Three Alarm Tenant. Christa Maurice

it. She was developing some sort of obsession. Too many nights with a book and a bowl of soup. Nothing to do with the way he looked at her. Or the way she hoped he looked at her. She pushed open a door and stepped through it.

      Jack crossed the room and peered at the inset china cabinet. He ran his finger along the dark mullion windows, studying the uneven glass. “Is this original?”

      “As far as I know. The house was built in nineteen thirteen, and it was very fashionable back then to have built-in cabinets.” Katherine tried to pull herself together. First time in a long time around an attractive man, and she started babbling like a schoolgirl in a chance encounter with the captain of the football team. So what if he was handsome? So what if she could almost feel his strong hands gliding down her spine?

      She clenched her teeth and walked out of the dining room, acutely aware of him behind her. “There's another little room back here. We used it for storage. It’s not insulated. Anything you put back here has to be able to take huge temperature fluctuations.” She tugged open the French door leading to the storeroom. It popped open and she stepped through. “That’s the back door. You could put in a doggie door, then your dog could get out if he needed to.”

      “Archer would like that.”

      Katherine found herself trapped between Jack and the door, struggling with the bolt. Blood rushed in her ears, and she couldn’t remember when she’d last taken a decent breath. She seized the doorknob and yanked.

      The door burst open. She stumbled backward. For an eternal moment, Jack’s arms wrapped around her shoulders. Heat rushed to her face as she felt his hard chest through his coat. She wanted to sink into his embrace and stay there.

      “Sticky door,” he said, setting her on her feet. His hand trailed up her arm.

      Katherine tried not to sound like a breathless fool. “It’s worse in the summer when the wood swells.” She pushed through the storm door and took a large step away to gain some room. Unfortunately, two feet of porch wasn’t enough to slow her pulse or clear her mind. “This is the backyard. It’s fenced and it goes all the way back to the alley.” She pointed to the tree line.

      “Big yard.”

      “We loved it when we bought the house, but we never got around to working on it. Our neighbor has a beautiful lawn. I have moss. Feel free to look around.” She hurried inside and perched on what remained of the stairs.

      Not long ago, these two steps had led to a landing and another nine steps to the upstairs. Now they led to a wall. On the other side was her front door, amputating her new home from what she’d always considered its heart. The symbolism was ironic. Katherine leaned back, trying not to think of Jack Conley, who she could hear walking around the kitchen and dining room.

      It would be nice to have a tenant by the first of the month and to have a guy with a dog living downstairs for security purposes. That the potential tenant was gorgeous and that she’d been alone too long had nothing to do with the choice. This was business.

      “Mrs. Pelham?”

      Katherine looked up. He was admiring her legs. A giggle gathered in her throat. She stood, commanding those legs to hold her. “Ms.”

      His eyes swept up her body again. Low heat developed in her belly. “Ms. Pelham, then. It’s a great place. Do you have an application?”

      “Oh yes. Give me a minute, and I’ll get it.” She spun around to dart upstairs, checking herself before she ran into the wall. This chopped-up house would take getting used to. “I'll be back.”

      Katherine slowed to a walk as she stepped off the porch steps. Why was she running? It was business. Just because he looked at her like a woman and not like a teacher, or a friend, or a conquest didn’t mean anything. She walked to her door and opened it. The applications lay on the steps. Without the wall, she could have handed him one through the banister. She heard Jack walking around, but knew she wouldn’t be able to hear him upstairs. If she wanted to spy, she’d to have to sit at the bottom of the stairs. Or position herself at one of the heat vents.

      Katherine shook her head. Why was she thinking of spying on her tenant? She didn’t even have a tenant yet. She picked up one application, took a deep breath and went back around the house to the first floor. He waited in the foyer studying the cracks in the ceiling.

      “Here you are,” she said. “Drop it off in my mail box anytime.”

      “Thanks.” Jack folded the paper and slipped it into his coat pocket. “You live upstairs?”

      “Yes.”

      He nodded. “I’ll have this back today.”

      “In a big hurry to move?” Katherine tensed.

      “It’s Archer. I just got him, and I can’t have pets at my apartment. My landlord wants him out by the end of the month.”

      “I see. Well, you can drop the application off in the mailbox whenever.”

      “Thanks.” He held out his hand. “Nice meeting you.”

      “Nice meeting you, too.” She kept her composure when his hand enveloped hers, but it wasn’t easy. “Good-bye.”

      He grinned. “See ya.”

      Katherine locked the front door as he backed his truck out of the drive. She’d forgotten to tell him about the garage and the basement, but it hadn’t gone too badly. Chances were excellent he wouldn’t bring the application back, and if he did, that he wouldn’t be a good tenant. The book specifically discussed researching prospective tenants. Once they moved in, getting them out was impossible. She suspected evicting Mr. Conley would be the least of her troubles.

      Living in half the house felt strange. Back in her own apartment, she turned toward her kitchen at the top of the stairs. This had been a four-bedroom house. Now, one was her bedroom, another her living room and the third room was her kitchen. Only her office stayed the same in the fourth bedroom. Her office didn’t have bad memories attached to it, so she hadn’t changed it.

      She wandered back into the hall and studied the pictures on the wall. She didn’t know why she hadn’t taken them down. Photos of her ‘happy’ life with a hero. Getting engaged, college graduation, buying a home on a police force mortgage assistance program. All quite dandy until Gary was killed, leaving her with a mortgage she couldn’t afford on her teacher’s salary. And all Gary’s cop buddies lost interest in his not-quite-widow. Four years later, she only rated an occasional drive by.

      That mistake she wouldn’t make again. The next time she married, if she married, she refused to marry a hero.

      * * * *

      When Jack got home, he greeted Archer, cleaned up the newspaper Archer had shredded all over the apartment, and had sat down to fill out the application when the phone rang.

      “Hello?”

      “Jack. It’s Kevin. There’s a place for rent on Jefferson.”

      “On Jefferson? Did you get a number?” Jack frowned. He hadn’t noticed another For Rent sign on Jefferson, but all the way home, his eyes had been full of Katherine Pelham.

      “No number on the sign.”

      “White Colonial?”

      “Yeah.”

      Jack nodded. “I looked at it on the way home.”

      “And?”

      “Nice. Big fenced-in yard, and a door that lets into a little room at the back. She said I could put in a dog door.”

      “And the deposit?”

      “One month’s rent. Nothing extra for Archer. I don’t think she’s done this before. It’s cheap. I want to get the application back to her today.” Jack scanned the next question. Employer. While he talked, he wrote in ‘Arden Fire Department.’

      “Are you sure