He nodded. “Will do. So, what time’s your appointment in the morning?”
“Seven-thirty.”
“Mind if I tag along?”
“Why?”
He seemed to be debating the answer. She had a feeling it was because he didn’t want to admit that he felt some crazy sense of responsibility for seeing to it that she and Kevin had a decent place to live.
“Curiosity,” he said finally.
Deanna nodded. “In that case, I’ll see you in the morning.”
She was about to go inside when he stopped her. His gaze on her face, he tilted her chin up and touched his lips to hers. Light as a breeze, the kiss was still enough to send a shudder through her.
For a man who worried so darned much about how little sleep she was getting, he certainly didn’t seem to mind doing the one thing guaranteed to keep her awake all night.
Sean hated the whole idea of Deanna hunting for a new apartment. He knew just how limited her resources were, even with that settlement from her old landlord. He also knew that despite what she’d said about using some of the cash for the new place, she’d tucked most of the money away in a savings account she didn’t intend to touch except in an emergency.
When he arrived in the morning, he discovered he was just part of the entourage going to check out the new apartment.
“Mom and me are looking at a new place to live,” Kevin said excitedly. “Once we move, you can come to dinner.”
Sean noticed that Ruby didn’t look nearly as cheerful as either Kevin or Deanna.
“Sean can come to dinner here,” she grumbled, sending a scowl in Deanna’s direction. “I don’t know why you’re so anxious to move.”
“Because we’re in your way,” Deanna explained patiently.
“You are not. This has been fun.” She turned to Kevin. “Hasn’t it been fun?”
“Sure,” he said, apparently sensing the need not to hurt Ruby’s feelings.
Sean gave Ruby a sympathetic look. “You’re wasting your breath.”
“I know,” she admitted.
“If you’re going to be a sourpuss through all this, then don’t come with us,” Deanna told Ruby. “I want objective opinions on this new apartment, not self-serving criticism.”
When Sean started to say something, she scowled at him. “That goes for you, too.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, sharing a commiserating look with Ruby. “Where is this place?”
Deanna looked at a piece of paper on which an address had been written. She read it to him. “It’s only a few blocks from here.”
Sean winced. “And another world,” he said. “That area’s not that safe.”
“Would you stop with the grumbling before we even look,” she demanded. “Now, let’s go.”
Sean sighed and followed along as she and Kevin set out at a brisk pace. Ruby fell into step beside him.
“Can’t you stop her?” she asked in a low voice.
“You heard her. She doesn’t intend to listen to reason. She’ll only hear what she wants to hear. She’s in an independent frame of mind this morning.”
“No kidding,” Ruby muttered bleakly.
“Maybe the place will really be a dive, and she’ll have to admit it’s a bad idea,” he suggested, even though he knew that unless it was tumbling down, Deanna wasn’t going to back out of making this deal. He and Ruby had pretty much backed her into a corner.
When they found the address, Sean was relieved to see that the building was an old brownstone. It wasn’t especially well kept, but from the outside at least, it didn’t look like a fire hazard. That was something in its favor.
Kevin, however, was regarding it with a doubtful expression. “Mom, it’s kinda ugly,” he said hesitantly, still clinging to Deanna’s hand.
“That’s cosmetic,” she said. “It doesn’t matter, as long as it’s clean and the pipes don’t leak.”
Sean frowned. “You might want to raise your standards just a little to include a lack of drafts. Boston winters can get pretty cold.”
She scowled right back at him. “The real estate agent said she’d meet us inside,” she said, entering the unsecured foyer and starting to climb the stairs. “The apartment’s on the top floor.”
“Great,” Sean said. “It’ll give us a chance to see if the roof leaks.”
Ruby barely managed to smother a chuckle as Deanna whirled around to glare at them. “You two want to wait outside?”
“Not a chance,” Sean said, staying right on her heels.
The door to one third-floor apartment was open, so they trooped inside. The real estate agent greeted them and began a spiel that would have sold Sean on the place had he not been standing in the middle of the dreary, cramped rooms. She assured them that the water stains were the result of now-corrected leaks. Ditto, the buckling wood floors near the windows. She didn’t seem to have an explanation for the grimy state of the ancient kitchen appliances, but Deanna dragged in her new favorite word—cosmetic—to dismiss the problem.
The two bedrooms were tiny, but they did have tall windows that might actually let in a fair amount of light once years of grime were washed away. The bathroom had a sink with rust stains and a claw-footed tub that had lost a good bit of its porcelain glaze.
It was, in Sean’s opinion, fairly awful, but Deanna was determined to see it with rose-colored glasses. The price was right and it would be hers.
“I’ll take it,” she said, even as the rest of them, Kevin included, choked back dismayed protests. She looked at each of them pointedly. “And I don’t want to hear one single negative word from any of you.”
Sean knew he and Ruby had no one to blame but themselves for kicking Deanna’s independent streak into high gear. Nothing short of the roof caving in on their heads before she signed the papers would have stopped her.
The real estate agent beamed as Deanna signed the lease and handed over a check. The agent’s day was obviously off to a rip-roaring start, if she could unload this dump before eight o’clock.
Seeing
