blended in with the maples and oaks that surrounded it. It really didn’t look like a large house at all from the outside, but she walked from room to room with glee, counting bedrooms and imagining herself following a day’s routine in these beautiful surroundings.

  The kitchen was smaller than she had hoped for, but the view was superb. The carpeting in some of the rooms was a peculiar shade of pale pink, but that, she told herself stoutly, could be changed in a hurry. To balance that disadvantage, though, there was a huge glassed-in porch that she knew instinctively would be her favorite room.

  She stood on the balcony outside the master bedroom, staring off across the tree-lined valley. Just now it was blanketed with snow, and it was beautiful. But in summer, she thought, it would be perfect here. There would be birds to watch, and squirrels to feed, and something new to notice every day.

  The house was empty, which meant they could start to work as soon as the paperwork was done, and they could set an early wedding date. Graham will be pleased about that, she thought.

  The wind sweeping up through the valley was cold, but she didn’t notice it until Brendan came out on to the balcony beside her. It wasn’t until she felt his warmth that she started to shiver, and then she began to laugh at herself.

  “And I thought I couldn’t be happy with anything but an old house,” she said. “Brendan, thank you. This is it.” She gestured toward the valley. “It’s perfect.”

  “The setting is wonderful, isn’t it? Of course, there are some things to be done, but with three full levels it’s got space for you to work with.”

  “Can I sign the papers?” she asked. “I’d hate for someone else to come along and buy it, now that I’ve finally found it.”

  “Don’t you think Graham should see it first?”

  “Oh—of course. How silly of me.” She shook her head in confusion. “Perhaps tomorrow? “I know it’s Saturday, but it’s hard for him to get away from the office during the week.”

  “Fine,” Brendan said. “I don’t mind working weekends in a good cause.”

  “And a new BMW would be a very good cause,” Kaye murmured innocently. “We’re going to look at rings right after lunch tomorrow—could we meet you here at the house at two?”

  “That’s fine with me. Now, shall we lock up and go have a drink to celebrate?”

  She smiled up at him, a child’s happy grin. “Let’s!”

  “Where would you like to go?”

  “Not anywhere close to the plaza,” Kaye said. “I feel guilty enough about not rushing straight back to work for the rest of the afternoon.”

  Brendan grinned. “One of many advantages of selling property,” he said. “I can set my own hours, and no one complains.”

  “Including weekends and evenings,” Kaye pointed out. “Doesn’t your family mind?”

  “No family. Just a neighborhood tomcat who keeps an eye on me, and lets me know when I’m late coming home.”

  She twisted around in her seat. There was no stuffed animal in the back of the car. “I would have sworn that you were hauling a teddy bear around last time I rode with you.”

  “Oh, that. It was my niece’s—she left it here last weekend. I understand it caused something of a storm in Lakemont, Wisconsin when it turned up missing. I had to send it back to her by express mail.”

  Kaye giggled.

  “Don’t laugh,” he recommended. “You’ve never met a young lady as determined as my niece. So, let me get this straight—from one teddy bear, you deduced that I had a wife and a couple of kids?”

  “More like half a dozen,” she said demurely. “It was a very battered teddy bear. Not that I have anything against la
rge families, you understand.”

  “I should hope not, since you are buying a five-bedroom house.”

  The reminder sobered her a bit. She had enjoyed this week, and she realized for the first time that it was really over. She had found her house, and now there would be no more adventures with Brendan.

  “One thing about a house that size,” he went on. “You won’t be lacking for something to do, even without your job.”

  She looked at him in astonishment. “I’m not planning to give up my job,” she said.