by Darcie Chan
Over the past five months, she’d learned that Kyle was definitely a “meat and potatoes” sort of man, but he was willing to try almost anything she made. Claudia smiled to herself, remembering how he’d eaten three helpings of her Greek stuffed eggplant.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock at the front door, followed by the sound of a key opening it.
“I’m in the kitchen,” she called. She was turning the chicken and listening for Kyle’s footsteps when she felt his arms slide around her waist from behind.
“Hey,” he said in her ear as she leaned back and looked around at him.
“Right on time,” she said, before he leaned to kiss her quickly on the mouth. “There’s fresh tea in the fridge. And I think there’s cold beer in there, too. How was your shift?”
“Quiet,” Kyle replied. He opened the door to the refrigerator and removed a pitcher. “But Fitz told me when he came in that the DiSanti sisters had a bit of a blowup this afternoon.”
“A blowup?”
“Yeah, apparently they got into it and started yelling at each other in front of their houses, right out in the open. Upset Emily pretty bad, or at least that’s what Ruth said. She was over at The Bookstop when it happened.”
“That’s the small-town gossip chain for you,” Claudia said with a half-smile. She felt a twinge of insecurity as Kyle mentioned Emily’s name, but she quickly brushed it off.
“I know, it’s tough to keep anything private in Mill River,” Kyle said. “But if you go and scream at someone in public, well, I can’t imagine you’d care about privacy.”
“Almost everyone in town knows about Josie’s will now, anyway. I went walking with a couple of the teachers yesterday—Jan the science teacher and Brenda from special ed—and they were telling me that people in town are starting to think of the situation as Mill River’s own little reality show.” Claudia looked at Kyle and did her best impersonation of a dramatic television announcer. “Will the DiSanti sisters find the clues hidden on their properties and discover the key to their inheritance? Will they start to rebuild their relationship and honor their mother’s memory? Or, will they lose out on another chance to change their lives? Find out on this week’s episode of The Treasure Next Door.”
“A little melodramatic, but not bad,” Kyle said, grinning at her.
Claudia rolled her eyes. “I have no idea how it’s going to turn out, not that it’s any of my business. The only thing that worries me is that Josie DiSanti was my landlady, and I’ve been paying my rent to her attorney since she died. If her estate sells this place, I’ll have to find somewhere else to live. It sure would be easier to move during the summer, before school starts again.”
“Yeah, that’s true. The sisters have until the end of August to do what they’re supposed to, but it might not take them that long. And you might find out about your house situation a little sooner.”
Claudia nodded. “That would be good. They could just finish what they need to and get on with their lives, without any more shouting matches.”
“Fitz says they’ve been feuding for years, and there’s no telling how bad it’ll get. Back when I was in Boston, we had two women in my district who were neighbors and bitter enemies. I swear, we were out there every other day breaking up arguments. We finally ended up arresting both of them after they got into a fistfight.” Kyle chuckled and shook his head. “I’d hate for calls to start coming into the station here if they get into it again.”
Claudia felt another jab of insecurity as she envisioned Kyle, in his attractive police uniform, potentially making repeated visits to the beautiful DiSanti sisters to mediate their disputes. What if the sisters began to have physical altercations? Wasn’t watching a “chick fight” supposed to be a huge turn-on for men?
“Claudia? Earth to Claudia, please come in, over.” Kyle’s voice jarred her back to their conversation.
“Sorry,” she said. “I zoned out a little. What did you say?”
“Just wondered what we’re having. I’m starving.”
Claudia ran down the menu for him as she dipped a finger into the tub of whipped topping thawing on the kitchen counter. “Everything’s pretty much ready, other than the strawberries for dessert. Here, come grab a plate.”
“Awesome,” Kyle said. As she served him some chicken, he balanced a dish on one hand and slipped his other arm around her waist. “I was just thinking,” he said in her ear, “how I’ve fallen in love with the perfect woman. Smart, drop-dead gorgeous, and a good cook to boot. But, I think I’d like something other than strawberries for dessert.”
Claudia leaned back against him and smiled coyly. “Oh, really? That’s a shame.” Secretly, she was delighted that he’d reassured her of his feelings for her at exactly the moment she’d needed him to. She held up her serving tongs and turned to face him. “I splurged, you know,” she said, batting her eyelashes. “I got an angel food cake and whipped cream and everything to make strawberry shortcake.”
“Whipped cream is good,” he said as she giggled. He put his plate on the counter and pulled her closer. “But, I’m not sure we’ll be needing anything else.”
CHAPTER 14
1986
“MOMMY, YOU’RE PACING AGAIN,” ROSE POINTED OUT AS her mother casually walked laps in their small kitchen. She emphasized the new word she’d learned from watching her mother deal with uncertainty over the potential sale of her first house.
“Am I? Oh. I guess I am. Nervous energy has to go somewhere. Finish up your dinner, girls. I want you in bed a little early tonight.”
At this, Rose sat up straighter in her chair and looked with wide eyes at her sister across the table.
“Why? Today’s Saturday, so it’s not a school night.” Her mother didn’t reply, so she guessed at the answer. “Is there going to be a fire drill?”
“Maybe.”
“Why do we have to have another one? We’ve already had lots of drills.”
“Because it’s important to practice often, in case there’s ever a real fire. I want you girls to know how to get out of the house by yourselves if you have to.”
Rose sighed. It was the same explanation every time, and she knew by now that there was no use arguing.
Sure enough, late in the night, she and Emily were awakened by the high-pitched screeching of the smoke alarm.
“Oh, no,” Emily said. She sat up in bed and peered around. “I don’t want to go outside. It’ll be cold.”
“Come on,” Rose said. She was already up, stepping into her shoes and pulling on a jacket over her nightgown. “It’ll just take a minute, and then we’ll be back inside. We’ve got to hurry, though. Mom’s waiting.”
When Emily had put on her shoes and coat, Rose grabbed her little sister by the hand and led her to the bedroom door. They paused there, both of them reaching to press a palm flat against the door.
“It doesn’t feel hot,” Emily said.
Rose nodded in agreement. “The important thing is to check. We’re just pretending now, so we can go out.”
They opened the bedroom door and went to the top of the stairs.
“Remember to hold the rail, and walk bent over so you’re close to the ground,” Rose said. Still holding Emily’s hand, she led the way downstairs, through the darkness pierced by the wail of the smoke detector. As they felt their way down, Rose had strange recollections of walking down a different set of stairs. In one, a much larger hand held on to her own. “Not too fast, Rosie,” her father’s voice said in her memory. “One step at a time.” She remembered looking up at him. It wasn’t a face that appeared in her mind’s eye, though, but a tanned, muscular forearm and a shiny wristwatch.
She also remembered being carried down those same stairs, crying and struggling to breathe in thick smoke.
As Rose’s foot stepped onto the floor, the loud reality of her situation drove the memories away. She waited a moment for Emily to join her, and together they headed toward the front door. It was the close
st exit to them, but when they reached it they realized that a small balloon had been tied to the doorknob.
“Uh-oh,” Emily said.
“Yeah, it’s a no-exit balloon. That means the fire is near here, and we have to find another way out. Let’s go to the kitchen.” With one arm stretched out in front of her, Rose pulled Emily into the dark kitchen toward the sliding glass door. There was no balloon tied to the handle, so she unlocked the door and pulled it open.
The frigid January air surged against their faces and nearly froze the goose bumps on their bare legs. Rose stepped outside, but Emily hesitated.
“Rosie, I have to go pee.”
“Come on,” Rose said, tugging on Emily’s hand. “Just hold it a few minutes until we meet Mom. We’re almost done.”
They walked across the back deck, down onto the path that had been cleared of snow, to the gate. Once they were through it, they could go around to the front of the house and meet their mother at the usual rendezvous point in the far left corner of the yard.
Rose reached up to raise the wooden bar holding the gate closed, but the metal hinge was stiff. It didn’t move when she pushed upward on it.
“Rosie, hurry!” Emily pleaded beside her.
“It’s stuck,” Rose said. Her teeth chattered, and her nightgown blew against her legs in the cold wind. She tried hitting the bar from beneath with her hand, but it was still immovable. When she placed her hand against the hinge, she felt a cold liquid materialize on her palm.
“I think there’s ice on it,” she said. Rose brushed away the snow on top of the bar and pressed her hands against the hinge, first one, then the other, trying to warm it. When she could no longer bear the cold of the metal against her skin, she cupped her hands together and breathed into them.
“Rosie, I, oh, no,” Emily said beside her. It was the last thing her little sister said before she started to cry.
Rose blinked back tears of her own and placed her hands back over the hinge. After another minute, she grabbed the wooden bar and heaved upward with all her strength. The bar raised slowly, stiffly, until it finally cleared the latch. Quickly, she pushed open the gate.
“Come on,” she said. She held out a hand to Emily, and feeling the warmth of her sister’s smaller one as she clasped it was exquisite relief. They trudged through the snow around the corner of the house. Rose spotted their mother standing in the usual meeting place. “There’s Mom.”
“She’s going to be mad at me. I peed in my pants,” Emily said between sobs. “I hate fire drills.”
Rose put her arm around Emily’s shoulders and pulled her sister close as they both shivered. “Don’t worry, she won’t be mad. She’ll just be glad we got out.” The horrible sound of the smoke alarm was still audible, even outside the house. “It’s okay if you pee your pants, as long as the fire doesn’t get you.”
ON TUESDAY MORNING, JOSIE ARRIVED AT WORK ON TIME AND HAD scarcely taken off her coat when her phone rang. When Ned arrived a few minutes later, she was bundled up again and heading back outside.
“I’ve got a meeting on the listing,” she said as they passed each other at the front door. “I won’t be long.” She rushed out and didn’t look back or give Ned a chance to ask questions.
When she emerged from Phil Lawson’s office a half hour later, her trembling hands carried a large manila envelope. A huge grin was plastered across her face. Still, Josie waited until she was securely inside her car with the doors closed before she allowed her barely controlled excitement to escape. For a good long minute, she whooped and hollered at the top of her lungs. When the rush was over, she leaned forward, smiling, laughing to herself, with her eyes closed and her forehead resting on the steering wheel.
A knock on her car window startled her.
She looked up to see a stooped, well-dressed elderly man with a cane peering in at her. She rolled down her window.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the man said. “I overheard you yelling … I just wanted to make sure you were all right.” He cocked his head and waited for her reply.
“I’m fine,” she said, wiping her eyes. She glanced around, but no one else appeared to have been within earshot of her private celebration. “I just got some very good news, and I guess I got carried away. It was kind of you to ask, though.”
“Um-hmm,” the man said, nodding, although he didn’t appear entirely convinced that she was mentally stable. “Happy tears are the good kind. You take care now.” He smiled at her and continued on his way.
Josie couldn’t help but giggle as she started her car.
Once she’d returned to Circle Realty, she took a deep breath and headed to Ned’s office. He sat tilted back in his chair with his feet up on his desk, immersed in some sort of real estate newsletter. He held a large, half-eaten bagel.
“Hi, Ned,” she said. “Do you have a minute?”
“Hey, Josie, sure. How’d your meeting go?” His tone was polite but superficial, and he slowly, reluctantly uncrossed his feet and put them under his desk. “Wait, don’t tell me,” he continued as he used his thumb to wipe a bit of cream cheese from the corner of his mouth. “You sold Al’s dump by the dump.” Ned’s dark eyes lit up as he smirked at her and took another bite. Clearly, he thought himself amusing, and he hadn’t a clue that she’d actually done it. Josie rolled her eyes and smiled, playing along.
“No, I haven’t sold it … yet,” she told him as she handed him the contract drawn up by the city. “At least not technically, until you’ve signed off on this offer and Al gives me the okay.” She waited, stifling a smug grin as he wordlessly took the offer letter and began reading it. After a moment, he put down his bagel, causing a blob of cream cheese to drop from it onto his desk, but he didn’t look up. Josie watched his eyes flick back and forth as he continued to read.
When he finally did meet her gaze, his typical smart-aleck expression was gone and replaced by a hint of astonishment. It was as if he were seeing her for the first time.
“You got an offer from the city. For twenty-five thousand.”
“Yes. The landfill is due to close in a few years. The city needs the property to build a transfer station to ship out garbage and recyclables.”
“So, they’d raze Al’s house and rezone the lot, I suppose.”
“I’m sure. It would never sell as a residential property, anyway. The city was the only potential buyer that I could think of. Luckily, the mayor thought the purchase would be a good idea and got approval for it from the Board of Aldermen.”
“You met with Phil Lawson?” Ned asked.
Josie nodded. “About a week ago. The board authorized the offer last night.” She was beginning to get impatient. “Given the undesirability of the place, I think the offer from the city is more than fair. If it’s all right with you, I’d like to present it to Al today. I told Phil I’d have an answer for him soon.”
“Well, yeah, sure,” Ned said with a sigh. “It is a fair offer, and it’s always a good thing to have the mayor’s support on a deal.” Josie nodded, wondering whether Ned had really ever closed a deal in which the mayor was personally involved. It didn’t matter, though.
“Great,” she said. “I’ll call Al right away.” She held out her hand for the contract, and Ned returned it to her without hesitation. “Oh, and going back to our original agreement … since I’ve sold this listing, I assume I’ll be promoted to a full-time sales position?”
Ned’s shoulders slumped forward, but he managed a wan smile. “That was our agreement. Congratulations.” He extended his hand to her.
“Thanks, Ned,” Josie said as she shook it and smiled sweetly in return. Although she normally found it revolting to watch Ned consume anything, she had thoroughly enjoyed seeing him eat humble pie.
Al Celebrezze was ecstatic when she reached him at the Ford dealership to let him know she had an offer. He arrived at the office during his lunch hour, breathless and smiling. “I can’t believe it,” he said as he sat down with her to go over the d
etails.
Josie laughed. “I just got lucky when I found out the city was interested in buying your property.”
“You didn’t get lucky, you worked a miracle is what you did,” Al said.
“You give me more credit than I deserve,” Josie said. “But, the offer is a good one, I think. After my commission and closing costs, you should end up with more than twenty thousand dollars on the sale.”
“Twenty thousand dollars,” Al repeated. “I don’t think I ever had that much at one time in my life. And we need it, we really do. My oldest boy is a senior in high school this year, and my wife and I have been worrying how we’ll pay for college. Rachel and I have saved what we could, but it’s still not enough. This money’ll be a lifesaver.”
“I’m so glad,” Josie said. “I’ll tell you something, Al. This was my very first listing and my very first sale as a real estate agent, and the fact that it means so much to you and your family makes it even more special.”
“Your first one?” Al asked. “Well, you hit a homer on your first time at bat, and with a real stinker of a listing.” Josie smiled, feeling her cheeks turn pink as Al looked at her thoughtfully. “I’ll tell you what, I’m going to make sure everybody knows about you and what you did for me. If I can send some more business your way, I’ll be happy to do it.”
Once Josie was back in Mill River, she picked up Emily at St. John’s and headed home. It was hard not to tell her younger daughter the good news, but she wanted to wait until Rose was home from school to tell them both, and Ivy, all at the same time.
She and Emily met Rose as the school bus dropped her off in front of The Bookstop. “Hi, baby,” Josie said as she hugged her six-year-old. “C’mon, let’s go in and see Ivy. Mommy has a surprise for all of you.” She took one of her girls’ hands in each of her own and walked with them toward the front door.
“A surprise!” shrieked Emily, jumping alongside her.
“What is it?” Rose demanded to know, tugging on her arm. “Tell us!”
