Welcome to Serenity

by Sherryl Woods

  “We’ll be fine,” Tom assured her.

  After she’d walked away to greet the young couple, Tom turned to Jeanette. “Okay, tell me the truth. What do you really think?”

  “I think it’s cozy, just the way she said,” she admitted cautiously.

  “What aren’t you saying?” he asked. “Did you spot mold somewhere? Stains on the ceiling that suggest the roof leaks?”

  She shook her head. “It’s perfect.”

  “Then why don’t you sound more enthusiastic? What’s the problem?”

  She lifted her gaze to his and opted for honesty. “I want this house. I fell in love with it the second we walked into the garden. The house is just the right size for me, too. I’d turn one of the downstairs bedrooms into a study, then use the other one temporarily while I had the upstairs made into a master suite, just the way Mary Vaughn suggested. There’s room for a huge tub, a walk-in shower. I’d put in a skylight, too.” She let her imagination run wild. “And a king-size bed with mounds of pillows, a sofa I could curl up on to read.” She sighed. “It would be amazing.”

  When she risked a look at Tom, he was studying her intently. “Any room in there for me? Especially in that king-size bed?”

  She swallowed hard. “Are we talking hypothetically?”

  His lips curved slightly. “If we must.”

  “Then hypothetically there might be room in there for you.”

  “Why didn’t you mention you were looking for a house for yourself?”

  “I didn’t really intend to do that today. It’s just been in the back of my mind for a while now that I’d like something permanent. I thought I might get a few ideas while we were looking around, but I didn’t expect to find the ideal place. Then I walked out here and knew this was the house I wanted.” She regarded him with regret. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry,” he said, touching her cheek. “I can see how much it means to you. And to be honest, I can see you out here.” He grinned. “Of course, I can also see me with you.”

  “What do we do now? Are we going to have a bidding war?”

  He laughed. “I’m sure that would make Mary Vaughn extremely happy, but no. Since you think the owner might negotiate on the asking price, do you have a number in mind? Are you ready to make an offer?”

  Her palms turned damp at the thought of actually committing to a mortgage for the next thirty years, but then she envisioned sitting outside with the Sweet Magnolias and a pitcher of margaritas and she was instantly calmer.

  “Are you sure?” she asked. “You’re the one who needs a place sooner rather than later. You can’t stay at the inn forever.”

  “If you’re really all that worried about my well-being, you could agree to share this house with me.”

  She laughed. “Do you always have an angle? You are such a guy.”

  “I’m not joking,” he assured her. “At least not entirely. I could help out with the renovations, and that room you’re intending to use as a study could be mine for the short term. I’ll pay rent, which will help with your mortgage. Seems like a win-win to me.”

  She wasn’t sure if he was serious or merely testing the waters, but she shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Don’t be so quick to turn me down. I’m very good with a hammer.”

  “Do you know the kind of talk that would stir up? Your job would be on the line within a month.”

  “Just because you and I have a legitimate landlord-tenant business arrangement?”

  She rolled her eyes. “How long do you honestly think it would stay that way?”

  He shrugged, his expression all innocence. “Up to you.”

  “If I thought you could really live by that, I might consider the idea, but we both know otherwise. You’d spend every spare second trying to seduce me.”

  He didn’t even try to deny it, just grinned and said, “But you’re not easy to seduce, are you?”

  “Not usually,” she said. “But I don’t trust myself around you. You have an unpredictable effect on me. I think you can persuade me to do all sorts of things I don’t plan on doing.”

  He tried and failed to hide a self-satisfied smile. “That’s the most encouraging thing I’ve heard in a while. Go make an offer on the house. We’ll deal with the details of our arrangement later.”

  “We don’t have an arrangement,” she insisted.

  “Later,” he said, waving her off. “Go, before that other couple puts in a bid and all of this becomes moot.”

  Jeanette hesitated. Could she really do this? Could she impulsively make an offer on a house she’d seen for the very first time just minutes ago? She’d been frugal with her money. The down payment was tucked away in her savings account. She wasn’t a hundred percent certain what the mortgage and taxes would be, but she knew she could swing it. She was making good money at the spa and she spent very little beyond groceries and rent.

  “Do you want me to run numbers for you?” Tom asked, evidently guessing the source of her hesitation. “I have a calculator with me.”

  “No. I’m just nervous. This would be a huge commitment.”

  “Okay, let’s break it down. You planning on leaving your job and moving somewhere else anytime soon?”

  She shook her head. “No. I love it here.”

  “You have enough for a down payment so that the mortgage won’t strap you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then this makes financial sense and, if that gleam in your eye is anything to judge by, it makes emotional sense, too.”

  A smile began to tug at her lips, then spread. “It does, doesn’t it?”

  “From every angle I can think of.”

  Impulsively, she reached out and gave his hand a squeeze. “Thanks.” She slid open the sliding door to the kitchen and stepped inside. “Mary Vaughn!”

  “In the living room,” she called.

  Jeanette walked in and found her sitting across the table from the couple who’d arrived just moments before. There were papers spread out on the table that suggested they were about to enter their own offer.

  “Mary Vaughn, could I speak to you for a moment?” Jeanette said. “Alone.” She smiled at the couple. “I’m sorry for the interruption.”

  Apparently sensing that she might have a bidding war on her hands, Mary Vaughn excused herself and followed Jeanette into the kitchen. “What’s up? Did Tom decide he wants to make an offer? Because that young couple is about to do the same.”

  Jeanette took a piece of paper from her purse and scribbled a number. “That’s my offer. If you need me to fill out a formal bid, I can do that.”

  Mary Vaughn stared at her without even glancing at the paper. “This is your offer?”

  “Mine,” Jeanette confirmed.

  “And Tom?”

  “We’ve worked this out. He’ll keep looking.” Or he’d keep pestering her about moving in here, but she didn’t think she should share that with Mary Vaughn, not if she was to have a chance at getting this house. Mary Vaughn might be forced to go with the high bidder for the sake of the seller, but she might not be above seeing to it that the other bid was little more than pennies higher just to keep Jeanette and Tom from moving in here together.

  Now Mary Vaughn glanced at the bid Jeanette had written down, then shrugged. “I’ll get you the paperwork to make the offer formal.”

  “Is it high enough to beat what they’re going to offer?” Jeanette asked.

  “I’ll take your offer and theirs to Nancy,” Mary Vaughn said evasively. “She’ll make the decision.”

  “Are we in the same ballpark?” Jeanette persisted. “I want this house, Mary Vaughn.”

  She knew it was a mistake the second the words were out of her mouth. Mary Vaughn now knew Jeanette would up her offer, if need be. />
  “I’ll call Nancy as soon as I have your paperwork and theirs.”

  She went inside, returned with several forms and waited while Jeanette filled them out.

  “I’m going to try to reach Nancy now,” Mary Vaughn told her. “She told me she’d stick close to home today during the hours of the open house, just in case someone made an offer. If you want to wait, you can, though she may need time to think this over.”

  Jeanette nodded. “I’ll wait. I’ll be in the garden with Tom.”

  She found him sitting on the steps that led from the French doors in the dining room to the patio. He stood as she approached. “Well?”

  “I gave her an offer. So did that couple who just arrived. Apparently this is their second visit.”

  “Mary Vaughn’s taking both offers to the seller?”

  She nodded, her expression glum. “If there’s any way to justify it, I think she’ll see to it that Nancy takes their bid.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she’s ticked off about me being here with you.”

  “Oh, come on, she’s a professional. She won’t let her personal feelings interfere with doing the best job she can for her client.”

  “You’re not really that naive, are you? Or is it just that you don’t know Mary Vaughn that well?”

  “Okay, it’s true I don’t know her well at all, but come on, she wouldn’t be as successful as I’m told she is without being thoroughly ethical and above reproach.”

  Jeanette thought of the way the woman had gone after Ronnie, but that wasn’t business. It was personal. “I suppose she has standards about this kind of thing,” she conceded.

  “Not exactly a ringing endorsement,” Tom noted. “Do the two of you have a history?”

  “Not us. The history’s between her and Dana Sue. When Ronnie first got back to town, Mary Vaughn was all over him, despite the fact that he was trying to work things out with Dana Sue. She made no bones about wanting him. It got a little sticky. There’s no love lost between her and Dana Sue.”

  “And by extension, you?” he asked.

  “Oddly enough, no. We’ve always gotten along okay. She’s a client and she encouraged me to join the Christmas festival committee, but that was before she set eyes on you. Something tells me she now considers me a rival.”

  He gazed into her eyes and smiled as he touched her cheek. “There can’t be a rivalry when there’s no contest. You’re the one I want, Jeanette. The only one.”

  She shivered at the intensity in his voice, then forced her gaze away. “Stop saying things like that.”

  “Even if it’s true?”

  “It can’t be true. You’ve only gotten this crazy idea because I’m unattainable. Some men are like that. They only want what they can’t have.”

  “But I can have you,” he said with so much confidence she was tempted to smack him.

  “I don’t think so,” she insisted, backing out of reach. There were a dozen different ways he could prove her wrong just by a touch and they both knew it. She just didn’t intend to admit it.

  The kitchen door slid open a few feet away and Mary Vaughn stepped out. “Jeanette, could you come inside?”

  Nervously, Jeanette went into the kitchen. She glanced around and saw that the other couple was gone. Did that mean what she hoped it did? Or was Mary Vaughn about to tell her that her bid had been rejected?

  Mary Vaughn gave her a halfhearted smile and held out the portable phone. “I have Nancy here and she’d like to speak to you.”

  With her pulse scrambling, Jeanette accepted the phone. “Hi, Nancy, how are you?” she said. “How’s Florida?”

  “Just wonderful,” Nancy said, sounding happier than she had in months. “I love being so close to the beach and the kids.”

  “I’m glad,” Jeanette said sincerely. “I know it was lonely for you here after Garrett died.”

  “It was, but until a few minutes ago, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about letting go of that house and all my memories, so I could stay down here. Then Mary Vaughn called with two offers. She mentioned one of them was yours. That was all I needed to hear to be content with my decision.” She laughed. “Thank goodness, yours was the highest bid and more than I’d hoped to get, as well. My kids would never have let me hear the end of it if I’d let sentiment overrule common sense.”

  “I fell in love with the house the second I walked into the garden,” Jeanette said honestly, barely able to contain her excitement.

  “You and I talked a few times about gardening when we had a chance to visit on the patio at the spa,” Nancy recalled. “That’s how I know you’ll take good care of it. As far as I’m concerned we have a deal, Jeanette. You, Mary Vaughn and the bank can take care of the details, and assuming everything goes smoothly, the house is yours. I want you to make me a promise, though.”

  “Anything,” Jeanette said at once.

  “Will you let me stop by for a visit if I get back up that way?”

  “You’d be welcome anytime,” Jeanette told her, trying to contain her urge to give a shout that would shatter Nancy’s eardrums. “Thank you so much. I can’t tell you what this means to me. I’m so excited, I’m shaking.”

  “I just hope you’ll be as happy there as I’ve been.”

  “I’m sure I will be. Goodbye, Nancy, and thank you again.”

  As she disconnected the call, she turned to see Tom regarding her with a grin.

  “It’s yours?”

  “It’s mine, or it will be once the bank approves my loan and we can close on it,” she said as he scooped her up and whirled her around. When he set her back on her feet, she caught a quick glimpse of—what? sadness?—in Mary Vaughn’s eyes. But then she forced her trademark smile.

  “Congratulations,” Mary Vaughn told her. “How would you two like to go out for dinner and some champagne to celebrate? I’ll take you to Sullivan’s.”

  Tom gave Jeanette a questioning look. “What do you think? Are you free?”

  Jeanette thought Mary Vaughn was being extremely gracious under the circumstances. Maybe she was also just a little anxious to show the world that she wasn’t the sore loser she’d been when Dana Sue won Ronnie for a second time. After considering the invitation for a moment, she nodded. Why not let the other woman have a chance to save face.

  “We’d love to, Mary Vaughn,” she said. “And thank you for whatever you said to Nancy to persuade her to take my offer.”

  “Oh, sweetie, there was no persuasion involved. It was all about dollars and cents—that and the fact that you took the time to be nice to her when she was hurting after Garrett died. That’s just more proof that what goes around comes around.” She sighed audibly, then murmured half to herself, “Probably a lesson I need to learn.”

  Jeanette caught her words. “Mary Vaughn, are you okay?”

  That fake smile she’d perfected was back in place so fast, Jeanette almost thought she’d imagined the weary resignation she’d heard in her voice. “I’m just peachy, sugar, but I sure could use a glass of champagne. Why don’t I meet you at Sullivan’s in fifteen minutes. I’ll close up here and put a Sale Pending sign out front.”

  “Okay, we’ll see you there,” Jeanette said.

  She had the distinct impression that Mary Vaughn needed that time to compose herself for the performance she was about to give to the whole town, the one to prove she was still on top and unfazed by whatever was going on between Jeanette and Tom. Jeanette couldn’t help admiring her. If they’d switched places, she’d be heading home to comfort herself with a half gallon of strawberry-cheesecake ice cream.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Tom couldn’t think of a single time in his life when an evening promised to be more awkward. He had a hunch that all eyes were going to be on the three of them when they wal
ked into Sullivan’s, as the locals tried to figure out when the hair-pulling was likely to start between Mary Vaughn and Jeanette.

  After all, Mary Vaughn had hardly made a secret of her interest in him. And Jeanette had publicly claimed him in the stands at last night’s football game, even though she said she didn’t really want him, at least not the way he wanted her. He thought she might be a trifle delusional about her own feelings, but he couldn’t prove it. Not yet, anyway.

  Of course, he could always hope that people in Serenity kept their noses out of everyone else’s business, but from what he’d observed that was most definitely not the case. He had only to look at the Sweet Magnolias, their husbands and his own secretary for proof of that.

  “You don’t seem to be looking forward to this dinner,” Jeanette commented as they drove to Sullivan’s.

  “What was your first clue?” he asked.

  “The fact that you haven’t said two words since we left Mary Vaughn.”

  “Don’t you think this is going to be incredibly weird?”

  “Yes,” she said without hesitation. “But we owe it to her.”

  He stared at her in confusion. The workings of this woman’s mind were a mystery to him. “Why is that?”

  “She’s trying to save face, prove it doesn’t matter that you rejected her and chose me. Not that you have, of course.”

  “I have,” he said flatly so there could be no mistake about it. “And whatever your intentions last night, that kiss you laid on me at the stadium told the world that you chose me back.”

  She flushed slightly. “I had my reasons for that kiss. Don’t make too much of it.”

  He glanced at her with undisguised skepticism, then focused on the road again. “Want to explain that?”

  “Not really.”

  “In that case, I prefer to think that you were staking your own claim.”

  “Yes, that would suit your ego, I’m sure.”

  “Without evidence to the contrary, why shouldn’t I come to that conclusion?”