Open House (Kingston Bros.) (3 page)

She regained her composure and moved toward the master bathroom, putting as much distance as possible between herself and his mind-numbing, testosterone-induced brand of hypnosis. He must have an excess of pheromones or something, she thought. Or I’ve been without a man so long that I’m becoming hysterical from sexual frustration. That must be it. She was just imagining there was something between them. All she needed was a quiet evening alone with her battery-operated boyfriend and she’d be fine.

“
Mom, did you notice the heated floors in the bathroom? Wouldn’t they be incredible on a cold morning?” Lacey called over her shoulder, acting as casual and nonplussed as possible considering she’d nearly assaulted a complete stranger in front of her mother.

Chapter Two

An hour later, Lacey and her mother were walking slowly toward the car. Alone. Not only had Mr. Superstud shown them the rest of the Show Home, he had also shown them the other three row-houses, which were in varied states of completion.

Lacey was impressed with both his generosity and talent. He was knowledgeable and obviously passionate about this project and answered every single question her mother shot at him with patience and humor. Lacey could tell that Diana was completely charmed and wouldn’t be surprised if she did the unthinkable and offered Lacey’s virtue on a silver platter if this continued much longer.

Unfortunately, her virtue seemed quite safe at the moment. As they’d been leaving the last property, he’d received yet another call on his cell phone and had excused himself to go back inside and answer it. They’d waited on the porch for a few minutes to say good-bye, and thank him for a tour, but his phone call had continued and they’d decided to leave. Standing around and waiting for him had seemed intrusive and a trifle desperate.

As they reached their vehicle, Lacey noticed Serena walking down the path from the Show Home toward them. She met them on the sidewalk between where Lacey’s Mini Cooper was parked at the curb and the sleek, white Mercedes.

“
Wow,” Serena said, clearly shocked. “I can’t believe you’re still here. You really did get the grand tour, didn’t you? Jay usually can’t be bribed or threatened to do that. You must have caught him in a really good mood, or something.”

“
He was really great. He showed us everything,” Lacey said, trying not to gush.

“
Hmmm.... I’ll bet he did. It sounds like you really liked what you saw.’ Serena raised one finely arched eyebrow at Lacey, and it was obvious that she was not talking about the granite or the crown moldings.

“
Well, they’ve done an incredible job here. We were very impressed, weren’t we, Mom?”

“
Absolutely,” Diana agreed. “That young man knows his stuff. And is extremely easy on the eyes.”

“
Mom! Seriously?”

“
Well, he is. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice. Your eyes nearly fell out of your head when he bent over in front of you to demonstrate the built-in vacuum. You practically salivated, dear.”

“
I certainly did not salivate!”

“
Wipe your chin, dear, and we should be going.” Diana reached out for the real estate agent’s hand and they shook warmly. “Serena, it’s been a real pleasure. That dreamboat had to leave us to take an important call, so I hope you’ll extend our gratitude to him for being so gracious. We’ll be in touch.” With that, Diana let go of Serena’s hand, got in the passenger side of Lacey’s car and looked expectantly at her daughter.

“
Ignore her. She just likes to ruffle my feathers,” Lacey said in an undertone to Serena.

“
No worries. She’s hilarious. I wish my mom was that much fun.”

“
She really is. But seriously, please let him know how much we enjoyed the tour, okay?” At this point, Lacey really wanted to ask his name, but if Serena was, in fact, his girlfriend as she’d thought when they arrived, she didn’t want to seem too infatuated. But then, with a man like that, Serena was probably used to women lusting after him.

“
I’ll let him know. Thanks for coming in today. Please let me know if you have any more questions, okay?” She handed Lacey her card. “Or just stop in. I’m here on weekends from 1-4. At least until they all sell. I can’t guarantee ’The Dreamboat’ will be here, but I will be.” They shook hands and Lacey got in her car, started the engine, and reluctantly prepared to leave.

They had just started to pull away from the curb, when the man of her dreams came out of the final row-house they had been looking at. He broke into a run when he saw them down the road and his long legs ate up the pavement. Within seconds he was right beside her front window, smiling and tapping on the glass.

Lacey, delighted by this display of enthusiasm, put on the brakes and rolled down the window, grinning up at him, so happy this encounter was going to continue, if only for just a few more seconds.

“
I’m glad I caught you,” he said, not even out of breath from his sprint. He pulled a business card out of his jeans pocket and handed it to her. Their fingers brushed as she took the card from his hand and she felt that jolt of electricity again. Their eyes locked and he leaned down until they were on eye level. “You should really call me,” he said, huskily. “I mean, if you have anymore questions. I’d really like to hear what you have to say. About the properties.”

Was it just her imagination, or did this Sex God sound nervous? “I think we probably know everything there is to know about them, but thank you. I’ll call you if I think of anything. And I’m certain my mom will probably come up with something to interrogate you about.” There, just the right tone. Professional, yet playful. She was getting better at this.

“
Call me anyway. I’d really love your input. You see, my brothers and I are having a little competition. Instead of using a pain-in-the-ass interior decorator, we all chose one of the row-houses and each of us picked out all the fixtures and colors and stuff. You probably noticed that they were all a little different, right?”

Lacey nodded as her heart sank. He hadn’t been interested in her. He saw her as a guinea pig for some manly real estate competition with his brothers. She wasn’t a potential sex kitten to him at all. How could she be so foolish? She tried to keep her face impassive as he continued.

“
Well, whichever house sells first determines the design scheme we’ll use for our next project, which is huge. And whoever is responsible for it will earn bragging rights until the end of time. So, give it some thought, and let me know which one you liked the best, okay?" He pointed to the card. "I’m really curious what impartial observers like you and your mom would prefer,” He said, smiling like he hadn’t just crushed her.

Lacey recovered quickly and returned his smile with an incredibly fake grimace. “I’ll think about it and let you know. Thanks again for the tour.” Lacey said, rolling up her window, she threw the card on the dashboard, put the car in gear and turned away so he wouldn’t see her face fall in disappointment.

*****

“
When are you going to call him?” Diana asked eagerly, as they drove away from the subdivision. She grabbed the business card Lacey had flung on the dashboard and examined it closely.

“
I’m not,” Lacey said, checking the rear view mirror to get one last look at him.

“
Why-ever not? He really liked you. And you liked him. It was so obvious.” Diana rolled her eyes and tucked the card in the rear view mirror, where her daughter couldn’t help but see it, constantly.

Lacey snatched the card out of the mirror and threw it back on the tiny dashboard. “You heard him. Obviously, he’s not in the market for a girlfriend or whatever. He’d rather use us for some free market research.”

“
So what? Can’t you do both? Work and play? You should call him. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

“
Maybe. But that’s the chance I’m willing to take. He’s way out of my league anyway.”

“
Whatever do you mean?”

“
You said it yourself. He’s a dreamboat. I’m not his type at all. He should be with someone like Serena. Willowy and elegant. Not someone short and prone to gaining twenty pounds if they even look at a Twinkie. Like me.” She had meant to make this declaration sound light and self-deprecating, but her voice broke at the end and she felt tears of disappointment welling up in her eyes. She only hoped her mother wouldn’t acknowledge her obvious over-the-top emotional reaction. If Diana said one sympathetic word, Lacey was going to start bawling right then and there.

But she didn’t. Instead Diana said something so shocking Lacey nearly had to pull over. “Well, dear, if you’re sure you don’t want to make the first move, then I wouldn’t worry about it. You are most certainly just his type. And I’m sure you’ll be hearing from him.”

“
What do you mean? 'I’ll be hearing from him.’ How would that happen exactly? I just gave our first names. Please tell me you didn’t slip him my phone number.” Lacey’s face flooded with color at the idea of her mom pimping her out like that. He was going to think she was positively pathetic. Not that she cared. Well, maybe a little....

“
I thought about doing exactly that. But decided you wouldn’t be happy with me if I did something so obvious. No, I was more subtle than that,” Diana said smugly.

“
What did you do, Mother?”

“
Well, while you were attempting to chat him up, I was signing Serena’s guest book. With your name. And email address.”

“
You didn’t.”

“
I most certainly did.”

“
Mom. How could you do that? Now I’m going to be flooded with emails from her. She's going to try and convince me to make an offer on one of those row-houses. Or even worse, she'll want to show me a bunch of properties I can’t afford either. You know real estate agents. They’re like pit bulls. Once they get a hold of you, they don’t let go.”

“
Serena struck me as a sensible girl. I’m sure she will not harass you. And if she’s as smart as I think she is, then your email address will find it’s way into the correct, hunky hands anyway. So, you’re welcome.”

“
Hunky hands? Really?”

“
Well, they were hunky. And very large.”

Lacey groaned. “Please tell me you did not just comment on the size of his hands. I think I’m traumatized.”

“
Don’t tell me you didn’t notice. How could you not? That young man was a prime specimen.”

“
Yes, I did notice. But you are definitely not supposed to notice big hands. Hunky or otherwise.”

“
Why-ever not? I’m single and vital. Just because I’m in my fifties, does not mean I’m dead inside, you know. If I was ten years younger, you might have some competition.”

“
Oh my God. Why am I suddenly picturing him as my new step-daddy?” Lacey shuddered at the thought of her mother, happily married to the hot builder, while she went through life as a spinster, collecting spoons, dressing her dog in embarrassing outfits, and knitting away the profound loneliness. “Thanks, Mom. This conversation has taken a disturbing turn, and I’ll be looking for a therapist tomorrow.”

“
My pleasure, dear. Now, can we stop at Starbucks? All this big hands talk has made me parched. Besides, I think one of the fellows who works there has his eye on you. If the Handy Hunk doesn’t email you then perhaps you should give Lars a try. He makes an excellent triple-foam latte.”

Tempted to beat her head against the steering wheel, Lacey pulled into the parking lot of the Starbucks on the corner, just a few blocks from her mom’s house, and waited in the car while Diana went in to retrieve her coffee. No way was Lacey going in there to be the victim of another one of her mother’s romantic ambushes.

As she waited, she couldn’t help but wonder, would she hear from him? If only to ask her about the house? Maybe he just brought up the whole 'I want your impartial opinion’ thing as an excuse to talk to her again. Perhaps her mom was right, for once, and he was interested in more than just pumping her for information. Hopefully, an entirely different kind of pumping was on his mind. A small part of her thrilled at the thought, but she quickly stopped her mind from wandering down that path before she could get too excited.

She refused to overanalyze this little episode and turn it into a big deal. If he wanted to take this weird chemistry between them to the next level, then he was going to have to make a real effort and ask her out on a date. No more games. Until that happened, she wasn’t going to think about him. At all.

*****

“
What the hell was all that about?” Serena asked her cousin suspiciously as she observed him standing on the sidewalk, watching the hot little red car fade away in the distance. She could not believe that he was actually showing some interest in something besides work.

He’d been completely detached since the accident and this was the first sign of life she’d seen from him in 17 months. He shut down completely if she attempted to talk about Deborah, and what had happened, so she tried to focus on the present. And the idea that her cousin might just be coming back to life after all this time. Everyone in the family had practically given up on trying to reach him. She couldn't wait to tell her Aunt Marie, Jack’s mom, that she’d actually witnessed what passed for flirting on Jack’s behalf. Auntie M would be psyched.

“
What? I was helping you out. You’re always complaining that I avoid dealing with the public like they’re a bunch of lepers, so I gave them a tour. What’s the big deal?” Jackson said, stepping back onto the sidewalk next to her, he held up his arms in an ’I can’t win’ gesture.