First Impressions (Edenton 1)

Eden thought she was to meet with clients, but Brad told her that the meetings would start tomorrow. “Today I’m going to show you everything. You can’t go into a meeting without having seen the place.”

“Of course not,” she said, glad to be with him. If McBride weren’t in the backseat, everything would have been perfect. Well, actually, perfect would mean that she wasn’t being investigated by the FBI, and people weren’t breaking into her house and filling it with poisonous snakes, and—

“Are you okay?” Brad asked, glancing away from the road to look at her.

“Fine. Just a little nervous about suddenly becoming a landscape designer. I spent the morning going over my gardening books and making a lot of notes. I hope people like the idea of these gardens. They’re not what most people want.”

“Something I’ve found out in this business is that people love restrictions. Covenants put on property make them feel safe. The guy next door can’t park a boat in front of his house. They like that kind of thing. And I think they’ll like the idea of everyone having to make gardens that aren’t like the rest of the U.S.”

“I hope so.”

“You look nice. What did you do to make yourself look even better than you did yesterday?”

“She took a bath and put big yellow curlers in her hair,” Jared said from the backseat, reminding them of his presence. “Eden wanted to ask you about a house you own.”

Eden wanted to pinch McBride. She would have come to the house in time. Why did he have to rush things? And why did he have to remind Brad that they were living in the same house?

Brad looked at her questioningly.

“The overseer’s house down the road. I, uh…”

“Her daughter is thinking of moving here to Arundel, so Eden thought she might like that house. I called a Realtor, and imagine our surprise to find out that you own it.”

Twisting in her seat, Eden glanced at McBride in disgust. What was inside of him that he could lie so easily?

“You’ll have to fight Minnie for the place,” Brad said. “She wants it very much, but I won’t let her have it.”

“Why not?” Eden asked.

“Maybe I should tell you now so you don’t learn it from gossip, but I am utterly selfish. I won’t let Minnie move into that house because I hate living alone. It’s that simple. She hates my big old house and wants out of it, but if she and her daughter moved…” Trailing off, he shrugged at Eden. “I guess I should let her have the place, but Drake, my assistant, also wants it. I owe Drake’s father and…” He trailed off.

Brad’s eyes met Eden’s, and she wondered if he was saying that he now hoped he was going to have a different person to live with. She had to look away from him so he wouldn’t see what was in her eyes. She too hated living alone. The year that Melissa had been in New York and Eden had lived by herself had been the worst year of her life. Even now, although she’d never tell him so, she was glad McBride was in the house with her.

“How long has the house been empty?” Jared asked.

“Six weeks, I guess it is now,” Brad said as he stopped the car.

Eden had been so intent on Brad that she hadn’t looked outside the car. Now she saw that they were on a pretty, tree-lined street. Again, she saw that old-growth trees had been saved. Peeping through the trees and around the gently curving street, she could see houses that were all eighteenth century in design. Well-proportioned, simple rectangles, with beautiful, paned windows, she thought. No fancy, curved porches, no gingerbread trim, no witches’ hat roofs. Nothing Victorian, and nothing modern anywhere.

“My goodness,” she said. “They could all have been modeled after my house.” And for the first time, Eden fully realized that Farrington Manor was her house.

“We were trying for perfection,” Brad said, smiling at her as he got out of the car, then went around to open the door for her. “The owners of this house haven’t moved in yet, so I thought we’d look around at the outside and you could see what you have to work with. Most of the lots are the same size.”

“That’s exactly what I need,” she said, then turned to Jared. “How about if you take photos of everything?”

“I’ll do my job if you do yours,” Jared said pointedly.

Eden knew what he meant, and she nodded. In the next minute he walked around the back of the house and left her alone with Brad. Alone with Brad, she thought as she turned to look at him. Alone. From the look in his eyes, he was thinking the same thing.

“Too bad we don’t have a key to the house.”

His statement was so like a teenager’s that she laughed.

He took her arm and walked her across the street. “Come on, I know a place where he can’t find us.”

“I doubt that,” she said as they went across the street, through the side yard of another house, then through a gate to the back. It was a typical American backyard, with a couple of skinny new trees and about an acre of grass. Come summer, no one would step outdoors because they’d sizzle in the heat.

“Eden,” Brad said, then started to pull her into his arms.