Amazing Gracie

“Southern hospitality precludes me from pointing out that you’ve just arrived at my home uninvited and now you’re insulting me. Must be a Yankee.”

“I suppose, if you go strictly by geographical birthplace, that I am,” she conceded. “And I’m sorry if I appear rude, but I find it very difficult to do business with a man who’s half asleep.”

“Darlin’, let me assure you, I am wide awake. Have been ever since you walked up. I could prove it, if you’d like to snuggle down here next to me.”

He could practically hear her swallowing hard as she absorbed the implications of that. He’d lay odds that if he checked her complexion it would be one shade shy of the color of her car.

“Why don’t you tell me who you are and what you want?” he suggested.

“I’m Gracie MacDougal,” she said, and waited as if to see if the name meant anything to him.

“Ah,” he said. Suddenly he understood all the reports he’d heard about the city girl who’d just moved to town and started asking questions about Aunt Delia’s property on the Potomac. He’d figured she’d come calling sooner or later.

“Pretty as a picture,” several of his friends had told him.

Even with his eyes half closed, he could see that they hadn’t done her justice.

“One of them globetrotters come home again,” said an old-timer with the derision of one who couldn’t imagine any legitimate need to leave the South in general and Virginia in particular.

Kevin thought that one was probably mistaken. If Gracie MacDougal had ever lived in these parts, he would have remembered. She wasn’t coming home. In fact, from the determined jut of her cute little chin, he guessed she was invading new territory, sort of like the Yankees did a hundred and some years earlier.

“You talk to her, watch your privates,” another acquaintance had warned. “She’s the kind who’ll chop ’em off.”

That, of course, remained to be seen. No matter who was right, obviously it was going to be a fascinating encounter, he concluded, observing her surreptitiously from hooded eyes.

“What can I do for you, Gracie MacDougal?”

“Actually, I have a business matter to discuss, but I find that rather difficult when I can’t even sit down and look you in the eye.”

Kevin patted the edge of the hammock. “There’s plenty of room right here next to me.”

She sighed heavily, her exasperation plain. “Mr. Daniels…”

“Don’t worry, darlin’, I don’t bite. Not on the first date, anyway, unless you ask nicely.”

“Mr. Daniels!”

Kevin concluded from her tone that she wasn’t going to get on with her business or give up until he sat up and took notice. He doubted that directing her to a chair a few feet away was going to satisfy her. If she wanted formality, he’d give her hundred-year-old formality.

“Ms. MacDougal, you surely do know how to spoil a man’s relaxation,” he said, rising. “Let’s go on inside and get this over with.”

He led the way to his office and noted the surprise on her face when she saw the book-lined shelves with volume after volume of leather-bound classics, the state-of-the-art computer system on his desk, the fax machine, and all the other accoutrements of running a business on the cusp of the millennium. Her gaze returned to him, and this time she seemed to be assessing him a little more carefully. He gestured toward one of the leather chairs left over from his father’s reign over the family fortune, then seated himself behind the desk.

“Talk to me,” he said.

“I understand you manage a property on the riverfront.”

Actually, he owned half a dozen of them, but since he knew which one she was interested in, he saw no reason to belabor the point. “I do.”

“I was wondering if the owner might be interested in selling?”

“No,” he said, relieved that he’d had all day to practice saying the word. Otherwise, seeing Gracie MacDougal’s crestfallen expression might have had him waffling.

“Absolutely not,” he added for good measure.

“But…” Clearly taken aback, she peered at him intently. “Are you sure?”

“Very sure.”

“Couldn’t you at least ask?”

“No need to,” he insisted.

“Aren’t you doing the owner a disservice by not taking my offer to them? In fact, isn’t that illegal?”

He shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

“You don’t even know what I’m willing to pay.”

“Trust me, it won’t be enough.”

“The place is a shambles.”

That was true enough. Kevin had been meaning to get over there and make a few repairs, cut the grass, maybe even trim the hedge. Had he done so, though, Aunt Delia—actually, his great-aunt on his mother’s side—would have wanted to go along for a nostalgic visit to her home and the next thing he knew she’d be demanding that he let her move back there. He couldn’t allow it.

The sad truth was, Aunt Delia had no business being on her own anymore. She forgot to take her medication. She left the stove on. She wandered off and left the front door standing wide open. It was a wonder she hadn’t been robbed blind. Kevin had never known what to expect when he’d driven over to visit. Most of the time he hadn’t liked what he’d found.

Finally, eighteen months ago he’d insisted Aunt Delia move in with him. He’d actually managed to make it sound as if she were the one doing him a favor. By now, she’d probably figured out that he’d bamboozled her, but they’d both grown comfortable with the new arrangement. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t love to be back in that drafty old house again. Nope, he couldn’t risk going near the place and she wouldn’t allow him to hire a stranger to do the work, not without being there to supervise. It was a Catch-22 of the first magnitude.

“There’s nothing wrong with the place that a little spit and polish cleaning wouldn’t fix right up,” he insisted.

“Then why don’t you take care of it? It’s a crime to allow it to go to ruin. It’s probably riddled with termites and overrun with mice.”

He grinned at her unconscious shudder. “Then I’m surprised you’d want to buy it,”

“I would fix it up,” she said,

She made the declaration in that haughty little way that made him want to scoop her up and kiss her until she went weak in the knees. He settled for an indifferent shrug.

“Sorry, it’s not for sale.”

“I’ve been checking into real estate prices in the area and I’ve come up with a ballpark figure that I think is reasonable,” she went on as if she hadn’t heard him. She snatched a piece of paper off of his desk and scribbled a figure on it, then shoved it in front of him.

“Nice ballpark, if I were playing, which I’m not.”

Scowling at him, she scratched out the amount and wrote another. Kevin stared at the paper and managed to hide his admiration. She’d pretty much nailed down the current market value and tacked on an extra ten thousand. She’d been one very busy woman since hitting town. Most people undervalued the property around here because the town had been slow in grasping its own potential. This outsider had apparently seen it right off. Since she was playing fair with the money, he wondered if she’d be honest about a few other things.

“Tell me, Gracie MacDougal, why are you so hot to buy that particular house? Do you have a husband and half a dozen kids stashed away somewhere?”