by Ritter Ames
"Please, don't apologize," Kate said and motioned toward her neighbor. "This is Meg Berman. She helps me with my business."
"Nice meeting you," Meg said. Kate held her breath to see if her friend would say anything more and almost sighed in relief when Meg stepped back after the handshake.
"I…" Lila said, waving a hand in the direction of the house's interior. "I'm probably intruding, but I had some things for Dustin and Dara. A kind of picture scrapbook for each of them to take in the move. I finished the two books last night." She half-turned and motioned back toward the other end of the house. "I left the books in their rooms."
Kate smiled. "I'll make sure they get packed in the boxes they'll be carrying with them. So the kids can look at them along the way."
Lila swallowed and nodded but didn't speak for a moment. She looked off in the distance and took a deep breath before she said, "I know this is an inconvenience for you, all this sorting and packing for two different locations. But…well, it may not matter. Blaine and I need to talk again and…" She moved back to the doorway, then stopped for a moment and almost whispered. "Thank you for understanding. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get to work."
I wonder what that's about. Kate hoped they weren't changing their minds again about Sydney staying, but she could understand wanting the kids to stay together, too.
Kate watched Meg's face get almost as red as her hair, but no words came from her mouth until they saw Lila's car drive away. Even from the distance, they had no difficulty reading the word bitch scratched deeply into the paint.
"That's awful." Meg pointed at the car. "Does she know who damaged the door?"
"Someone with a sharp key or knife who doesn't want her speaking out on hot-topic issues."
"And I supposed Collier used this as a means of trying to prove her unfit."
Kate shook her head. "I think things were long past the point of needing new examples for him. When I met with Lila yesterday we walked out together. She caught my surprised look, I guess, when I saw the scratches, and she explained they'd been left behind a couple of weeks ago when she and Sydney went out to dinner together. Unfortunately, Sydney was the one who first discovered them."
"People can be so mean."
"But the marks do help prove up Collier's concerns, whether we like it or not. And given the cryptic way she just spoke, Lila may be coming around to the same idea. Let's hope Sydney goes for it, if that is indeed the case."
"All because she's taken strong stances on feminism, the environment, and civil rights issues. Anyone else would be pleased his wife climbed the environmental corporate ladder to her level." Meg had a full head of steam and plowed on with her rant, "He had a detective comb every police blotter and newspaper morgue, looking for anything violent that occurred at any demonstration he could prove she or her group participated in. He even claimed her work as a watchdog to monitor voting booths across the northern states during contested elections showed politics was more important to her than the children. Then his attorney argued before the judge and found witnesses to back up the bogus claims that if the kids were left with their mother they ran the risk of being bombed in their home or car by some activist opposed to one of her causes." Meg ended by making a hrumph sound deep in her throat. "If that woman killed him and I was on the jury, she would walk."
Oh boy! Time to divert Meg's attention. "Okay, here's the outline for us to use to keep the tasks we need to do in order and to stay on schedule. One thing we still need to consider, however, is moving Dustin's terrarium. Since your boys have the bearded dragon, I thought you might be able to figure out a couple of options for us."
"I know what you're doing." Meg cocked an eyebrow.
"Never doubted it." Kate looked her friend in the eye and smiled. Now that the subject was officially changed, she turned attention back to the notebook. "Dustin says he wants his iguana to stay with him during the move. The lizard is a baby, and transporting it shouldn't be difficult, but the terrarium will be unwieldy. In case the dad overrides the son's decision—"
"Like he seems to do everyone else's choices."
"We need alternative shipping ideas. Just in case," Kate emphasized the last and raised her own dark blonde eyebrow in response to Meg's tweezed brow going even higher.
Meg blew out a big breath. "Okay, I'll climb down off my soapbox. I'll make sure all the pets are taken care of. Okay?"
"I think the Labrador will be fine."
"You never know. Even the nicest dogs can become biters if they get anxious about a move."
Kate couldn't help laughing. "Just make sure you don't take a bite out of Collier."
"Moi?" Meg's expression was all innocence. "I would never take that pleasure away from Lila."
"Come on—let's go in," Kate said, "I just brought you out here to see the view."
"And it really is a nice one." Meg walked back to the railing and squinted, cocking her head to one side so her short fiery curls bounced with the movement. "You can't see it from here, but we used to climb Mount Equinox when I was in high school." She pointed to the north. "We've been talking about taking the boys camping again sometime this summer. We should all go when school's out, both our families. This job will be completed by then."
"Well, we'd better get a move on if we want to get finished on time." Kate clasped the project notebook to her chest. "I want to show this balcony to Keith before the house sells, too. I don't know if we could add a balcony on our house and make it look right, but I'd love something like this outside our master bedroom."
"I like this over-high railing, too," Meg said, running her hand along the polished wood resting atop the steel bars that put everything at nearly chest level. "Anything waist-high and you run the risk of someone still accidentally going over the side. At least with boys like mine, that is. Something this high makes such a thing less likely."
Kate took another cleansing breath and smiled. "I could get used to this."
The two women reentered the house, and Meg commented, "My feet just disappear in the carpet pile. Do you think Collier would mind if I worked barefoot?"
"Probably." Kate rolled her eyes. "Let's keep our shoes on just in case, Ms. Troublemaker."
"Spoilsport."
"Sticks and stones, my friend."
They were grinning when they reached the hall. "Come on into Dara's room. I'll show you how we're going to start on the closets," Kate said.
The younger daughter's bedroom was a fairy tale setting, with mountain top castles painted high on the walls and wildflower meadows near the baseboards to merge with the thick carpeting. Kate knew her daughter, Suzanne, would love the room but was equally aware that twin Samantha would roll her eyes unless it was tied somehow to soccer or Barbie. She sighed. Right now the twins preferred sharing a room, but the battles for style were becoming more frequent. A compromise, and probably new room assignments, would be coming soon.
"Something wrong, Kate?"
She shook her head. "Nothing a look in The Great Big Book on Parenting won't cure."
"Well if you ever find a copy, I want a peek, too."
"Deal," Kate said, and grinned. One of the things she liked best about Meg is how her parenting style was just as make-it-up-as-you-go as the McKenzies' efforts. "The closet is over here." She slid away a section of an alpine mountain and revealed an almost wall-to-wall enclave of clothing and accessories. "I asked Collier and Lila to help the kids sort out the clothes they wouldn't be wearing before the move, so we can pack them ahead of time."
Meg looked in the closet and around the room. "I don't see any boxes."
"We're just doing the clothes now. We don't need boxes." Kate reached for a high shelf and pulled down a box of extra tall garbage bags. "I put these here last night. There are several boxes of trash bags in each closet." She shuffled clothes around on the rods so like items, in this case winter clothing, hung together on the rod closest to the door.
"I'm confused," Meg said. "Why would you want to j
ust toss them in the sacks? Won't the client get mad if clothes are a wrinkled mess when they unpack?"
Kate winked. "No wrinkles, no folding. Watch this." She pulled out a bag, then moved to the section of the closet holding Dara's winter dresses and took a second to shake the bag open. With one hand, she pushed back neighboring clothes and held them back with one shoulder, so a collection of dresses about a foot wide now hung separately. The opened garbage bag was placed around the hem level of the dresses, and then moved up toward the hanger hooks. When the bag completely enclosed all of the dresses, Kate cinched the top tight around all of the hooks, wrapped the plastic drawstrings around the hanger tops for extra support, then tied everything together.
"Now, we can lift this bag in one piece," she explained, using one hand to grasp the hidden hangers and remove all of the dresses at one time from the closet rail. "The movers can hang up the bags in the moving van, or they can be laid down flat. But either way, wrinkling is minimized, and unpacking clothes is nothing more than hanging everything in the new closets and pulling off the sack."
She pulled a stack of adhesive-backed pink labels from her pocket and slapped one on each side of the bag. "There. Now the preprinted pink label will highlight for movers that it needs to go into Dara's room in the California house."
Meg's eyes were wide. "That is an amazing idea. I knew you were clever, but your bag of tricks never fails to amaze me."
"Thank you, all accolades are truly appreciated." Kate moved back into the middle of the room and spun slowly to take in the scope of the area. "This room doesn't look too hard, but we'll probably have to do all of the packing ourselves. Dara is helpful, and likes to do things herself, but she's only eight. She'll probably need a little guidance, and we'll have to double check any of the boxes she does pack."
They turned as both heard running footsteps on the stairs. Sydney, the Colliers' older daughter, moved into sight, backtracking when she passed the doorway. The teen's long hair, brunette with highlights, flowed down the back of her green and white Hazelton High T-shirt in thick, layered curls. "Oh, sorry to disturb. I needed to come home and grab a hoodie for my run tonight. It's supposed to turn cooler with a chance of rain, and coach won't let us leave after practice if we aren't dressed for the weather."
"You didn't disturb us," Kate said. "It's nice seeing you again. This is Meg Berman. She helps me in my business."
The teen came into the room, a soft smile lighting her face. She shook hands with Meg, then cupped hands around her elbows in an almost protective measure. "Nice meeting you.
"So what's your sport?" Meg asked.
"Competitive figure skating. Individual. You know, like Michele Kwan."
"You have Olympic dreams?"
"Definitely." Sydney started backing out of the room. "I hate to be rude, but I only had enough time to run here and get back to school." She offered a quick wave. "It's good seeing you again, Mrs. McKenzie."
"You too, Sydney. If you're driving, be careful," Kate said.
"I have a friend waiting for me outside. Bye."
Less than a minute later her footsteps again hit the stairs, this time heading down to the first floor and out the front door.
"Professional hopes, I suppose?" Meg mused. "I know from reading the paper she's an honor roll student."
"And promising entrepreneur as well. Come on, and let me show you her workshop," Kate said, and led the way to a small room tucked away a few doors down the hall. A long cherrywood table filled up the middle space, holding an astounding collection of jaw-dropping purses, totes, belts, and even boot toppers. Another smaller table standing against the closet wall displayed knives and curved tools, along with a high beam lamp and a wheeled chair. The whole back wall held bins filled with a variety of leather, fabric, beads, buttons, and bindings of every sort. A dull black, heavy-duty sewing machine sat under the only window. "This is Sydney's business. And she told me in no uncertain terms she would pack all of this herself."
Meg wandered over to the work table and touched a wooden handle of a tool, the look of which implied it was used to poke holes in leather. "This is pretty astounding."
"What's astounding is how much she gets for all of these pieces."
"What's the average price?" Meg asked.
Kate quoted a figure high enough to make her friend gasp, then added, "She hooked up with a New York designer who added them to her collection. The items are all made from natural materials, and Sydney uses as many recycled pieces as she can. People have really been drawn to the line."
Fingering one of belts, Meg asked, "I wonder what she would charge me directly if I ordered one of these for Gil."
"If she gives you a price break, let me know, because I want a tote like this one." Kate held up a leather bag with flowers worked into the grain, each petal individually tinted with muted shades. Copper wire finished off a kind of frame to most pieces, coiling through the sewn edges around the outside. On the tote Kate favored, antiqued brass closures offered function as well as fashion for anyone not wanting to leave the top completely open.
She started to look at the finishing inside but heard the doorbell chime.
"That's what we get for gawking. We had no idea someone had driven up." Meg said, following Kate back into the hallway. "At least this time the person didn't just pop up behind us."
As the women moved to the stairs, Kate said, "This house is so spread out, it makes it easy to miss things, unless you're on the back deck or where we were earlier on the master bedroom balcony. If we hadn't been talking so much and looking out toward the national forest, we'd have noticed Lila's arrival, since out there is the only direct view to the driveway because of all the trees."
At the bottom step, the flooring transitioned to parquet, and Kate's heels clicked as she hurried across the foyer. The skinny two-story sidelights showed someone at the door, but the person stood too close, and all Kate could make out was a lustrous head of chestnut hair. At first she thought Lila may have returned but then realized this visitor wasn't wearing a full skirt.
"Can I help—?"
Kate was tossed aside, as a tall brunette with a phone sandwiched between her right shoulder and ear shoved the door farther open and stepped inside. Dressed in what was probably her work clothes, a pair of jeans with the Dolce & Gabbana logo emblazoned on a pink leather patch on the back pocket and a matching cotton candy-hued silk tee, the woman took aim with a laser device to shoot off points while talking into her iPhone. She used her free hand to rummage blindly through a D&G labeled handbag. "That's right, Lee Ann, twenty-four foot ceiling in the foyer, some kind of antiqued brass and lead glass craftsman-type hanging light. Nice, but not pricey enough. Be sure to make a note. We'll want to change it out for the viewings. Need to go high end here. The corporate sellers want this turned quickly, and I want the commission to be worth it."
"Excuse me—" Kate tried, but received only a face-out palm in reply.
"Yes, someone let me in, and I'm heading for the interior rooms now. Just stay on the line and I'll keep feeding you measurements and notes I want documented." The woman withdrew a business card case from her bag and flipped it open, extending it as if offering a cigarette. Kate frowned and pulled a card from the pack. Erin Parker. Broker, Vermont Views Real Estate. There was a local office number, followed by a cell number, and a full gamut of social media connection options.
Kate tried again. "Can you—?"
"Oh, for heavens sake! Hold on a minute, Lee Ann." Erin pulled the phone from her ear and faced Kate. Meg moved closer in a show of support. "What are you, the cleaning people? Yes, we'll keep you contracted until the house closes. But right now I have work to do. I have a primo prospect flying in within two days, and I have to transform this house in the interval."
"We are not the cleaning people." Meg looked ready to blow.
"We're organizing the Colliers' move." Kate extended her right hand, so she could not only offer a handshake but could cut off the direct path between M
eg and the real estate pro.
Erin returned the handshake, shook Meg's hand as well, and before turning back to her phone said, "You two look like soccer moms. I realize it's nearly time for all of you to line up to retrieve the kiddies at school. If you leave, put the key on that table over there, and I'll lock up."
She and her rapid laser measure resumed producing measurements for the off-site Lee Ann, and Erin's long legs took her around the corner to disappear in the hall toward the media room and Blaine Collier's office.
"I'll call Collier's personal assistant and figure what to do next. You go see if you can help her," Kate told Meg.
"Keep an eye on her. Got it!"
The foyer felt too open for a phone call, so Kate moved into the great room and seated herself on one of the cushy patterned sofas, tapping her phone against the padded, earth-toned arm. The floor-to-ceiling south-facing windows not only offered a lovely green view but allowed gentle heat from the sun to warm the room. She took a moment to calm herself and sent up a quick prayer for Collier to be tied up in meetings so she could speak with his assistant, Timothy, instead. Then she dialed.
Luck, for once! "Hello, Timothy, it's Kate McKenzie."
"Sorry, Kate, but Mr. Collier is in a meeting."
"That's probably okay. I have a feeling you might be able to help. An Erin Parker is here now, and she wants me to leave her my key. Thought I'd better—"
"No! She's to have no unsupervised access to the house, by Mr. Collier's direct order."
Kate pinched the sharp crease that ran down the left leg of her twills. "Okay. My associate, Meg Berman, is with her now, and I'll make sure one of us stays with her at all times. But really, we don't have the extra time to work as monitors too."
"I completely understand. I'll make Mr. Collier aware of this as soon as possible and do what he suggests to remedy the situation. I know you have kids to pick up soon from school."
If she hadn't known how efficient Timothy Oakes was, Kate would have been a little creeped out that he knew her schedule. But she did know and was grateful he was handling the situation and knew the time constraints. "Thanks so much, Timothy. I know Mr. Collier has to be as grateful for your loyalty as I am."
