No Place Like Home Read Online Free Page B

fair skin didn’t betray her embarrassment so easily. She felt as if her cheeks were burning. “But we need a guest room as well, and a sewing room, and...”

    “ My job is to find the bedrooms,” he murmured. “It’s up to you how you use them.”

    “ We’d prefer to locate in the Henderson Heights area.”

    Brendan McKenna looked up from the list. “Are you certain you and your fiancé know what you’re doing, Miss Reardon? Most newlyweds buy a honeymoon cottage somewhere and fix it up.”

    “ Mr. McKenna, my fiancé is Graham Forrest.”

    He blinked once. Then he said, with a drawl, “Well, that does put a different light on matters.”

    “ I thought it might,” Kaye murmured.

    “ No wonder you’ll need a lot of bedrooms in a hurry. Someone has to eat all that baby food.”

    Kaye picked up her handbag and rose. “I think perhaps it would be best if I went elsewhere, Mr. McKenna.”

    “ If you don’t feel comfortable working with me, I wouldn’t dream of asking you to stay. But I think you should reconsider. I am just about the best real estate agent there is in this city.”

    “ And modest, too, I see,” she said tartly. She put her handbag down.

    “ At no extra charge,” he agreed. He looked down at her list. “Large living and dining rooms for entertaining—of course. A gourmet kitchen—that goes without saying; caterers are so hard to please these days. On a side street—for the children’s safety, yes. Family room, three-car garage, space for an office or study, and at least two wood-burning fireplaces... Tell me, Miss Reardon, don’t you want to specify which rooms the fireplaces should be in?”

    Kaye refused to react to the sarcastic note in his voice. “Preferably, in the living room and the master bedroom suite.”

    “ I see. Mr. Forrest has a thing about fire, does he? It would seem fitting.”

    She glared at him. He looked innocent. “If you don’t want my business, Mr. McKenna—”

    “ I never said that. I just meant that this may not be as easy as you seem to think.”

    “ Mr. McKenna, we need a large house, in sound condition, in a good location. For someone with all the talent you’ve told me you possess, it should be no trouble at all.”

    He smiled suddenly, and charm seemed to pour across the room towards her. “Let’s get started. You can read the multiple listing book while I make a couple of phone calls, and we can go look this afternoon.”

    “ I can’t. I have to go back to work. In fact, I’m just on my lunch break.”

    “ There’s one we can look at right now.”

    Anxious, isn’t he? Kaye thought. He’s probably afraid that if I leave here right now, I’ll never come back. Well, perhaps this will be the right house, and we can all relax. “Don’t you have other appointments this afternoon?”

    “ Not a thing.”

    That doesn’t sound like the best real estate agent in town, she thought. She glanced at her watch. “May I use your telephone?”

    “ To call Graham to see if he can join us? Sure.” He pushed it across the desk towards her.

    “ No, as a matter of fact—to call the travel agency. Mr. Forrest has given me a completely free hand. He says since the house will be largely my concern, I should be the one to choose it.”

    “ That’s gentlemanly of him,” Brendan McKenna murmured. “It will be largely your concern, will it?”

    “ He is a very busy man.”

    “ I’m certain he is.” It was agreeable and polite.

    She felt somehow that she had lost control of the conversation, but before she could figure it out, Marilyn answered the telephone.

    “ I’ll be here, dear,” she said. “Don’t worry about a thing. Emily told me your wonderful news, and if you want to look all afternoon, go ahead—you haven’t had a day off in weeks.”

    Kaye was startled. She’d always gotten along well with Marilyn, but the woman had never been quite so effusive before.

    Then, as she watched Brendan McKenna flip