by Lee McKenzie
“So, I met your professor. Seems like a nice guy.”
Here we go. “He is.” Best to ignore the reference to him being hers.
“How was your date last night?”
“It wasn’t a date.”
“Right.” Sam stood up and shoved the screwdriver in her back pocket. “How was your fake date?”
Kristi closed the door behind her. She did not want anyone eavesdropping on this conversation. Not Nate, and especially not Jenna. “It was good—his family’s great. He…”
“What?”
“He kissed me.” She’d planned to keep that to herself, but it popped out like the cork from a shaken bottle of champagne.
“Ha! I knew it.”
“You knew what?”
“That it was a real date.” Sam picked up a putty knife and opened a pail of patching compound. “How was it?”
“The date?”
“The kiss, silly.”
Magical. Heart-stopping. Best kiss ever. “It was nice.”
Sam was grinning again. “Just ‘nice’? That’s too bad. I’d have guessed that a man who looks like he does could soften up a girl’s bones without any effort at all.”
“Okay, it was nicer than nice. By a factor of ten, at least. But it was unexpected. I mean, we agreed this was strictly a matter of convenience, no strings attached.”
“Sounds simple, but we both know chemistry doesn’t work that way. The attraction between two people doesn’t have a whole lot to do with logic. Actually, it kind of defies it.”
True. Sam herself was living proof of that. Last winter she had reconnected with AJ Harris, a man from her past, the man who had fathered her son, Will. They were now married and happily ensconced, with Sam’s mother and Will’s nanny, in the house that Ready Set Sold had been hired to renovate when AJ considered selling it.
Kristi was thrilled for Sam. She’d had a hard life, and if anyone deserved to have her happily-ever-after, she did. It’s what every woman wanted and it’s what Kristi promised herself she could have, after she finished raising her daughter.
“Have you talked to Claire this morning?” Kristi asked.
“No, have you?”
“No. She’s been super busy with new clients looking for properties. She hasn’t seen this place yet. After she saw the photographs, she decided to hold off on an appraisal until we have most of the work done.”
“Good idea. Along with being the busiest woman on the planet, she’s also been getting a lot of grief from her ex. She said he keeps calling and bugging her about stuff.”
“That guy is such a jerk. I hope he’s not trying to get back together with her.”
“No, thank God. He wants her to sell their condo.”
“He probably needs the money.”
“And Claire doesn’t. She says she isn’t ready to sell it, and when she is, it’ll be on her terms.”
“He should have taken all of that into account before he hooked up with his new girlfriend.” The guy was a two-timing weasel and Kristi had absolutely no sympathy for him.
“She’ll work it out. I’ve been hoping she’ll meet someone and put this behind her.”
“She might if she wasn’t so busy.”
Sam pulled out a couple of picture hangers with the claw end of her hammer and troweled some plaster over the holes. “We’re all busy. I used to think that working and taking care of my mom was all I could manage. Now I have a home, a husband and a son, and yes, I’m busy. Never been busier, actually, but I’ve never been happier, either. Claire deserves to have that.”
Kristi couldn’t agree more. “We all do.”
“Now that you’re dating Nate, maybe you will.”
And we’re back to that. “Clever, but I don’t see it happening.”
“What about the kiss?”
“It was just a kiss.”
“It was so not just a kiss. You said so yourself. Maybe you should give this thing a chance. Give him a chance.”
Now that Sam was happily ensconced in a beautiful home with the love of her life, she wanted the same for everyone else. Sure, Kristi wanted what Sam had, someday, but for now she was happy with her life as it was.
“The kiss just happened, caught us off guard. We’re both on the same page about this being a way to make our families stop matchmaking.”
Sam was paying close attention to patching the walls but she wasn’t hiding her amusement. “And if you say it out loud often enough, it’s bound to be true.”
They could go around and around this issue all day, and Sam would still think this thing with Kristi and Nate was something it wasn’t. “I should see if Nate’s ready to leave. Jenna’s watching the girls, and both dogs are here, too.”
“No problem. Tell her to give me a shout if she needs a hand with anything. And have fun.”
“There’ll be no fun. This is strictly business.”
Sam opened the door and gave her a playful shove into the hallway. “Get going, and whatever you do, don’t have any fun.”
* * *
NATE COULDN’T REMEMBER the last time he’d been in a furniture store. He completely agreed that a new sofa would spruce up the current family room as well as the next home he and the girls moved to, and almost anything would be an improvement over the one he had now. It was a hand-me-down from Heather’s parents, hauled out of their basement and into the family room after he and Heather got married and bought the house. Like everything else, the plan had been to buy a new one after they were settled and the babies were born, but like all the other plans, it had been put on hold temporarily, and then permanently. Until now.
This morning he was grateful to have Kristi with him because gazing across what appeared to be an acre of furniture was overwhelming. She wanted to bring him here because it was her favorite place for good-quality affordable furniture designed for everyday living. She breezed through the store with confidence and style, and he was content to trail behind, taking in her scent and admiring those dynamite legs. She was wearing lower heels than that first day she’d come to the house, but he still liked the way they emphasized the smooth curves and slender ankles.
She stopped unexpectedly and swung around to check the price tag attached to the arm of a brown sectional, and he almost ran into her. Instinctively he reached out, put his hand on her waist. She smiled up at him, green eyes sparkling, lips within easy kissing distance.
“What do you think?” she asked. She was talking about the sofa.
He was thinking about something else. “It looks good.”
She took a seat and patted the cushion next to her. “Give it a try.”
He sat, bounced a couple of times. “Comfy. I’ll take it.”
“You can’t buy the first sofa you see.”
“Why not?”
“Because there might be something better.” She ran a hand over the sofa. “Nice fabric, though. It’ll stand up to a lot of wear and tear.”
“I like brown. It won’t show the dirt, or the dog hair.”
That made her laugh.
“You have no idea how much I hate housework. It’s a lot to juggle…the girls, my job, the house.”
“I know what you mean.”
Of course she did. She was single-handedly raising a teenager who he suspected, having met Jenna, could be a real handful.
“This will probably sound sexist,” he said. “But women are always better at this.”
“Not always. Hardly ever, actually.
You’re doing a—”
“You look like a happy couple.” A salesman in a gray suit stood in front of them. “Anything I can do to help?”
Damn the interruption. He and Kristi were in the store to buy furniture, but he liked hearing her say he didn’t stink at being a single dad as badly as everyone else seemed to think he did. If she said it a few more times, he might even start to believe her.
He stood, held out a hand to help Kristi, amused to see that the “happy couple” remark had her blushing.
“We’re here to buy a new couch for the family room,” Nate said. It was too complicated to explain that they weren’t a couple. “This is the first one we’ve looked at.”
“My name’s Walt.” The guy pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to Nate. “Let me know if you have any questions.”
“Thanks,” Kristi said. “We’d like to keep browsing.”
“Sure thing. I’ll just let you know that this particular model happens to be on sale, and it’s available in several colors.” Walt handed her a set of fabric swatches. “You folks take a look around and let me know if I can be of any assistance.”
Nate wondered if this one was a sofa bed. Not that he needed a pullout in the family room, but sitting on it with Kristi had him thinking about beds.
“We’ll do that.” With a hand on Kristi’s back, he guided her away, hoping Walt wouldn’t follow them.
Twenty minutes and half a dozen couches later, they were back at the brown sectional.
“So you still think this is the one?” Kristi asked.
Walt, who had been hovering the whole time, closed in. “Looks like you folks have made a decision.”
“I think we have.”
“Well then, why don’t you follow me over to the sales desk and we’ll get this taken care of.”
They crossed the showroom floor behind Walt. To Nate’s surprise, this furniture shopping expedition had been painless, with the exception of Walt’s dismal attempt to schmooze. It helped that Kristi seemed to understand Nate’s taste better than he did.
The sectional he’d settled on was everything she’d said it would be, affordable and versatile. Walt keyed the sale into his computer, assured them there was one in the warehouse and promised it would be delivered on Tuesday.
“Why don’t we take a look at children’s bedroom furniture while we’re here?” Kristi asked after they parted company with Walt. “I’m not suggesting you need to buy any, but I like the way their displays are set up. They’re like actual bedrooms and might give us some ideas.”
“Sure.” Since she didn’t expect him to make any more decisions or purchases, he was happy to agree. Plus it extended their time together…and what could he say? He enjoyed spending time with her.
What she’d said about the children’s furniture displays was bang on. He could easily see any of them working for Molly and Martha if it weren’t for all their clothes and toys.
“Have you decided what to do with all of those stuffed animals?” she asked.
He had not. “I wish their grandparents would stop giving them to us, but I hate to ask the girls to get rid of the ones they already have.”
Kristi pulled her camera out of her bag. “Let me show you something.”
She turned it on, scrolled through some photos, then handed it to him. On the monitor was a picture of Martha sitting on her bed, smiling happily, surrounded by her stuffies. Kristi clicked to the next photograph, a similar one of Molly.
“Because we were moving everything out of their room, I asked each of them to pick their three favorites. Molly quickly chose three. Martha really only had one—”
“The purple dinosaur,” Nate said.
“Barney.” Kristi grinned. “She finally chose two more, and then we bagged up the rest and hauled them into the spare room. I took the photographs because I thought that if you and the girls agreed to donate those stuffed animals to charity, I would have these photographs framed for them. That way they would have a permanent reminder of them but without the clutter.”
He liked that idea. A lot. What he didn’t like was the guilt that threatened as he wondered what Alice would think.
Kristi must have read his mind. “I know you’re worried about what your mother-in-law might say, but the toys belong to the girls now and the ultimate decision about what to do with them is really yours, and theirs.”
Taking a stand sounded so sensible, so easy when she said it, but she didn’t know the half of it. Dealing with the toys would be much simpler than the beauty pageant. In fact, maybe the toys would be a good practice run.
“The photographs are a great idea, but I don’t know if the girls will agree to get rid of all the toys.”
Kristi’s smile suggested she knew better. “Why don’t we try this? After the room is painted and we move the girls back in, we’ll leave the stuffies in the bags in the spare room. All the too-small clothing and dress-up clothes will be pared down, and I guarantee they’ll love the room without the clutter because they’ll have space to play, and when they look for something they’ll be able to find it.”
Everything she said made sense, but would she be there when he told Alice to stop buying toys and Britt to stop bringing dress-up clothes?
She seemed to read his mind.
“If it helps, I’ll back you up when you tell them.” Her grin had a mischievous little twist to it. “Since everyone already believe we’re dating, I don’t think that’s too much of a stretch.”
He wanted to kiss her, right there in the middle of the furniture store. “It’s a deal,” he said instead. He felt a little as though he was taking the coward’s way out, but when it came to his mother-in-law, that worked for him.
“What do you think of these storage solutions?” Kristi asked.
The display room had a closet outfitted with cubbies, bars for hanging clothes and upper shelves filled with large baskets. It looked perfect, and pretty much the opposite of what the girls had now.
“I like it. How much will something like this cost?”
“The components are sold separately, and they can really add up. I’ve already discussed this with Sam, and she can build something very similar for a fraction of the price. I’ll pick up some dollar-store baskets to go in the cubbies, and the girls can use those for everyday things. The larger baskets overhead can store out-of-season clothes.”
The house would be so well organized, he might not want to sell. “We won’t want to leave them behind.”
“You won’t have to. Sam will build everything in sections so they’re easy to move and can be adapted to any closet.”
“I’ve never met a female handyman…person…handywoman.”
“She’s an amazing carpenter, but I don’t think there’s anything she can’t do. Painting, installing light fixtures, fixing leaking taps—Sam does it all, and with so much attention to detail. Our clients are always really happy with her work.”
The same could be said for Kristi. He should probably tell her that, and he wasn’t sure why he didn’t. “Good to know” was all he could manage.
“Claire is pretty incredible, too, and super busy. She’s going to swing by sometime next week to take a look at your place. You’ll meet her then.”
Claire was the real estate agent, the one who was going to appraise the house and get it on the market, and then there’d be no turning back. For the first time in what felt like forever, the weight he’d been shouldering was starting to lighte
n. Maybe he really could make a comfortable home for himself and the girls. With Kristi’s help, that is. He hadn’t quite figured out how to do this on his own, but maybe someday.
* * *
KRISTI WAS GLAD to see Sam’s truck was still parked in front of the house when they returned from shopping. After they’d left the furniture store Nate had insisted on taking her out for lunch, and although she should have said no, she’d said yes. She’d called Jenna to make sure she had everything under control, and Sam to let her know she’d be back a little later than expected.
They’d gone to a casual deli-style cafeteria close to the university and not far from his place. They ate made-to-order sandwiches while they talked about her plans for the house…so it had really been a working lunch. Then they’d shared a brownie with whipped cream for dessert. One brownie and two forks felt more like a date, but wasn’t.
Nate was easy to talk to, and more relaxed than he’d been since she’d started working for him. Sitting in the café with her, he wasn’t a man struggling to keep house, decipher the needs of two little girls, meet his family’s demands. He didn’t even have to be a university professor, although she suspected that’s the role he was most comfortable in. And by the time lunch was over, she was more intrigued by Nate McTavish than ever, and far more than common sense dictated.
Now, back at his place, she reminded herself that she had a job to do.
“What are your plans for the afternoon?” Nate asked.
She ran through her mental checklist. “We should empty your office so Sam can strip the wallpaper. Will you have time to help with that?”
“Already done. I finished it last night.”
“Wow. I’m impressed. I’d like to tackle the foyer closet this afternoon, and Sam and I will do a walk-through before she leaves so she can make a list of the other things that need to be done.”
“Let me know what I can do to help.”
“Oh, believe me. We will.”
They sat a moment longer without saying anything, listening to the Saturday sounds of the neighborhood. A lawn mower, someone hammering, boys shooting hoops in a driveway down the block. Last night they’d sat like this in the dark and he had kissed her. Today they were out in the open for all the neighbors to see. Neither of them was ready for that kind of PDA, as Jenna liked to call it.
