It Takes Three

“I live here.”

His dark-haired, blue-eyed daughter glanced from him to Thea and then back again. As much as he wished he could chalk this up to a blond moment, her hair was the wrong shade and she had guilt written all over her.

Kendra moved closer to Thea. His daughter took after him in the height department. She was tall, nearly five feet ten, and made the other woman look even smaller by comparison. “I just meant, you’re home early. How come?”

“I’m meeting a real estate agent here to get a market evaluation of the house.”

The teen speared him with a narrow-eyed gaze. “Define ‘market evaluation,’ Dad.”

He should have channeled Kendra’s question back to how she planned to get away with hiring a caterer when she hadn’t cleared it with him. His lapse was directly due to the distraction of Thea Bell. When a man came home and found a beautiful woman in his kitchen, it tended to throw him off. Especially a man like himself, who was more comfortable with the tool belt and nail gun set. But he’d opened his mouth and now had to figure out what to do with the foot he’d inserted.

“The agent is coming to see the place and figure out how much it’s worth on today’s market. You know her. It’s Joyce Rivers, Bernie’s wife.”

“I know Joyce,” Thea chimed in. “We met at a Santa Clarita professional women’s group. She’s great.”

“Why do you need Joyce to tell you how much the house is worth?” Kendra asked, refusing to be distracted.

His youngest child had been a handful since she’d turned twelve. Why should now be any different? Her older sister was an easygoing rule-follower who hadn’t prepared him for Kendra’s episodes of rebellion. But Kendra was going off to college soon and he wouldn’t need this big house. That’s why he’d arranged for Joyce to do the market evaluation and the best time for both of them happened to be when Kendra was in school. Speaking of which…

“Why aren’t you in school?” he demanded.

“I told you last night,” she said, sighing in exasperation as she rolled her eyes. “Today is a half-day schedule because the teachers had an end-of-quarter grading day.”

“Oh. Yeah.” He didn’t remember her saying a word about it.

“As usual, you weren’t listening.” She put her hands on her hips. “You’re going to sell the house, aren’t you?”

Scott didn’t want to have this conversation at all, let alone in front of a total stranger. “Can we talk about this later?”

“Maybe I should go,” Thea said.

“Please don’t,” Kendra pleaded. Then she turned her patented drop-dead-you-son-of-a-bitch stare on him and huffed out a hostile breath. “Evasive tactics mean I’m right. I don’t believe this. I’m not even finished with high school and you’re selling my home out from under me. What if I go to the local junior college? Do you remember me telling you about that?”

“I’m not selling anything,” he said, avoiding her question.

“Then why do you need to know how much the house is worth?”

“Maybe I want to refinance my loan,” he countered.

“Do you?”

It was times like this when he wished he could lie. But he’d made it a point to be as honest with his daughters as he knew how. “No.”

“I knew it,” Kendra said. “You can’t wait to get rid of me. That’s why you’re pushing me to go away to college.”

“You’re wrong, Ken. I’m not pushing you to do anything.”

“You didn’t want to hear about the local community college.”

“I want you to have the total college experience. Like your sister—”

“Perfect Gail.” The aside was directed to Thea.

“I’m sure that’s not what your father meant,” she said, glancing at him.

“I’m sure he did. My sister does everything right and I’m the screwup.”

“Coincidentally, Joyce did a market evaluation on my condo,” Thea said, changing the subject.

“Are you selling it?” Kendra asked, toning down her hostility for the caterer.

Scott almost felt sorry for Thea, getting caught in the crossfire. But his empathy was mitigated by the fact that the woman had chosen to conduct business with a teenager instead of her parent. He decided not to analyze why it seemed better to focus on Thea’s error in judgment rather than her noble attempt to defuse the situation. Or his daughter’s rebellious streak that had created this multi-level farce in the first place.

“Actually, I am selling,” she admitted. “I’m looking for a single-family home in a nice neighborhood.”

Kendra cranked the animosity back up when she looked at him. “My dad just happens to have one for sale. Maybe he’ll give you a good deal. He can’t wait to unload this place, along with me.”

“Ken, you’re being overly dramatic…”

The ringing doorbell interrupted him. If only he felt saved by the bell. “That must be Joyce now.”

“I’m going to Zoe’s.” Kendra grabbed her purse off of the built-in desk beside the pantry and stomped out of the room.

“Kendra, wait. You know how I feel about Zoe—” When the inside door to the garage slammed, Scott sighed. Then the doorbell rang again and he went to answer it.

Thea looked around the empty kitchen feeling about as useful as one chopstick. Could this be any more awkward? She’d had dealings with teens before, but always after first contact was made by the parent and the dynamics of the working relationship were spelled out. But there was something about Kendra. When they’d met at her friend’s party, she’d felt the girl reaching out. Thea had seen something in Kendra’s eyes that was an awful lot like sadness. Thea figured she recognized the emotion because she’d lived with it every day for the last two years.

When Kendra had called to inquire about hiring her for a graduation party, Thea had made an exception. Today she’d brought samples of food for the teen and showed her an album of pictures displaying her work. Thea had planned to get into the business details of a signed contract and a deposit check when Scott walked in.

Kendra had only said her father was a busy building contractor who couldn’t be bothered with her party. The teen hadn’t mentioned how very attractive the father in question was. His dark hair, blue eyes and good looks definitely made Thea’s female hormones sit up and take notice. However, her hormones had been on high alert for a while now. So her noticing him could simply be chemically induced.

But clearly his irritation about finding her in his kitchen had been all too real. Maybe if he knew how very important the party was to his daughter, he’d cut her a little slack on leaving him out of the loop.

As she stood there trying to decide what to do, Scott led Joyce Rivers into the kitchen. The tall brunette looked around. When she noticed Thea, she smiled. “Hello, there. I didn’t know you and Scott knew each other.”

“We just met,” Thea said.

“Just,” he agreed, his tone cool.

When he said nothing further, she figured he didn’t want Kendra’s role in their meeting made public. But the look glittering in his very blue eyes told her his daughter would get an earful when she came home.

Joyce tapped her lip. “You know, Thea, when we talked about what you were looking for in a home, I thought about this house.”

“Really?” Scott said. “Even though I hadn’t decided to sell?”

“You indicated to Bernie and me that when Kendra was finished with high school, you were going to downsize. Isn’t she graduating in a couple of months?”

Thea stared at him. “So Kendra’s right? Her teddy bears and Barbies aren’t even cold yet and you’re kicking them out?”