Finders Keepers (6 page)

“You’re going to use it against me.”

“I just hoped to make you understand what Grace really wanted.”

“What she wanted was for me to have the property and for everybody else to keep their nose out of my business.”

“You? Why you? You never came to see her. You never knew her or loved her. Why would she leave you her house?” She tugged on the note, but he wouldn’t let go. “I’ll tell you why. Because she thought you would save it. She knew you were an architect, and she trusted you to see the value in the building for its architectural merits.”

“She wrote that in the note?”

“No, but …”

“Elizabeth, what happens to the mansion is not your affair. It’s not your responsibility, either. You rent a store next door to Chalmers House, that’s all. If I want to put my offices on that lot—”

“It’s not a lot. It’s a house. A home!”

“A pile of bricks.” He jerked the note from her fingers and stuffed it into his pocket. “Look, I made a decision to move to this town for reasons you don’t need to know. Now that I’m here, I’m going to follow through on my goals. I can’t entertain clients in this maze of dusty old hallways and force them to look out on my view of a brick wall. Whether you like it or not, I’m going to take down Chalmers House and build my office complex.”

“Take down? Tear down, you mean.”

“And I’ll do my best not to interfere with your customers in the process.”

“This isn’t about my customers. This is about Ambleside!”

“I think this is about you and my aunt. I’m touched that you loved her. And I’m trying to understand your obsession with her house …”

“Obsession?”

“Fascination. Whatever.”

“Do one thing for me, would you? Get a plat of this town, study the layout, and try to imagine the square without the mansion. Then take a walk through the old house and try to see it for what it is. It’s a gem of nineteenth-century architecture. It’s a tribute to an age gone by. Then walk through the grounds …”

“You asked me to do one thing, and you listed at least three. Look, Elizabeth, I’m taking a vacation in a couple of weeks, and I’ll use some of that time to think over what you’ve been saying. In the meantime, you’d better start getting used to the idea of a sign next door that reads Zachary Chalmers: American Institute of Architects, because that’s who’s going to be your neighbor.”

“Let me buy the mansion then. I can make a large enough down payment that you could buy a lot on the edge of town and build whatever you want.”

“Have you always been this persistent?”

She leaned against the wall and let out a breath. “Yes.”

“Good. I like that. Now, let’s go to lunch.”

“You’re the one who’s stubborn,” she said as he headed down the stairs. “And I’m not having lunch with you. I’m going back to my shop and open up for the afternoon.”

“Fine, be that way.” He gave her yet another of those grins as he pushed open the door and stepped out into the sunlight. “You’ll regret it.”

“I regret everything about you. And I want Grace’s letter back!”

“See ya around, Elizabeth,” he called as the door banged shut behind him.

Too bad about Elizabeth Hayes, Zachary thought as he detailed the brickwork on the front view of his design for the state office complex. She was a pretty woman, obviously intelligent, and certainly passionate. But she was about to drive him straight up the wall. Her visit to his office the other day had thrown him for a loop.

In moving to Ambleside, he had expected all kinds of obstacles—zoning laws, client confusion, and all the inconveniences of small-town living. But he hadn’t anticipated a blue-eyed spitfire who was bound and determined to keep him from his objectives.

He couldn’t leave that mansion standing. It would cost a small fortune to rehab it. And then what? He’d have an expensive old house that nobody would want. Who’d buy the thing from him? Maybe someone could use it for a bed-and-breakfast. But Ambleside wasn’t exactly a tourist resort. The building itself was too cumbersome for a modern family’s home. No doubt anyone who could afford the place would prefer a large wooded lot and a top-of-the-line executive home to a downtown Victorian mansion.

As for Elizabeth’s request to purchase the property herself, he questioned whether she could even come close to the price he would need to ask for the place. Even if she could buy it, she could hardly rehab it on the income she made from Finders Keepers. The image of a single woman running an antiques shop didn’t exactly shout extravagant wealth. Unless she had a trust fund or something.

“Knock, knock, knock!” someone called outside his door. “Is anybody inside there?”

Zachary wheeled around, listening to the sounds of furtive conversation and muffled giggling. “Uh … I’m in here. Would you like to come in?”

“Yes,” the voice called. “Is it OK?”

“Just go in!” someone else said. “Go in, go in!”

The door flew open to reveal two small children—a girl with bright red hair done up in two pigtails, and a boy Zachary recognized as Elizabeth Hayes’s adopted son. As one, they stepped into his office, glanced shyly at each other, and began to giggle again.

“Well, this is an unexpected pleasure,” he said, coming to his feet. “May I help you, sir and madam?”

As the girl dissolved into uncontrolled laughter, the boy squared his little shoulders and marched forward.

“Magunnery and I, Nick Hayes, have come to visit you,” he announced.

“I can see that. Is Magunnery going to be all right?”

Nick looked over his shoulder and then rolled his eyes. “Her mommy doesn’t know where she is. We’re not supposed to leave the backyard, and we might get into trouble. When Magunnery does something naughty, she always laughs.”

“I see.” He fought a grin. “I’d hate for the two of you to get into trouble, so maybe you’d better tell me why you came, and then you can head back home.”

“I came because I want you to be my daddy.”

Zachary blinked. “Your
daddy?”

“Yes.”

“Aha. Well.”

“Would that be OK?”

“Umm, what does your mom think about the idea?”

“She says you’re a stranger. But I met you already once, and besides, you have green eyes and black hair.”

Zachary tried to make sense of the trend of the conversation, but he wasn’t having a lot of luck. “Look, maybe you should start by telling me
why
you want me to be your daddy.”

“Because I need one.” Nick nodded. “That’s the reason. I need a daddy.”

“I have a daddy,” the little redhead piped in. She seemed to be regaining control of herself. “His name is Luke Easton. My daddy loves me.”

“And so, because you have a daddy, Magunnery, that means Nick wants a daddy.”

“No,” the boy said. “I want a daddy because I need one. You would be a good daddy for me.”

“Well, that’s very interesting.” Zachary stuck his hands in his pockets and tried to think of a way out of this. “Why don’t you two sit down on that box there while I think about it. I’ll, uh, get you some paper to draw on. You could draw me a picture, how about that?”

“I didn’t come to drawl.”

“Drawl?”

“Drawl pictures. I came to ask you to be my daddy.”

The boy was as persistent as his mother. “Why did you pick me?” Zachary asked.

“I like you.”

“I like you too, Nick, but being a dad is a big job. For one thing, I’m not married to your mom.”

“You could get married to her.”

He’d walked right into that one. “I don’t think your mom wants to marry me.”

“You could ask her.” The solemn green eyes gazed at him. “She would be a nice wife for you. She cooks really good food, and she hardly ever yells. I think you would like her a lot.”

“She’s pretty, too,” the little girl piped in.

“That’s very true,” Zachary said, his heart softening at the child’s earnest request. “I’ll tell you what. This is clearly a serious mission you two have come on, and I’m going to give it a lot of thought. In fact, I’d like you both to sit down here and draw me a picture of Nick’s mom so I can put it on my desk while I think about it. And in the meantime, I’ll give her a phone call, so she can come over and walk you guys safely home.”

The two stared at one another, stricken. “If my mom finds out we came here,” Nick said, “she’ll get really mad.”

“But you said she hardly ever yells.”

“This would make her yell.”

“Mmm. We wouldn’t want that.” He was having a hard time keeping a straight face. “Looks like I’m going to have to walk you two home myself.”

The boy’s face lit up. “Really? Maybe you could ask my mom on a date and then you could kiss her and get married.”

“I think we’ll need to take our time on that plan—”

A sharp knocking drew the attention of everyone in the room. Well, it appeared they were going to get to see Elizabeth Hayes yell. Not that Zachary hadn’t seen her mad before. In fact, he was beginning to think he had a knack for bringing out her worst.

“Come on in,” he called.

The door opened, and in stepped Phil Fox, the town’s barber, bus station attendant, and city councilman rolled into one stocky little package. He was all grins. “Looks like you already got company here!”

“I’m pretty busy,” Zachary said.

“This won’t take but a minute. I’ve got something real important to discuss with you.”

“They were headed thataway,” Pearlene Fox told Elizabeth, gesturing toward the Corner Market. “I tell you what, if they were mine, I’d tan their hides for running off like that.”

Her heart in her throat, Elizabeth raced down the side- walk and across River Street without waiting for the light to change. Boompah met her on the sidewalk as he was rolling up his awnings for the day. “That way,” he said, pointing toward the hardware store.

Why hadn’t he stopped Nick and Montgomery? Elizabeth could have wrung these people’s necks. Didn’t they know that two children shouldn’t be roaming the streets alone? OK, so Ambleside wasn’t exactly a mecca for crime, but anything could happen.

“That way,” Ez pointed as he was removing pies from the window of the Nifty Cafe.

Elizabeth increased her pace. How could Montgomery’s mother have taken her eyes off the children? She’d been resting! So, who didn’t need a rest? You never turn your back on children at play.

“Next door,” Cleo Mueller said. The pharmacist at Redee-Quick Drugs was locking up for the evening. “I saw the two of them run by when I was leaving to make a delivery to Mrs. McCann at the library. Her arthritis is acting up awful bad. I think the kids were headed upstairs,” he added, nodding toward the attorney’s office.

Upstairs?
Oh, dear God!
Elizabeth breathed a prayer for help as she entered the building, climbed the stairs, and negotiated the dimly lit maze of hallways. If Nick and Montgomery went to see Zachary Chalmers, that could mean only one thing. Nick was on a mission to get himself a father.
Lord, help me to be calm. Help me to be nice. Please direct my words—

“Nikolai Andrew Hayes!” she shouted as she burst through the door. “What on earth are you doing here?”

“She’s yelling now,” Nick observed.

“I can see that.”

“Montgomery, your mother is—” Elizabeth spotted Phil Fox in the extra chair beside the drafting table. He held a pen with which he’d been sketching. The two children appeared to be drawing something, too. Elizabeth set her hand on the door frame and drew in a deep breath.

“Mr. Chalmers,” she said calmly, “I have been searching for these two children for the last half hour.”

“They’ve been right here, safe and sound.”

“Did it never occur to you to call me and let me know where I might find my son?”

“Her cheeks always get red when she’s mad,” Nick informed Zachary. “But they turn pink again after she calms down.”

“I’ve noticed that.”

“Nick, you and Montgomery are in big trouble.” She reached for her son’s hand. “What are you doing here anyway? No, never mind—”

“I came to ask if he would be my daddy. He’s going to think about it. He might take you on a date and kiss you.”

“Nick!” Wishing she could sink into her shoes, Elizabeth pulled her son upright, knelt on the floor, and took his shoulders. “Nick, your behavior is inappropriate. And as for you, Miss Montgomery Easton, you know you don’t have permission to cross the street. Your mommy is very upset.”