“I can’t vouch for how clean it is.”
“I won’t judge,” she said with a smile, and hopped out of the truck. The wind had picked up; she cried out with alarm. “It’s freezing!” she shouted, and darted for the front door, the hem of her dress kicking up behind her, revealing some very shapely hamstrings.
Hamstrings. Luke was admiring a woman’s hamstrings. He told himself to reel it in, to stop looking at dimples and hamstrings and the way bear whistles rested between two very excellent breasts. He walked up behind her, reached around, unlocked the door and pushed it open. Madeline hopped inside like a bird, with her arms wrapped tightly around her.
Just inside the door, Luke pulled one of his flannel jackets off a hook. “Here. You’re making me cold just looking at you.”
“Thank you,” she said gratefully, and slipped into it. “I’m going to have all your jackets at this rate.” The jacket dwarfed her, but she sighed with delight. “Heaven,” she said. She glanced around, her gaze looking up, to the crown molding, and then down, to the hardwoods and window casings Luke had put in himself. He’d painted the living room sea green. It was the color he remembered the ocean to be when he and Leo and his parents had vacationed in California many years ago.
“Wow,” Madeline said, slowly turning in a circle, nodding appreciatively. “This place is nice. Did you do it?”
“I did.”
“While you were in school?”
He nodded. While he was in school, while he was working. He’d found that he didn’t have to think about troubles at home if he kept himself occupied every moment of every day.
“It’s gorgeous, Luke.” She moved forward, leaning through the doorway to peer into the adjoining kitchen. “Oh, wow, completely upgraded. You did it all by yourself?”
“All by myself.”
She turned around and beamed at him. “It’s really fantastic. You could make a fortune in Orlando. I—” Her cell phone rang, startling her. Madeline fished her phone from the little purse that hung around her neck. “Oh,” she said, looking at the number. “Excuse me,” she said to Luke, then answered the phone with a “Bree? Is everything okay? It’s after hours there—”
Whatever Bree said caused Madeline to gasp. “You’re kidding,” she said flatly. “Are you kidding?” She suddenly let out a shriek to Luke’s ceiling and did a fist pump. “That’s fabulous!” She pulled the phone away from her mouth and said to Luke, “I got an offer on the DiNapoli property!” She followed that with a bit of a Snoopy dance, then put the phone to her head again. “Okay, lay it on me. What’s the offer?”
Whatever Bree said dimmed Madeline’s smile a little. She stood up a little straighter. “Okay,” she said, nodding. “Okay. We can work with that. I mean, yes, it’s a million less than what Mr. DiNapoli wanted, but he has to be reasonable. Give me something to sweeten the pot—how soon can they close?”
She nodded as Bree talked, her brow furrowed in concentration. “Fabulous,” she said. “Who’s the realtor? Andy Griggs! Gah,” she groaned, bending backward. “Okay, all right, so I will call and present the offer to Mr. DiNapoli and give Andy a call. Great. Thank you, Bree! Thank you! And wish me luck!” She hung up the phone and looked at Luke. She seemed almost to levitate off the floor. “I have an offer. Granted, it’s a lowball offer, but still, it’s an offer!” She squealed again, then took a deep breath, and another, and punched in the number of the seller.
“Mr. DiNapoli!” she said brightly when the client answered, and whirled around, her back to Luke. “Hi! It’s Madeline Pruett, and I have great news.” She walked into the kitchen, talking very quickly, laying out the offer.
Luke could tell from the way her hand curled into a little fist and how fast she began to speak that DiNapoli didn’t like the offer. But he had to hand it to her, Madeline was selling it. It was as if she had compiled a mental list of all the reasons why this was a great deal for the seller, and she was rolling through them, one by one, marking them off. Luke walked to the front windows and looked out while she talked. The sky to the north was so black that it almost looked green. They needed to leave now, or risk getting caught in what looked like would be one very ugly storm.