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A sweet-faced matron, who was almost as avid a matchmaker as Marjorie and twice the gossip, patted his arm and told him how natural he’d looked holding a sleeping child. “I always thought you’d be a good father,” she added.
Riley made a hasty escape, then changed his course from the press box to the parking lot. The Eagles could carry on without him to cheer them, he decided.
He needed some time alone.
Long after the kids were sleeping in their beds, Teresa sat staring blindly at the flickering television in the living room of the small house she’d been renting since she’d moved to Edstown. She kept remembering the expression on Riley’s face when he’d left her at halftime—bolted, actually. It was a look she’d seen on the faces of other men during the past four and a half years—nearly every time they learned that she was the single mom of two preadolescents.
Something about her appearance obviously gave men the wrong impression about her. She usually kept her hair pulled off her face, wore a minimum of makeup and selected her clothes for comfort and practicality rather than sex appeal—but still men looked at her and saw a slender, blue-eyed blonde rather than a busy mother of two. Once they found out—well, they saw her differently then.
Riley O’Neal, of course, was no exception. Nor had she expected him to be.
She was still reeling from the shock of having her children greet Riley by name and then proceed to climb all over him as if they were longtime friends. Granted, her kids were gregarious—too much so at times. And she knew they were aware of the absence of a man in their lives—especially Mark. But couldn’t they tell when someone wasn’t entirely comfortable with children?
She’d asked Mark on the way home why he’d never mentioned meeting Riley at the park. Looking rather guilty, he’d replied that he hadn’t wanted to get in trouble for talking to strangers again—even though, he had added with a touch of defiance, Riley was a very nice stranger and not a bad one. She hadn’t had the energy to get into another circular discussion with him just then; she would start again on her precautionary lessons tomorrow.
Poor Riley had looked as though he hadn’t a clue what to do when Maggie had crawled into his lap. Teresa had tried to rescue him, but he’d politely allowed Maggie to stay—even though he’d acted as if he were afraid she might grow a second head or something equally bizarre.
He couldn’t seem to get away from them fast enough at halftime. Teresa supposed she couldn’t blame him for that.
It had only been chance that she’d been at the football game with her kids. Mark had heard about the game from some of his friends at school, and he’d asked to go. Because she thought it might be a way to get more involved in the community—a little at a time—and because it was a fairly inexpensive form of family entertainment, she had agreed. She’d certainly never expected to end up sitting next to Riley.
At least one thing had been accomplished tonight, she mused. The man who had told his friend that he wanted nothing to do with children had discovered that Teresa came with two of them. That would probably put an end to him asking her out. Maybe he would even find a new place to have breakfast for a while.
It wasn’t as if she’d expected anything to develop between them—or even wanted it to—but she would miss his flirting. A little. It had been amusing and maybe a little flattering. But she had other things to concentrate on, she thought, glancing at the apologetically worded eviction notice lying on her coffee table. This little rent house had been sold, and the new owners wanted to move in as soon as possible.
Teresa’s first order of business was to find a new place for her and her children to live. She would talk to Marjorie at work in the morning. If there was anyone who knew everything about this town, it was Marjorie Schaffer.
“It’s so nice of you to come with me to look at your friend’s place,” Teresa said to Marjorie Saturday afternoon. They had left the diner, which was open for breakfast and lunch six days a week, and were headed for a nearby neighborhood in which a friend of Marjorie’s had a duplex apartment for rent.
Teresa didn’t work Saturdays, and she had been able to hire Jenny to baby-sit for a few hours that afternoon to give her a chance to do some apartment hunting. At Marjorie’s suggestion, they’d met at the diner at closing time, leaving Marjorie’s car there.
Teresa couldn’t believe this had all happened so quickly. She’d merely mentioned to Marjorie on the phone that morning that she needed to find a place to rent. Within a few minutes, Marjorie called Teresa back with the news that she’d made arrangements for Teresa to look at her friend’s place.
Looking rather smug that she’d set things into motion so quickly, Marjorie replied, “You’re welcome, dear. I hope you like the duplex my friend owns.”
Teresa braked for a red light. “I’m sure I will, if you recommend it. You’ve never guided me wrong before.”
Marjorie cleared her throat. Teresa might have sworn the older woman looked vaguely guilty—but the light changed before she could ask if anything was wrong.
“Take the next left,” Marjorie advised. “It’s the last house on the right in the cul-de-sac.”
“This is a good location,” Teresa mused, admiring the neat lawns of the small houses and duplexes on the street. “Close to the diner and the school, not too much traffic, and the rent you quoted is certainly reasonable. There must be something wrong with the apartment.”
“Nothing at all,” Marjorie answered a little too quickly. “It’s very nice. Small, of course, but big enough to suit your needs for now.”
Following Marjorie’s instructions, Teresa turned into the second driveway in front of the red brick duplex. She took a moment to study the place, approving of what she saw. Two stories. White shutters at the windows. Matching front doors with small covered stoops. Fenced yards with tidy if minimal landscaping. Marjorie explained that a fence divided the backyards, and that each unit featured a small patio.
It looked ideal. Ever the skeptic, Teresa couldn’t help worrying that there would be some major drawback. Maybe it was all facade and the inside was a dump. Or maybe, she thought when the landlord opened the door in response to their knock, the problem wasn’t with the house—but with its owner.
It appeared that this duplex belonged to Riley O’Neal.
Chapter Four
Riley was obviously as surprised to see Teresa as she was to see him. He recovered quickly, giving Marjorie a vaguely chiding look and saying, “So this is your friend who’s looking for a place to rent.”
“Yes. Didn’t I mention that it’s Teresa?” Marjorie asked with an innocent tone she couldn’t quite pull off.
“No, you didn’t. Your exact words, I think, were that you had a dear widowed friend who’s looking for a quiet, safe place to live.”
“Marjorie!” Teresa turned to her friend in exasperation, stunned that Marjorie had been so deceptive.
“What?” The older woman’s still-sharp eyes widened even further behind her glasses. “It’s all true.”
“And did you mention that your dear friend has two children?”
“No, she didn’t mention that fact.” Riley seemed more indulgently resigned than annoyed by the minor deception.
Teresa shook her head. “And I’m sure you have a policy against renting to anyone with children. So thank you for your time, but—”
She had already taken a step backward when Riley stopped her. “Wait a minute. Who said I wouldn’t rent to anyone with children?”
“Do you?” she challenged.
He cleared his throat. “Why don’t you come in and see the place before you turn it down?” he asked, sidestepping the question as he motioned them inside.
Teresa hesitated, but Marjorie took her arm in a surprisingly strong grip and urged her forward. “Yes, Terry, come inside. It’s really very nice.”
Reluctantly, Teresa allowed herself to be escorted in.
They entered a small foyer with a straight staircase that led to the second floor. A tiny half bath was tucked beneath the stairs. The foyer led into a cozy unfurnished living room with a built-in bookcase and a nice hardwood floor. At the back of the first floor was an airy, eat-in kitchen equipped with a range, a refrigerator, a dishwasher and a washer and dryer behind bi-fold doors in one corner.
Teresa looked longingly at the washer and dryer. The little house she’d been renting for the past couple of months hadn’t come equipped with them. She had to take all her laundry to a nearby laundromat—an expensive and time-consuming process.
“Let’s look upstairs.” Marjorie nudged Teresa along with the ease of an experienced realtor. “Three bedrooms. Right, Riley?”
“Uh, yeah.” He followed them, letting Marjorie take the lead—as if he had any real choice about that, Teresa thought with a slight smile. “Each one’s the size of the average walk-in closet and they all share a bath, but there’s a fair amount of storage tucked into various nooks and crannies.”
He’d exaggerated only a bit about the size of the bedrooms, Teresa discovered. They were small but nice. Hardwood floors again, and good-size closets behind bi-fold doors. Multipaned windows let in plenty of natural light, preventing the rooms from feeling claustrophobic. The single bathroom was easily accessible to all three rooms. It held a shower-bathtub combination, a sink, a toilet and a roomy linen closet.
“My side of the duplex is a mirror opposite of this one except that I’ve taken out an upstairs wall to make one large bedroom. I use the smaller one as an office,” Riley explained, obviously making conversation to fill an awkward pause when the tour ended.
It was nice, Teresa had to admit. Roomier than it looked from the outside. The kids would each have a bedroom, and the fenced backyard would give them a safe place to play. It was on the school bus route, so the bus would drop them off practically at the front door every afternoon.
Too bad she couldn’t take it.
“Thank you for the tour,” she told Riley a bit primly. “It’s a lovely place. I’m sure you’ll find a tenant very quickly.”
“Actually, I’m pretty particular about who I rent to,” he replied, leaning against a wall and studying her. “That’s why I bought the duplex when the original owner put it up for sale three years ago. I’d been living here for a couple of years and I’d gotten used to it, but I didn’t want just anyone living next door. So I became the landlord.”
It had been a wise move, Teresa concluded. The rent he charged probably paid most of the mortgage, and he had equity building as an investment. All in all, it showed rather surprising foresight, considering her early impressions of Riley. “How long has this side been vacant?”
He shrugged. “A few weeks. The young couple who lived here decided to move to Memphis in search of higher-paying jobs.”
“I’ve lived in Memphis,” Teresa murmured, glancing out a window at the quiet-looking neighborhood. “There’s something to be said for the slower pace of small-town life, even when it means a cut in pay.”
“I’m sure that’s especially true for a single mother,” Marjorie commented. “Edstown is such a pleasant place to raise children.”
Riley seemed to come to a decision. “If you’re interested, you can move in as soon as you want.”
Teresa’s eyebrows rose. “You would let me rent this apartment?”
“Yeah. If you want.”
“My children, too?”
He rolled his eyes. “No, you have to leave them on the street. Of course the kids, too.”
For only a heartbeat she considered it—and then she shook her head. The thought of living here with Riley O’Neal on the other side of her bedroom wall was just too much to comprehend. “I don’t think so.”
Marjorie looked disappointed. “You don’t like it, Terry?”
An image of that lovely washer and dryer flashed through her mind. “I like it just fine. But I don’t think it’s right for us.”
“You’ve got something against the landlord?” Riley inquired.
“The landlord isn’t used to children,” she returned evenly. “Mark and Maggie are well-behaved, for the most part, but they’re normal kids. Sometimes they get rowdy. Make noise. And they like you—they’d probably pester you half to death.”
He straightened away from the wall, his expression suddenly serious. “I know what to expect from kids. They’d have their own yard to play in, and these walls are very well insulated for soundproofing. As for the other part, I’m quite capable of letting them know when I need to be left alone to work.”
Teresa was shaking her head even before he finished speaking. “I just don’t think it would work out.”
“Your choice,” he said cordially. “Of course there aren’t many rentals available in Edstown, especially in this area. And as far as us being neighbors goes, whole days sometimes went by without me even seeing the couple who lived here before. You’d have plenty of privacy, just as I tend to protect my own.”
“What makes you think I would be a good tenant?”
He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I think you’d be a responsible renter who’d pay your bills, take care of the place and not give me much hassle. That’s pretty much all I look for. As for your kids—I’ve seen you keep them in line. I’m not worried about them being much trouble. I’m ready to get the place rented so I don’t have to worry about it anymore, and Marjorie has vouched for you, which is good enough for me.”
Teresa chewed her lower lip while she considered his words. As he’d said, there weren’t a lot of other options. This neighborhood was ideal, the apartment—while a bit cramped—was adequate for her needs, and the rent was affordable. “Would I have to sign a lease?”
“Why don’t we take it a month at a time until we find out if the arrangement works for both of us?”
She considered the suggestion for another moment. While there were certain disadvantages to not having a lease, there was also the advantage that she could move at any time if the arrangement didn’t work out. Of course, that would mean uprooting the children again, something she would prefer to keep to a minimum. But they would enjoy that nice backyard—and they’d like being so close to the school and their friends….
“I think you should try it, Terry,” Marjorie advised. “It’s the most suitable place I know of in this school district.”
“And Marjorie knows them all,” Riley murmured.
Teresa had little doubt about that. She didn’t think there was much that happened in this town that escaped Marjorie’s notice. “All right,” she said after drawing a deep breath. “I’ll take it.”
Marjorie looked rather smugly satisfied that her plan had worked out. Teresa couldn’t read Riley’s expression.
She wasn’t sure what emotions her face might reveal, since she wasn’t at all sure what she was feeling about the prospect of living next door to Riley O’Neal.
Hearing noises in the driveway next door, Riley stepped out his front door to investigate and discovered Teresa and the kids moving in.
It looked as if she had plenty of assistance. Teresa drove a bright orange rental van. Marjorie, her daughter, Serena, and Serena’s husband, Cameron North, followed in another vehicle. All were dressed in jeans and casual shirts and looked ready to get to work. Fortunately it was a nice day, sunny and not as stiflingly hot as September had been.
Teresa looked very nice in her jeans and cherry red pullover, he couldn’t help noticing, his gaze drawn inexorably to her. With her hair in a ponytail and her feet clad in trendy sneakers, she certainly didn’t look old enough to have two school-age children.
When he’d discovered at the football game last weekend that she had children, he’d decided she must be divorced. He had come home from the game with a promise to himself that he had asked her out for the last time. He’d always been resolute in his determination not to date women with children. He’d seen too many kids hurt by adults moving in and out of their lives.
His best friend in high school had come from a broken home and had suffered through a series of his parents’ girlfriends and boyfriends and the occasional stepparent and step siblings. Nick had once confided in Riley that it hurt every time he got attached to someone new only to have them leave him without a backward glance when the adult relationships ended. Riley didn’t ever want to put himself in the position of hurting a child.
Learning that Teresa was widowed rather than divorced had been almost as big a shock as discovering that she had children. It had never occurred to him that she might be a widow until Marjorie had described her as a “dear, widowed friend.” Teresa was so young, so close to Riley’s age. Her children were so small to have already lost their father. He suspected it was that surprise revelation that had made him change his mind about renting to someone with kids. His sympathy, for once, had overridden his selfishness.
He’d have to be careful or he’d ruin his reputation in this town, he mused wryly.
“Hey, Riley. You just going to stand there and stare or are you going to get over here and help me carry some of this stuff?” Cameron called when he spotted Riley standing on his stoop.
Pulling his hands from the pockets of his jeans, Riley resigned himself to a couple of hours of manual labor—something else he usually avoided whenever possible. “Just remember you’re only my boss at the newspaper,” he reminded his editor as he approached the rental van.
Cameron grinned, his golden hair gleaming in the early afternoon sun. “No problem. I have a feeling neither of us is going to be the boss on this job.”
“Cameron, you should probably unload the bedroom furniture first,” Marjorie called from the open doorway of the apartment. “I think it will be better to carry things upstairs before we start downstairs.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cameron replied to his mother-in-law.
“Oh, Riley, how nice. You’ve come to help.” Marjorie gave him a smile of approval before adding, “You boys make sure you don’t bump the stairway walls with the furniture, you hear? You don’t want to scuff those nice freshly painted walls.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Riley said.
Cameron chuckled and murmured, “See what I mean?”
Mark and Maggie dashed out the open front door, followed closely by Teresa and Serena. “Hi, Riley! We’re going to live in your house,” Maggie announced as if he hadn’t already known.
“Not exactly in the same house,” Mark corrected her impatiently. “Only in half of it.”
Unconcerned with details, she shrugged. “I picked my room,” she confided to Riley. “It’s the one with the white fan. I like that one best. Mommy gets the biggest room and Mark gets the other.”
“That sounds like a good arrangement.”
“My room’s closest to the stairs,” Mark said, claiming his own bragging rights. “It’s the best.”
“No, mine’s best,” Maggie insisted.
Teresa settled the brewing argument swiftly. “You each have the room that’s best for you.” She gave Riley a slightly distracted smile. “The paint job looks great. You didn’t have to do that, but thank you.”
He shrugged. “It was something I’d already planned to do. The old paint looked dingy. I’ve been on the painter’s schedule for a couple of weeks. I’m glad he was able to get the job done before you moved in.”
