a match and a can of kerosene. That would be the easy way to resolve this. What he needed to do, what he should have done long ago, was sit down with Alice and Fred and remind them who called the shots here. He did. He was Molly and Martha’s father, he made the decisions and they needed to back off. Way the hell off.
He tucked the laptop and the envelope under his arm and strode through the house. For now he would put this stuff away and deal with his in-laws when he cooled off a little and wouldn’t say anything he’d regret. Then he would find Kristi and break the news that two fakes had turned into three, an idea that was sounding better by the minute.
* * *
“GOOD MORNING, CLAIRE.” Kristi settled into Nate’s creaky old desk chair with her BlackBerry in her hand and her notebook on her lap.
“Hi, Kristi. Sam’s on the line, too.”
“Hey, Sam. How’s it going?”
“Good. I’m finishing up at the Baxter house this morning.”
“That’s the place that needed the faux wood paneling stripped out of the living room?”
“That’s the one. And I’m happy to say the drywall underneath was in good shape, except for the nail holes. It’s been patched and primed, and I’m painting it this morning.”
“Big job.” Claire, who claimed she didn’t know one end of a hammer from the other, was always impressed by Sam’s work.
“The paneling was a lot easier to take down than wallpaper,” Sam said.
Kristi took that as an opportunity to shift the conversation to Nate’s place. “I was just thinking about you and wallpaper. I need some stripped from one of the bedrooms here in the McTavish house.”
Sam groaned.
“Just two walls.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. I promise.”
“You’re sure you can’t make it work?”
“Not a chance, and when you see it, I think you’ll agree.” The juxtaposition of the sports motifs with Nate’s old desk and scholarly-looking books was laughable. “It was a boy’s bedroom at one time, but the current owner uses it as an office.”
“Speaking of the owner…” Claire said.
Here we go. “What about him?”
“He’s very photogenic,” Sam said.
Kristi doodled in the margin of her notebook. “He is, isn’t he?”
Sam, usually so serious, was laughing. “You’ve photographed a lot of homes, but I’ve never seen you take pictures of the owners. Last night you sent three of this guy.”
“And we thank you for it.” Even Claire thought it was funny.
“I sent photographs of the house—he just happened to be in them.” That wasn’t exactly true, not even a little bit, especially considering how much time she’d spent looking at them.
Should she tell them about the latest development? She had more or less decided not to, but if she didn’t tell someone, she was going to explode.
“He seems nice,” she said, keeping her voice low. “He invited me to a party on Friday night.”
Several long seconds ticked by before Sam or Claire said anything, and then they were both talking at once.
“That was fast.”
“You already have a date with him?”
“How did that happen?”
“Are you sure this is a good idea, hon?”
No, she wasn’t sure of anything, including her spur-of-the-moment decision to tell Sam and Claire. “It’s not a date,” she said. “Not a real one.”
“If it’s not a ‘real’ date, what kind of date is it?” Sam asked.
“It’s sort of a fake date.” Except it had sounded okay when she’d said it in her head. Out loud it sounded ridiculous. She could hardly blame them for laughing. “It’s really just one of those crazy coincidences. You know what my mother’s like. She wanted to set me up with a date for my aunt’s Fourth of July barbecue, and Nate’s family tried to arrange a date for him to take to his sister’s birthday party. So we’re going together. We’re not interested in dating dating, so this is a perfect arrangement. Neither of us has to suffer another blind date, and our families back off with their matchmaking.”
“So you’re going on two fake dates, and both will be spent with your families?”
“Our families are the reason we’re doing this. If we went out, just the two of us, then it would be a real date. That’s not going to happen.”
“Isn’t this going to get complicated?” The ever-practical Claire never took risks.
To Kristi, being at her aunt’s barbecue with Bernie Halverson was complicated. Especially if he tried to kiss her. Just the idea of it made Kristi shudder. Nate wasn’t likely to kiss a woman he wasn’t dating, and she probably wouldn’t mind if he did.
“What are you going to tell Jenna?”
She’d been wondering the same thing. She still had to set an example for her daughter, after all. “I’ll downplay the whole thing, make sure she understands we’re just friends.”
“I hope you have fun,” Claire said. “You deserve it. I’m sorry if I didn’t sound supportive at first, but you caught me by surprise.”
“And we don’t want to see you get hurt,” Sam said. “I’m sure it’s nice to meet another single parent, though. You both already have a lot in common.”
“Not really. For one thing he’s smart, and I mean really smart.”
“And hot,” Sam said.
Claire laughed. “Hot and smart. Two more things he has in common with our Kristi.”
“I wish. He’s not just average, everyday smart. He’s university-professor smart. He studies all kinds of scientific things about plants and hybrids. You should see the books he reads. I don’t even know what some of the titles mean. And then there are Greek gods, Roman gods. He’s a walking encyclopedia.”
“What do Greek and Roman gods have to do with hybridized plants?” Claire asked.
“Nothing. We were talking about our dogs’ names.”
“S-o-o-o…” Sam drew out the word for effect. “Let’s get this straight. He’s single, he’s smart, he’s hot, he obviously must love dogs, but all you want is a fake date.”
“I said yes to the date because there are no strings attached. You know me well enough to realize there’s no way I’ll take a chance on
