“I forgot you lived in this neighborhood,” Jill went on.
Despite hard lobbying to the contrary, Alex had used a fairly new real estate agent, which apparently still irked Jill.
“Yes. I was just about to tell Sam some of the downsides of the area,” Alex said. “You know. The deer that come down in the winter and eat all the shrubs, the high water table we can have in bad runoff years because of the creek, the hikers wandering along the Currant Creek Valley trail.”
“Hold on. Don’t tell him that!” Jill beamed her thousand-megawatt smile, all jocular charm, but it couldn’t quite outshine the edge in her voice. “You know those are minor little details, Al. I was just looking for him to tell him I have some great news and some really great news.”
“Great,” Sam said, his voice dry, but Jill didn’t appear to notice.
“It is. The seller is so excited about your offer, what with this soft market and all the work that needs to be done to the place. Nobody else has looked at the property in weeks and Bob and his wife are anxious to move it so they can make an offer on a condo in Arizona. He’s given preliminary approval to your offer!”
“That is great news.”
“Even better, when I told Buzz, his agent, that you were looking for a place to live sooner rather than later, he seemed to think the sellers would be willing to sweeten the deal and offer a short-term lease while you all work out the details. You could move in tomorrow if you wanted!”
And there went the neighborhood.
Alex gripped the trowel she hadn’t realized she still held, wishing she could dig a big keep-out sign on her front yard. She didn’t want him here, living just a tennis ball’s throw away. She would consider anywhere in Hope’s Crossing too close but right here in Currant Creek Valley was unthinkable.
“I don’t need to move quite that quickly,” Sam was saying. “Ethan still has another month of school in Denver and will be staying with my brother and his wife until then.”
That explained what he did with the boy while he was here finishing kitchens and taking midnight walks and kissing her until she couldn’t think straight.
“Well, if you change your mind, we just have to say the word to Buzz and he’ll set the wheels in motion. It’s a cash offer and you don’t have to wait for bank approval, only the inspection and the title search, so that will speed things up considerably.”
At that moment, Ethan laughed at something the dog had done. Sam turned his attention to his son, a softness to his features she hadn’t seen there before.
“Good. The sooner the better. We have our work cut out for us, making the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom usable. If we can move quickly, Ethan and I can work on it during the weekends when he comes up.”
“We have so many details to hash out.” Jill gave a faux apologetic look to Alex. “Maybe we should work through some of these issues back at the office where we don’t have quite so many...distractions.”
She gestured to the boy and the dog but Sam’s gaze didn’t leave Alex. “We wouldn’t want any distractions, would we?” he murmured.
She had used that very word the night before, she remembered.
His very obvious implication that she could disturb his concentration wasn’t lost on Jill. Her mouth tightened for just an instant before that fake smile stretched wider. “Shall we go back to my office then?”
Sam glanced at the complicated-looking watch he wore and swore suddenly. “I’m sorry. This is going to have to wait. I’m afraid I lost track of time and I’m supposed to be somewhere in about twenty minutes.”
“Now?” Jill blinked at him.
“Yeah. Come on, Eth. We’ve got to go.”
“What about the offer?” she pressed.
“You can handle it. I already told you my terms. What else do you need to know?”
Alex hadn’t seen Jill this frustrated since their senior prom, when her date—who had ended up as her first husband—had ignored her and spent the night sneaking beers with his friends behind the old community center building.
“I guess I have your cell number. I can call you if I encounter any problems.”
“You do that. Thanks a million.” He gave her a wave then turned to Alex. “I’ll see you later, neighbor.”
Before she could think of a way to block him, he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, surrounding her with his heat and that distinctive scent of his soap—bergamot and cedar leaf and something citrusy that tugged an instant response out of her.
Drat the man! It was completely unfair of him to shake up her world like this now, when she had so many other plates spinning.