For Sale By Owner

by Marlene Bateman

  “Well, I was going to tell you on Christmas.”

  Tom threw up his hands. “That’s over two weeks away! And you were just going to sit on this until then? And if you wanted the house, why didn’t you say something? You do realize I’ve had it listed for six months.” He shook his head. “I really can’t believe that in all the times we’ve talked, you’ve never said a word about moving back. Not one single, solitary word.” If his words had been visible entities, icicles would have been hanging from them.

  Rising, Jared shuffled his feet awkwardly, embarrassed at being caught in the crossfire of a family spat. He edged toward the door then nodded politely. “Um, I’d better get back to the café. Let me know if anything develops, Tom. Nice to see you, Kenzie.”

  Tom acknowledged his departure with a brief glance then returned his steely gaze to Kenzie. It was his big-brother laser glare which used to intimidate Kenzie, but no longer.

  “You can’t sell the house,” Kenzie told him.

  “Too late. It’s sold.”

  “It’s only an offer. Can’t you turn it down?”

  Tom leaned forward. “What’s gotten into you, Kenzie? No, I can’t turn it down. I’ve already accepted it and signed on the dotted line.”

  “But it hasn’t gone through yet,” Kenzie said desperately. “It’s not final.”

  “I signed an agreement that I would sell Jared my house,” Tom replied gruffly in a voice that would brook no dissention. Then he asked, “Are you really going to move here?” She nodded. “But why? I thought you were happy where you were.”

  “There are a lot of reasons.” Kenzie rubbed her throbbing right temple. “For starters, I want Sara to have the same kind of childhood I did.” Kenzie had never forgotten the magic of her childhood and wanted the same for her daughter. “And Sara has always loved it here.”

  “Like you used to.” Tom made it sound like an accusation.

  “You may not believe it, but I still do. And I’m tired of living in the city. You’re just a face in a crowd there. Oh, I love the theatre, museums, and all of that, but Chicago’s within driving range. I don’t want to live there anymore. It’s a different kind of life—you don’t know who your neighbors are, and there’s a bar on every corner. I’m tired of six-lane freeways, shootings in parks, and being afraid of walking on the street after dark. I started feeling like I was in a rat race and the rats were winning.”

  Tom leaned back in his chair. “I had no idea.” His voice had lost its hard edges. “Part of this has to be your fancy job. You’re always under so much pressure.”

  “I used to be under pressure.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I quit my fancy job.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Yep.”

  “Wow. I thought you loved it.” Tom rubbed his jaw. “Did you think it through? At times you can be a little impulsive and act without considering the consequences.”

  Sometime, Kenzie would tell him about Matt and the larger reasons that led to her resignation.

  He asked, “What are you going to do now?”

  Kenzie’s face brightened. “I have a new job.”

  “Already? Where?”

  “Reliance Software. I’ve known the executive vice president for years—we’ve been at a lot of conferences together. So when I started looking around, I called to see if they had any positions available, and he said they needed a general manager at their new facility in—get this—Munderlein.”

  “Wow.” Tom was suitably impressed.

  “I’ll say. Being offered a job only ten minutes from Lake Forest was like a blessing straight from heaven.” Kenzie smiled. “And despite my ‘impulsive nature’ as you put it, I thought a lot about the job before deciding. I prayed about it and had a good feeling, so I accepted it. I’ll have a lot of the same responsibilities I had at Midwest, so it all works out perfectly. Except now I need a house.”

  “And you wanted mine.” Tom appeared troubled. “I still don’t know why you didn’t say something sooner.”

  Because she was an idiot. Out loud, she said, “I wanted to surprise you for Christmas.”

  Tom scoffed. “You surprised me all right.”

  Chapter Six

  After dinner, while everyone was still at the table, Sara hurried to the kitchen and proudly returned with a plate of Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies1, which had a chocolate Kiss in the middle.

  “These are awesome!” Kenzie praised, taking one.

  Sara wanted to share the credit. “Grandma helped me make them.” She held out the plate to her grandfather.

  “They look so good I’m going to take two,” Allen said. “These are one of my favorites, you know. You can’t do any better than having chocolate and peanut butter in the same cookie.” He took a bite. “Hmm, and they’re nice and soft too.”

  “Just the way you like them.” Sara threw her grandmother a knowing glance. Kenzie caught the exchange. Her mother must have mentioned that during their cookie-making session. She’d told Kenzie the same thing when she was little.

  “It was nice to have Sara’s help today,” Elaine said. “I want to have a lot of different cookies for the party after we go caroling. So I’m making extra and freezing some from each batch.”

  “We’re going caroling?” Sara asked, taking a drink of milk.

  “Well, it started out as caroling but morphed into a Christmas program. A bunch of people go to different rest homes on Christmas Eve and sing carols. You remember going with us, don’t you?”

  Sara thought hard. “I think so.”

  “It’s been so long since Sara’s been here for Christmas, she’s forgotten,” Allen grumbled, looking from underneath hooded eyes at Kenzie.

  The sting of rebuke felt like a slap. Taking a deep breath, Kenzie let it slide.

  Elaine wanted to make sure Sara remembered. “A lot of people in town get together every year and form groups that go to different rest homes and put on a program. We always invite a few close friends to come here afterward to visit and have cookies and hot chocolate.”

  “Grandma, what’s a rest home?”

  Elaine blinked. “Hmm, I don’t think they’re called that anymore.”

  “They’re assisted living centers now,” Kenzie said.

  Sara still looked confused, so Elaine went on, “They’re places where older people live who need someone to help take care of them.”

  They started to clear the table, with Sara carrying dishes while Allen put food away.

  Standing by the sink, Kenzie asked her mother, “Is it all right to just rinse the plates before putting them in the dishwasher, or do you want them gone over with a brush?”

  “Rinsing is fine.” Elaine shook her head as she put the rolls in a plastic bag. “I’ve always thought there ought to be a support group for women who can’t put dishes in a dishwasher without cleaning them first.”

  Once done, they went into the family room. Kenzie knelt near the fireplace on the tan carpet beside a cardboard box she’d brought out earlier. Before she opened it, she asked, “Is it all right if we put out a few of our own decorations?”

  “Of course,” Elaine assured her. “It’s nice to have familiar things. Traditions are very important at Christmas.”

  Scurrying over, Sara reached into the box and pulled out a ceramic Christmas house. Tossing the bubble wrap aside, she ran over and showed it to her grandparents on the couch. “This is mine. Look, it has a cat on the front porch.” She set it on the coffee table then ran back. Kenzie handed her a large snow globe. Sara shook it and, once more, ran over to her grandparents to show them the tiny village caught in a snowstorm.

  “That is really something,” Allen said, admiring it. “Why don’t you put it by the TV, and we can give it a shake whenever we want to make it snow. What else do you have?”

  Setting the globe down with the utmost care, Sara went and pulled out a slightly bedraggled penguin. A striped scarf adorned his neck, and his red hat had a pom
-pom on the end. She held it up for her grandparents to admire.

  “His name is Poppy the Penguin.”

  “Poppy has always been one of Sara’s favorites.” Kenzie studied the scruffy penguin. “I tried washing it, but it didn’t turn out too well.”

  “That’s all right. He’s in better shape than I am,” Allen remarked.

  Sara gave Poppy an affectionate squeeze then gave it to her grandmother to hold.

  When she came back, Kenzie handed her a music box which looked like a small pond. Sara wound it, and two tiny bears began dancing erratically across the glass surface. Then Kenzie pulled out the last item, a small wooden reindeer.

  “I remember that!” Elaine said. “Tyrone gave it to you.”

  “I’m surprised you remembered after all these years,” Kenzie said.

  “How could I forget? You two were so close. That was a magical Christmas.”

  “You say that about every Christmas,” Kenzie reminded her.

  With a half smile curving her lips, Elaine replied, “That’s because each Christmas is magical.”

  Kenzie went to a narrow table that stood against the wall by the kitchen and rearranged the gold and silver glittery candles so there was room for the reindeer in the middle. Her mother was right—that had been a magical time. Tyrone had made the little wooden reindeer himself. It had been the best Christmas of her life.

  “Okay, Sara, it’s bedtime. Give Grandma and Grandpa a hug.”

  Sara threw herself at them and, after giving them big kisses, grabbed Poppy the Penguin. After their bedtime routine of scripture reading, teeth brushing, and prayer, Kenzie kissed her daughter good night and returned to the family room.

  Her father was reading a novel, and her mother was working on a Sudoku puzzle. Kenzie plopped down in an overstuffed chair. “I talked to Tom today about his house.”

  “What about it?” Elaine asked, the book open on her lap.

  “I told him I wanted to buy it.”

  They were as astonished as Tom had been.

  “Why on earth would you want to buy Tom’s house?” her father asked curtly.

  There were at least a million reasons—most of them were too deep and nebulous to verbalize. For the last few years, her world had been so chaotic that Kenzie felt a driving need to return to a time when life was uncomplicated and not whirling out of control. Her divorce had been emotionally draining, and leaving Midwest after eleven years had been almost as distressing. It wasn’t fair to have to quit because of a creepy coworker. Kenzie needed a place where she could slow down, catch her breath, and regain her equilibrium. She’d come back to Lake Forest to regain a sense of security and to provide her daughter with a stable life. Buying the home she’d grown up in had been the keystone to all of her plans. She just had to have the house. It seemed impossible to compress all feelings into words her parents could understand.

  Instead, she downplayed what she’d been facing recently. “Life has been a bit difficult the last few years,” Kenzie began. “I wanted to buy Tom’s house because I wanted—no, I needed—a place where I could start over.”

  “Start over? What kind of talk is that?” Allen asked. “You’ve got a good job. Why would you want to throw in the towel?”

  She knew her father wouldn’t understand. “I needed to make some changes in my life. I decided moving back to Lake Forest would give me and Sara the stability and foundation we need right now.”

  Elaine squealed in delight. “You’re coming back?” She struggled to get up, and finally Allen gave her a boost from behind. She hurried over to her daughter and hugged her fiercely. “How wonderful! I’m so excited!”

  Her father remained seated. “That’s some news.” His face and voice were like stone. “Glad you finally let us in on your little secret.”

  “It wasn’t a secret,” Kenzie shot back.

  “No? Well, you hadn’t said a word until now,” her father declared balefully. “We’re always the last to know anything.”

  Kenzie was readying a sharp retort when her mother glanced anxiously down the hall toward Sara’s room. Kenzie bit back her words, but her father went on, oblivious as always.

  “Tom’s been trying to sell his house a good long while. Why didn’t you say something before now?”

  She’d expected this and prepared a rebuttal: House sales were slow. Tom said he hadn’t been showing his house. He’d priced his home high even though he knew it would put off buyers. He thought it would take up to a year to sell. Last but not least, Kenzie wanted her offer to be a special Christmas surprise to Tom and Mandy.

  Kenzie began to ramble—something she did at times, though not often. When she realized what she was doing, she stopped abruptly. Allen stared, looking like someone had hit him on the head with a shovel. None of her reasons had seemed to penetrate her father’s brain.

  He came out of his catatonic state, shaking his head in disgust. “Nothing like planning ahead. And now you’ve blown your chance. You had to gamble you could get it before someone else did. Well, you lost that bet.”

  Spurs of indignation pricked Kenzie. She took a deep breath then another as she’d been taught. Why did he always have to be so negative and derogatory? She was preparing a scathing response which had nothing to do with the topic at hand but everything with her father’s callousness, when her mother spoke up.

  “I knew you loved the house, but I had no idea your feelings ran so deep. Of course, we did live there until you were ten—it’s natural for you to be attached to it.”

  “I was so glad you kept the house and rented it out instead of selling it when we moved. And when Tom got married and bought it, I thought it would always be in the family.”

  “It could have been,” Allen said. “If you’d said something.”

  There he went again—spouting off and making things worse.

  Her mother must have sensed her irritation, for she asked hurriedly, “When were you thinking of moving back?”

  “As soon as possible.”

  “Oh my!” Elaine was clearly surprised.

  Allen narrowed his eyes. “What about your job?”

  Time for another revelation. “I quit.”

  Her father stared, then raised and lowered his shoulders. “Just like that? You’re making $95,000 a year, and you just quit?”

  Elaine frowned at him. “Will you calm down? Kenzie is an adult—she knows what she’s doing.” Then she turned to her daughter and asked worriedly, “What are you doing?”

  “What’s best for me. There were some things going on at work, and I had to make a change.” Kenzie refused to look at her father. She was not going to get into the reasons behind that now. She’d had enough of his negativity for one night. “Besides, I’ve got another job lined up.”

  Elaine sat down as if her legs had given out. Apparently, all these revelations were taking a toll. Faintly, she asked, “What kind of job?”

  “It’ll be a lot like the one I had at Midwest—I’ll be a general manager and have a lot of the same responsibilities: recruiting and training staff, writing company policies, making sure day-to-day operations run efficiently and projects are completed on time.” She stole a look at her father. Apparently her list had soothed him. He didn’t seem quite as disgruntled as before. “I’m hoping something will work out so I can still buy Tom’s house. I know he got an offer, but after all, isn’t an offer just that—an offer? It’s not set in stone.”

  Her parents exchanged glances, and Kenzie went on. “I need to find a place to live until I can get things straightened out.”

  Elaine piped up. “You can always stay with us, dear!” Her mother seemed so hopeful—her heart was in her shining blue eyes. “We’d love to have you and Sara.”

  “I appreciate that. But what if the worst happens and I can’t get Tom’s house? It might take me a while to find another place. Then, once you move, I’d need to find someplace else to stay. I think it’d be easier for me to find my own place now.”

  �
��What do you mean? Once we move?” her father barked.

  “Mom told me you were going to move to Arizona. She told me the two of you had flown out and looked at homes.”

  Blinking rapidly, Elaine stuttered, “Well, yes, but th—that was months ago. We thought we wanted to move there, but when we flew out and looked around—well, it was so hot, and people had all these rocks instead of lawn. And, I told you, dear, that we hadn’t found a house. So your father and I took some time, talked it over, and decided we didn’t want to move away from Tom, Mandy, and the children.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Kenzie cried.

  “Why?” her father asked in a low, biting voice. “So you could change your mind about moving here?” He rose slowly—as if it took all his energy he had to stand. “You wouldn’t have taken that new job, would you, if you’d known we’d decided to stay.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “Honey,” her mother said in a distressed voice, “I know I talked to you about this, but you always seemed so distracted.”

  Vague memories surfaced of her mother calling her at work when she’d had deadlines, her boss on her back, meetings lined up, a conference call waiting—

  Her father went on, his voice flat. “You wouldn’t have planned to move back if you’d known we were going to be here.”

  It was rare indeed when Kenzie couldn’t think of anything to say. Her silence was all Allen needed. Stiff legged, he went to stare out the window at the dark pine trees.

  Elaine’s gray head bowed, and Kenzie said earnestly, “Mom, I didn’t decide to move back just because you were leaving. I—I didn’t remember you telling me you were staying. I’ve been so swamped at work that it’s been hard to keep my head above water.”

  Elaine’s eyes were bright. “I shouldn’t have called you at work. And you’ve been so distracted and busy the past few months that I never mentioned it again. It went clean out of my mind.” She forced the corners of her mouth up to reassure Kenzie that all was well.