Race To You Read online

  “It’s no problem. Just doing my job.” She put on her seatbelt. “I’ll be in touch.” She put the vehicle in gear and with a roll of the wheels was gone.

  I stood looking at the vehicle as it disappeared in the distance. As she turned the corner, I turned to look at the house. A whole slew of emotions coursed through me. Maybe it was my recent breakup. Maybe it was the excitement of making it through yet another qualifying round that brought me closer to the finals a few months from now. Maybe it was the fact that Serena was simply a beautiful woman and I was feeling somewhat attracted to her. But whatever it was my spirit felt light. I had a small smile as I got into my vehicle and went about my business.

  3

  Serena

  I stifled a yawn as I continued to pore over the listings which had come in that week. I rolled my neck back and forth. My hair swished across my face as I did. I pushed it behind my ears and continued my examination of the list. As I looked at each possibility, I added them to the growing spreadsheet I had for various clients. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that I was on the second to last page of the stack of papers. I covered my mouth as the yawn snuck out.

  “Someone partied a bit too much last night?”

  I looked up at Lucy standing in the doorway.

  “I came back a bit late from mum and dad’s last night.

  “Are they good then?”

  “They’re great. I could have slept there but would still have had to stop at home this morning, so it just made sense to drive back last night.”

  “You could have taken the day off, you know.”

  “Nope. I needed to get these done so that I can set the appointments for the walkthroughs.”

  With a flourish, I placed my signature on the final page and saved the document I had created on my laptop. I sent it to the printer and heard the machine come to life. Lucy walked over and plucked the papers out one by one. She glanced at the one on top and smiled.

  “You’re determined to find Connor something. These are about five new listings.”

  “Well, he has asked me to keep looking. I think he’s trying to find something to match the first one I showed him. But so far he still hasn’t made a decision.”

  “It’s not like Connie to be so indecisive. That’s one thing I know about my brother: when he makes up his mind it’s a done deal.” She gave me a sly look. “Unless…”

  I quirked a brow enquiringly. “Unless… what?”

  “Maybe there’s a reason he doesn’t want to make up his mind.”

  “A reason such as?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe he enjoys the search. Or maybe he enjoys being with the person he’s searching with.” Lucy shrugged with feigned ignorance. “But what do I know? I’m just your employee and his sister.”

  I narrowed my eyes as she smiled smugly. “What on earth are you going on about?”

  “Oh… nothing. Nothing at all.”

  “That ‘nothing at all’ has something written all over it. Now dish.”

  “It’s just that it’s been a few months since Connor and Tracy broke up. In the three years they were together I didn’t see him smile half as much as he has in the past three weeks since he’s been house hunting. It’s good to see him happy again. That’s all.” She smirked. “Regardless of the reason behind the happiness.”

  I shook my head and sighed. “You’re speaking in parables, Lucy.”

  “I’m just saying that maybe my brother has taken a bit of a shine to you.”

  I gasped. “To me? I think you’re greatly mistaken, dear.” My tone took on a stern edge to hide the sudden palpitations and nervousness I felt at the suggestion.

  “I don’t think I am. But if I am, I do stand corrected.”

  “I have no idea what would even make you think such a thing.”

  “I know my brother. That’s all. But let’s get on with business, shall we? I’ll plug the appointments from these and let you have a look by the end of the day?” she brandished the printed lists.

  “Sure. Could you ask Sarah to pop over to Andy’s and get me a scone and iced tea, please? I didn’t have breakfast and I’m feeling the emptiness.”

  “Sure, thing boss lady.”

  I rolled my eyes as she closed the door chuckling softly. She knew I hated the title. I stood and stretched upward to get the blood flowing. I hated it when I started my week on such a low. I did a series of stretches until I felt as if the blood was flowing and the tiredness began to seep out of my system. By the time Sarah arrived with the fetched scone and tea, I felt like my old self.

  I took it to my little tea area as I detested eating at my desk. The little alcove overlooked a small park and I could see young mothers and nannies out in the fresh May sunshine with their tiny charges. I swallowed against a sudden lump as my eyes drifted further to watch pedestrians coming and going. My mind drifted back to the strange turn my conversation with Lucy had taken a few minutes ago. What on earth had she meant by it? Had Connor said anything to her about being interested in me in some way? Was Connor interested in me? If I were to be truthful, my mind had drifted in his direction on more than one occasion in ways that had nothing to do with house hunting.

  Since the first showing three weeks ago I had seen him a total of five more times. Each time I realized that there was an anticipation to see that black truck pull up. I recalled the disappointment I had felt just last week when he had called to postpone a showing until the next day, and the elation I felt when I did indeed see him for the appointment. I had also found myself placing listings for him at the top of my priority list. When I was with him my face wore nothing but a smile. There was always a bounce in my step and a lightness in my spirit from the first step into the house until he escorted me back to my vehicle. It was a feeling I had not felt in a very long time. A remnant of memory tried to press its way to the forefront of my consciousness. Dutifully I pushed it back forcefully. The past was the past and needed to stay right there… in the past. Instead, I replaced it with the present. And the present was Connor.

  I had now seen him a total of seven times, including the party. Each time he seemed to become a little friendlier. I now took it for granted to be walked to my car after each viewing. And it had become an automatic thing for me to slip my hand into the crook of his elbow. There had been some occasions where he had placed his hand on my shoulder or the small of my back as we navigated through spaces. There was the time the cottage I was showing was across from a construction zone and he had had to lean in closely to hear what I had to say. Each time his spicy musk wafted across and had now imprinted itself on my memory. I noticed, however, that the showing after that was in a much quieter neighborhood yet still, he leaned into my space when I spoke.

  After the second showing, I had fallen into the habit of setting his appointments as my last one for the day. Secretly I didn’t want to have to rush away because of obligations to clients. Not more than once I had had to give myself a mental shake as a reminder that he was younger than I and he was my assistant’s brother. He was off-limits.

  But who has placed him off-limits? My traitorous heart skipped a beat at the contemplation of what could potentially happen if I removed that self-imposed limitation. I knew exactly what could happen if I acted on this attraction I was feeling for Connor. I knew and it scared the shit out of me. Denial was fast melting away in the face of acceptance of the inevitable. My only saving grace was that he would choose a house soon.

  I felt my heart thud at the prospect. A choice would mean a purchase and no more house showings. If I had no more houses to show him there would be no reason to see him again. A sudden feeling of depression swept over me at the prospect of such an eventuality. Did I want to stop seeing Connor? Better yet, was there any truth in Lucy’s hint that Connor might be interested in me? I felt so confused.

  I huffed and held my head between my hands. I walked the pads of my finger through my scalp, massaging lightly.

  Whereas I could excuse the
hand on my back and shoulder and even leaning in closer, could I explain the butterflies I felt whenever he smiled at me? Could I explain how his hand lingered on my waist when he drew me aside to avoid a puddle? Or how about when he hugged me goodbye and brushed his lips against my cheek. Could that be explained as casual client behavior?

  I wished I could interrogate Lucy some more about her cryptic parables, but I dared not. Suppose I was wrong about what she had said. Suppose she was wrong, and Connor was just being personable?

  I flung myself out of the chair and went back to my desk. I pulled out a sheet of paper and drew two columns. I placed a plus sign at the top of one and a minus at the top of the other.

  “Okay, let’s weigh the pros and cons of this matter and conclude. It’s not rocket science.”

  I began to scribble, and scribble, and scribble. My head was down, and I was deep in thought as I drafted my list of reasons why I should or shouldn’t view Connor as a potential love interest. I added everything that had happened each time I had seen him. I added Lucy’s assumptions and the feelings I had. By the time the list was finished the items on the pros had spilled over to the back of the page. On the cons, I had only the age difference, his being Lucy’s brother and the fact that no definitive interest had been voiced by either of us.

  I sighed and sat back. Was the age difference that big of a deal though? I thought back to the conversation when he had revealed his knowledge of my age. It hadn’t seemed to faze him so why should I allow it to faze me? Had it been maybe a year or two I wouldn’t have had such a major issue. But this was all of six years. That was too far a gap for me to be comfortable with. Or was it. Why was it okay for a man to be so much older than a woman but if it were another way around it became an issue? Who had made that rule in the first place? If Connor’s actions were anything to go by, he didn’t seem to have a problem with it. So why should I? But what would his family think?

  Which brought me to my second con. It was Lucy’s brother. In the five years that she had worked for me I had developed a relationship with her parents. I had always known that she had an older brother, but he had always been overseas or busy whenever the occasion warranted his presence and mine in the same space. It was nothing short of miraculous that it had taken five years for us to meet. Maybe that was fate. Certainly, if I had met him at nineteen or even twenty, I would not have given him a second thought. But as a man of twenty-four, there was much more appeal there. How would his parents and sister view me being six years his senior? As a cradle robber? Would Lucy feel awkward at work if I were to date her brother?

  Then there was the third and final reason. All I had to work with were assumptions. Connor had not said anything definitively about having any sort of interest in me beyond my helping him to find a house. Suppose he was just genuinely a nice guy who liked to be all touchy-feely and those gestures were just his norm and meant nothing special? Suppose I had magnified my attraction based on inconclusive evidence and there was nothing there to sustain any sort of long-term relationship?

  Suppose your nose was a doorpost, where would you put the flipping hinges? Stop overthinking and over-analyzing Serena. Calm down and be rational.

  I took a deep breath and let it out. Seven more cycles found me in a mentally relaxed state and the anxious edge was taken off. I shook out my hair and then smoothed it over my scalp. This week was indeed off to a rocky start. It would take extra energy to see to it that this confusion did not carry over into my other tasks for the week. I toyed with the prospect of leaving by lunchtime and browsing through the market or taking the tube into the city center to a museum to air out my brain. I was happy I had made it a point of duty not to do showings on Mondays. I gathered up my stuff and checked my watch. It was just after eleven. If I hurried, I could catch the noon tube in, browse for a few hours, then catch the evening tube back. Just as I picked up my keys the intercom crackled.

  “Serena, can you take a call regarding a showing today?”

  “Just tell them we don’t do showings on Mondays Lucy. Fit them in where possible, please. I’m leaving for the day.”

  “They won’t take no for an answer.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Put them through.” I sat and steeled my tone to be firm and forthright. Line two blinked.

  “Hello, this is Serena Bishop.”

  “Hi, Serena. It’s Connor.”

  My hands immediately grew clammy and my throat went dry.

  “Serena? Are you there?”

  “H-Hi, Connor.”

  “Hi. How are you?”

  “I’m good. You?”

  “I’m good but it could be better. Lucy tells me that you don’t do showings on Mondays. Is there any possibility of an exception?”

  I thought of every reason why I should keep him in the client zone and tell him there were no exceptions. But already I could see my plans for the museum being rerouted to whichever of the properties he wanted to see. I took a deep breath. And tried…

  “I don’t do showings on Mondays. We use Mondays to sort through and categorize our listings and make the appointments with the clients. The best I can do is first thing in the morning.”

  “No can do. I’ll be away for the rest of the week. I won’t be back until next Wednesday.”

  I felt my heart thud. I wouldn’t see him for close to two weeks.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay? ‘Okay, see you next Thursday’ or ‘Okay, see you in an hour’? I would much rather the latter. Next Thursday is too long to wait to see you.”

  My mouth opened and closed like a goldfish. What the hell?

  “Serena? Which is it?”

  “Okay see you in an hour. I’ll send the directions from my cell.” And before I lost my nerve and stuck to my client zone policy, I hung up. I opened the lockbox in which we kept the keys for the houses and extracted the three for the properties I had put on Connor’s list. I slipped them into my bag and stepped out of the office. I ignored Lucy’s probing eyes and thanked the heavens for my dark skin which I knew hid any sign of the blush that burned my cheeks.

  “I’m out for the rest of the day.”

  “What should I log it under? Business? Personal?”

  I looked at her through narrowed eyes and she grinned.

  “I’ll take that as if it were both.”

  Her laughter followed me as I went out the door.

  4

  Connor

  I sat waiting patiently for any sight of the cherry red SUV I had become all too familiar with. Not long after Serena had ended the call, I got a message with the address where she and I would meet. Thankfully it was close to my apartment and I hightailed it there and sat and waited. I didn’t even look at the building. I just wanted to see her.

  I could not put my finger on when but at some point, in the past three weeks seeing Serena had become like an oasis in the desert for me. I had started to look forward to our weekly walkthroughs. I was happy to say that none of the homes we had viewed since that first one quite matched up to it. But I was not going to stop viewing until I no longer had to use viewing as an excuse to see Serena. There was simply no denying it. I was attracted to her. Seriously.

  The sound of a vehicle pulling up behind me broke my train of thought. I was out of the vehicle before she even shut off the ignition. I opened her door and extended my hand. She smiled and took it graciously and stepped out of the vehicle. She looked up at me and my heart stopped. What was it about this woman that had me tied up in more knots each time I saw her?

  “Hi.” I smiled down at her. “I’m sorry to put you on the spot. But I wanted to see what you had for me this week before I left.”

  She shrugged. “Just as long as you know this is just a one-off favor and not to be taken as a habit. We don’t do viewings on Mondays.”

  “Good thing my sister is your assistant huh.”

  “It has nothing to do with Lucy. It is a personal favor. I was about to leave the office when your call came through.”

>   I backed up. “Am I keeping you from an appointment or a meeting? I’m sorry. I didn’t think about the fact that you may have had other things on your agenda. Let this stay until I come back then.” I couldn’t hide the disappointment that washed over me. She gently placed a hand on my arm.

  “Connor, it’s okay. All I had on my agenda was playing hooky for the afternoon. I was going to take the tube to the center and browse the museums a bit then catches the evening one back. A walkthrough is just as good.”

  “Serena! I never thought you had it in you! Play hooky! For shame!” I wagged my finger at her scoldingly, and she rolled her eyes.

  “Do you want to see or don’t you?”

  “I do. I do. Shall we?” I held my arm out as usual. She grabbed a bunch of keys from her bag and locked her vehicle before taking my arm. We turned to face the house.

  “What was your first reaction?”

  “That there was no way I was not going to see you before I left for so long.” I looked down at her, not caring that I was putting my heart on my sleeve. She looked back up at me with those big brown eyes of hers and rolled them as I noticed she always did when she was either amused or exasperated.

  “I meant about the house.” She slapped my hand lightly in reprimand.

  “Oh. The house.” I turned to look at the townhouse we were about to enter. It was at the end of a row and had a tiny path that went around one side. The other side was joined to the neighbor. I already knew I hated it but was not going to give up the chance to spend a leisurely hour or two with Serena. She tugged on my arm.

  “Well?”

  “It’s quaint. Shall we?”

  “Certainly. I must tell you that this is only a two-bedroom, but it has two and a half baths. I wanted to show it to you as there is the potential for expansion. The driveway can be covered, and another room put on. There is also expansion potential for the back as well. You have a front yard and garden on the left.”

  She pulled the bunch of keys out and fitted a few until she found the right one for the front door. As we entered, I got a sense of claustrophobia. The space was narrow and dark. Under normal circumstances, it would have been unappealing. But now in my present company, I would have taken a tour of a condemned building just to be with Serena.