Susan X. Meagher - The Legacy

by Susan X Meagher

  Surveying the kitchen, Heidi said, “If this were a home, I’d suggest redoing the kitchen and even enlarging it. But most B&B owners like to keep their kitchens fairly minimal. If I were you, I’d replace the appliances, obviously add a dishwasher, and put a new heavy-duty floor in. Other than that, I wouldn’t touch it.”

  Toni pushed her hair back over her ear and wrinkled her nose. She discretely pointed at the door. “You might want to fix that.”

  Heidi removed a notebook from her bag and started taking notes. Noel did the same, but she used a big black organizer. Toni shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and rocked on the narrow heels of her boots while she waited for her companions.

  Noel walked over to check the cabinets. The doors creaked and wouldn’t stay closed; the ill-fitting drawers were sticky, needing two hands to get them closed. “I don’t think I’d buy a place where the kitchen was this…” She glanced up and saw Toni nearly glaring at her. “Dated,” she finished weakly.

  Heatedly, Toni’s sharp voice snapped, “Max made the best breakfasts in town for over twenty years in this kitchen.”

  Heidi put her hand on Toni’s arm and pulled her close, then put an arm around her waist and gently patted her.

  Noel’s eyes widened at this display of familiarity. Toni read gay, but Heidi definitely didn’t, and Noel couldn’t quite figure out if they were lovers or close friends or just very affectionate townies. No matter what they were, this whole thing was weird. Toni was as prickly as a cactus, but the wistful expression on her face when she said she wanted to buy the house was so heartfelt that Noel nearly wanted to hug her. She knew she was coming to this game late, and that there were years of history between the others, but this was extra innings and she was just entering the stadium.

  “It’s no reflection on Max to say the obvious, honey,” Heidi said, her voice soft and almost loving. “This kitchen must be seventy-five years old.” The soothing tone she used changed when she turned her attention back to Noel. “You could do a lot in here, but I think you might be wasting your money. I’d hate to see you put fifty thousand dollars in and have the new owner want to tear it out. I’d suggest doing the minimum and seeing how the property is received. If having an older kitchen is a hindrance, you could replace it later.”

  Noel nodded, and made a few notes in her planner. Giving a businesslike smile, she said, “Let’s move on.”

  They went through the house room by room. Toni was still a little irascible, insisting that almost nothing needed to be done to make the house attractive to a new buyer. The three of them were squeezed into the smallest of the bathrooms, with Toni saying, “Sure, you could strip this room down to the studs and make it beautiful. But nobody complained about it and Max was sold out through the summer every year. You can’t sell more rooms than you have.”

  “Of course you can’t,” Heidi soothed, “but the new owner won’t be Max. Prospective buyers are going to see this place like Noel is seeing it, only they won’t be as forgiving.”

  “I’m sure that this worked great for Max,” Noel said, continually perplexed by the way both women behaved, “but if I were staying here, I’d want an updated bathroom. But then, I don’t like to stay in B&Bs, so my perspective is probably off.”

  Toni’s face was blank as she gazed at Noel for a few seconds, then turned and left the room. Noel held back and said to Heidi, “Is…uhm…Toni your…girlfriend?”

  Heidi took a quick peek down the hall, seeing Toni leaning against a window. “My girlfriend?” The way she stressed the word was another oddity.

  “Yeah.”

  “No, she’s not.” It appeared that Heidi was intentionally trying to keep her expression neutral, confusing Noel all the more. “Toni doesn’t do relationships.”

  Yet another strange thing to tell a client. “But you know her well, right?”

  “Oh, yeah. Really well.”

  “I can’t figure out the vibe here. Is the kind of work I want more than she can do? Or is she only interested in buying the place? I’ve never seen anyone less willing to take on a big job.”

  “Oh, no. Toni could take this place apart and rebuild it. And even though she’d like to buy it, she knows her chances are slim. The issue is that she and Max were very close, and I think it upsets her to have you say things that…are too honest.”

  “Then maybe I should find somebody else to do the work. I don’t want this to be a struggle.”

  “I can help you find someone else, but Toni is really the best, and she knows this place like the back of her hand. She’s done all of Max’s repairs for the last twenty years.”

  Noel started to speak, then stopped. “Is there something…were Toni and Max more than—”

  “No,” Heidi laughed. “They were just friends. But Toni’s very protective of her friends.”

  “I suppose that’s a good thing, as long as you’re one of her friends.”

  “Just about everyone in town is. Toni’s a gem, and if you hire her, I guarantee you’ll agree with me.”

  ***

  It took over two hours to go through the whole house, and they didn’t even attempt to go to the basement. Heidi had another appointment, so she had to leave quickly. She handed Noel the keys, then dashed away leaving Toni and Noel standing uncomfortably in the parlor.

  Noel patted her planner. “With everything we talked about today, I could spend anywhere from two thousand to two hundred thousand dollars.”

  “I might have been too subtle when I pointed this out,” Toni said, looking a little sheepish, “but I think you could spend less than ten thousand and have the place shipshape.”

  Noel sat down on an overstuffed sofa and scanned the room which was jammed with knickknacks, objects d’art, and junk. She would have commented, but she’d learned to keep her opinions about Max’s decorating skills to herself. “How would you spend my ten thousand dollars?” Her pen was poised over a fresh page in her planner.

  Toni sat down opposite her, once again looking a little like a cowpoke sitting in the parlor. Her knees were splayed and her hands dangled between them. She seemed uncomfortable, as though she belonged out on the range rather than cooped up inside. In what was no doubt a nervous habit, she played with her hair for a few seconds, tucking it behind her ears, then she gazed at Noel and spoke decisively. “I’d true up the front and rear entry doors, I’d redo the front porch and the back stairs, then I’d build an arbor or a gazebo in the side yard.” She paused, clearly thinking. “I’d probably put a swing or some nice Adirondack chairs by the arbor, then I’d rip up the front sidewalk and put in some big, irregular pavers.” With her arms folded across her chest, she nodded once. “That’s it.”

  “I wouldn’t have guessed any of that.”

  Shrugging, Toni said, “You asked. I know the house, I know the guests, and I know the town.”

  “I can’t argue with that, but it just seems to me that people would like a more modern, cleaner place.”

  Cheeks flushed, Toni said, “She was sick for six months. All of her friends did what we could to keep the place up to snuff, but we got behind on the housekeeping. It seemed more important for us to spend time with her in the hospital.” She slumped back into the sofa, looking like she’d been unfairly chewed out.

  “No! I wasn’t referring to dirt or clutter,” Noel said, although she easily could have been. “I just think people like a more modern feel. I meant clean as in spare.”

  “What do you think about her?” Toni asked in an accusatory tone. “Don’t you even have any questions?”

  “About Maxine?” Noel’s open expression closed tight. There was no way in hell she was going to open up to this strange woman. No way.

  Toni slapped her open hands onto her knees. “Yes, about Max. It meant so much to her to find you, and it kills me that she died before she could.”

  Noel didn’t say the obvious, that waiting until your child was forty-five years old wasn’t really rushing, but she nonetheless tried t
o be diplomatic. “I didn’t know her, Toni. I never met her, and I never tried to find her.” She stood up, adopting the polite, businesslike mien she’d shown through much of the day. “I’m going to go home and try to make some decisions. I promise to call you about your proposal.”

  “Fine.” Now Toni was all business, too. “If you’re going to fix it, you’d better start with the porch. It’s a hazard. And a buyer will notice the wind whipping in through the back door.”

  “Okay. Can you send me an estimate?”

  Rolling her eyes, Toni stood perfectly still for a few moments, then said, “Three thousand for labor, plus materials. That’ll depend on what you want to use.”

  “Uhm, I’d like a written estimate if you don’t mind. My brother is helping me make decisions, and he’s very persnickety.”

  “Fine,” Toni sighed, clearly aggrieved.

  “I’d like to get started soon. Do you have time?”

  “Yeah. As long as we don’t get a lot of snow or ice, I can start right away.”

  “Great.” Noel extended her hand and shook Toni’s. “It was good to meet you.”

  “You too.” As Noel started to leave, Toni asked, in a voice filled with frustrated interest, “Are you married or have kids or anything?”

  “No,” Noel said, turning briefly to face her. “I teach third grade. That’s enough kids for me.” She started to walk away, but stopped and added, “I just got out of a ten year relationship. With a woman.”

  “Wow,” Toni said, looking surprised. “Max would have been blown away.”

  “Was she…?”

  “Oh, no.” She laughed and her face grew animated for the first time. Her eyes shown with affection and her smile was sweet and full. “She always said she was gay from the waist up. She loved women, but didn’t understand the sexual attraction.”

  Laughing rather coldly, Noel said, “Sometimes it’s just the opposite for me.” With that, she departed, leaving Toni to stare at the empty doorway, a befuddled expression on her handsome face.

  ***

  The next afternoon, Heidi pushed open the door of a dimly lit bar and smiled when the few inhabitants raised their arms in unison to shield their eyes from the glow of the setting sun.

  “I was hoping you’d be here,” Heidi said to Toni. She sat on a bar stool next to her friend and said to the bartender, “Our pal doesn’t look like she had a good afternoon.”

  “So I’ve heard.” The bartender, a silver-haired woman whose kind, sharp eyes belied her age, added, “I think I’m getting a pretty one-sided description of Max’s daughter.”

  “I liked her,” Heidi declared. “She didn’t waste our time, she accepted all of our comments, and she seemed very professional.”

  “She called me this afternoon. She won’t hold a second mortgage for me, so she’s gonna fix it up and dump it like a piece of trash,” Toni said, glumly. “She didn’t even want to discuss price. It clearly means nothing to her. Nothing at all.” She leaned over and rested her head on her crossed arms.

  “A lot of people don’t like to carry paper,” Heidi said, rubbing her back gently, “even though it’s a pretty good investment. Maybe she’s just risk averse.”

  “She’s gay,” Toni said, her words accompanied by a smirk from Jackie, the bartender.

  “Really? I wouldn’t have guessed.” Heidi looked at her friend for a few moments, then in a casual tone, asked, “Are you going to put her on your to-do list?”

  “No way,” Toni said, feeling slightly disgusted at the thought.

  “Toni says she’s not very attractive,” Jackie commented.

  “Get me a gin and tonic and I’ll set you straight.” Heidi turned and stuck her tongue out at Toni. “She has beautiful blonde hair, really pretty pale blue eyes, and is model thin. She dresses nicely too.” After another quick tongue exposure, Heidi took a sip of her drink. “We didn’t talk about her personal life, but I assume she’s some kind of professional.”

  Toni took a sip of her beer. “Teaches third grade, her hair’s probably dyed, she likely wears tinted contacts, and she’s not thin, she’s skinny. When she was sitting down her coat opened, and she was flat as a board. She’s all bones and hard angles.”

  “You’re just saying that because you liked her so much,” Heidi teased.

  “I don’t think she’s really Max’s kid. How does Max’s dark, coarse hair turn into that shiny blonde stuff? Max had brown eyes, not those pale blue ones. She didn’t look a thing like her.”

  “Yes, she did,” Heidi said. “They had the same build, but Noel doesn’t have Max’s adorable beer belly.”

  Fondly, Toni said, “I’ll never understand how that woman was so skinny and managed to have a gut.”

  “Genetics, I guess,” Heidi said. “But Noel obviously didn’t get that from her mother.”

  Toni spent a moment reconsidering her newfound belief that it was just as well Max had never been able to meet her daughter, but quickly reminded herself that Noel was the kind of prissy, tight-ass woman Max had no patience with. She stood up and put a five dollar bill on the bar. “No, she didn’t. She didn’t get her mother’s trusting nature, either. I’ve got to go home and type up an estimate for my new boss. Whoopee.”

  They watched her leave with Jackie commenting, “The only way she would’ve liked that girl is if she’d handed her the keys and the deed.”

  ***

  Two weeks later, Noel returned to Delaware to check on Toni’s progress. The weather had been warmer than normal, and Toni had been able to use every day to her advantage.

  Noel got out of her car and took out her planner, making notes on the progress. Then she snapped a few pictures with her phone. She was down on her hands and knees when Toni came up behind her. “Boo,” she said quietly.

  Laughing, Noel got to her feet and dusted off her knees. “You’re going to have to do better than that. I have eighteen eight and nine-year-olds who do their best to drive me crazy every day.” She pointed to the half-finished porch. “You’ve done a great job.”

  Toni hooked her thumbs into the side pockets of her jeans, and rocked back on her boots. “Do you have experience in building?”

  “Some, but I’ve never had a porch built. My brother gave me a long checklist of things I should watch for. He’s a CPA,” she said as if this explained everything.

  “Mind if I look? CPAs might know things about porches that I’ve missed.”

  Somewhat reluctantly, Noel turned the book around. Toni scanned the list, nodding with satisfaction. “This is a good list.”

  Noel reclaimed her book and snapped it closed.

  That abrupt gesture almost made Toni reassess her thoroughly considered decision to try to be friends with Noel. She knew that’s what Max would have wanted, and if she couldn’t buy The Sandpiper maybe she could convince Noel to run it. But even Max wouldn’t have wanted her to have to grovel to get even a chink out of this icy woman. Casually, Toni asked, “Is your brother adopted too?”

  “Yes. All three of us are.”

  “Three?”

  “We have a sister.”

  “Where do you fall in the lineup?”

  “I’m the youngest. My brother is five years older and my sister’s just a year older.”

  “That’s pretty close in age.”

  “Yeah. The agency was reluctant to place me with my parents since my sister was so close in age, but they gave in. Luckily.”

  “That must be kinda nice…not to be…alone. Well, maybe you don’t think of it as being alone…because…you know…” she trailed off weakly, wishing she’d started a conversation about the weather.

  “Do you have any siblings?”

  “Yeah.” Toni scratched at her head, and wished once again that she hadn’t opened her mouth. “I’ve got a younger brother and a sister.”

  “Then you know how nice it is,” Noel said curtly. “I can pay you for the rest of the porch. Just give me a second to write a check.”

  Toni follo
wed along behind her, watching impatiently as Noel used the hood of her car to write the check. She was desperate to make a few suggestions, but everything she said had come out wrong. Still, she couldn’t let her ideas drop. Things needed to be done to make The Sandpiper shine again. “It’s a little early to start, but I think your next project should be to paint the exterior.”

  Turning, Noel narrowed her eyes a little as she handed Toni the check. “Do you just not like to be indoors?”

  Showing an embarrassed grin, Toni said, “No, I like to work indoors, I just think curb appeal is important.”

  Noel smirked. “Now you’re starting to sound like a real estate agent. Two weeks ago you said nothing needed to be done.”

  “Well, I’ve spent a lot of time outside the last two weeks, and I’ve been looking around at the neighbors. The Sandpiper is the homeliest inn on the block. You’re not gonna get people to look at the inside if they don’t look at the outside.”

  Noel sighed heavily. She leaned against her car and let her eyes wander along every part of the house. It did need to be painted. “I’m not sure this is the best time to do it. Maybe I should see if I can stir up any interest first.”

  “I talked to Heidi, and she thinks it would help attract buyers. She says it sets a bad first image or something like that. She said it’s hard for a buyer to get over that.”

  Noel twirled her pen in her hand as she continued to look at all the peeling paint on the most exposed parts of the house. “I assume you know someone who paints houses?”

  Showing her most attractive grin, Toni said, “It just so happens that I do. My friend Roxy is a painter, and she and I work together on big jobs if I don’t have anything else going on.”

  “This is gonna cost me an arm and a leg, isn’t it?”

  “It’ll be less than a new bathroom.” She bit her lip, and started to add up the numbers. “I think.”

  “Great. But I need seven of those, too.”

  “If we get the facade fixed up, you’ll probably change your mind about that.”