“Marjorie!” Teresa turned to her friend in exasperation, stunned that Marjorie had been so deceptive.
“What?” The older woman’s still-sharp eyes widened even further behind her glasses. “It’s all true.”
“And did you mention that your dear friend has two children?”
“No, she didn’t mention that fact.” Riley seemed more indulgently resigned than annoyed by the minor deception.
Teresa shook her head. “And I’m sure you have a policy against renting to anyone with children. So thank you for your time, but—”
She had already taken a step backward when Riley stopped her. “Wait a minute. Who said I wouldn’t rent to anyone with children?”
“Do you?” she challenged.
He cleared his throat. “Why don’t you come in and see the place before you turn it down?” he asked, sidestepping the question as he motioned them inside.
Teresa hesitated, but Marjorie took her arm in a surprisingly strong grip and urged her forward. “Yes, Terry, come inside. It’s really very nice.”
Reluctantly, Teresa allowed herself to be escorted in.
They entered a small foyer with a straight staircase that led to the second floor. A tiny half bath was tucked beneath the stairs. The foyer led into a cozy unfurnished living room with a built-in bookcase and a nice hardwood floor. At the back of the first floor was an airy, eat-in kitchen equipped with a range, a refrigerator, a dishwasher and a washer and dryer behind bi-fold doors in one corner.
Teresa looked longingly at the washer and dryer. The little house she’d been renting for the past couple of months hadn’t come equipped with them. She had to take all her laundry to a nearby laundromat—an expensive and time-consuming process.
“Let’s look upstairs.” Marjorie nudged Teresa along with the ease of an experienced realtor. “Three bedrooms. Right, Riley?”
“Uh, yeah.” He followed them, letting Marjorie take the lead—as if he had any real choice about that, Teresa thought with a slight smile. “Each one’s the size of the average walk-in closet and they all share a bath, but there’s a fair amount of storage tucked into various nooks and crannies.”
He’d exaggerated only a bit about the size of the bedrooms, Teresa discovered. They were small but nice. Hardwood floors again, and good-size closets behind bi-fold doors. Multipaned windows let in plenty of natural light, preventing the rooms from feeling claustrophobic. The single bathroom was easily accessible to all three rooms. It held a shower-bathtub combination, a sink, a toilet and a roomy linen closet.
“My side of the duplex is a mirror opposite of this one except that I’ve taken out an upstairs wall to make one large bedroom. I use the smaller one as an office,” Riley explained, obviously making conversation to fill an awkward pause when the tour ended.
It was nice, Teresa had to admit. Roomier than it looked from the outside. The kids would each have a bedroom, and the fenced backyard would give them a safe place to play. It was on the school bus route, so the bus would drop them off practically at the front door every afternoon.
Too bad she couldn’t take it.
“Thank you for the tour,” she told Riley a bit primly. “It’s a lovely place. I’m sure you’ll find a tenant very quickly.”
“Actually, I’m pretty particular about who I rent to,” he replied, leaning against a wall and studying her. “That’s why I bought the duplex when the original owner put it up for sale three years ago. I’d been living here for a couple of years and I’d gotten used to it, but I didn’t want just anyone living next door. So I became the landlord.”
It had been a wise move, Teresa concluded. The rent he charged probably paid most of the mortgage, and he had equity building as an investment. All in all, it showed rather surprising foresight, considering her early impressions of Riley. “How long has this side been vacant?”
He shrugged. “A few weeks. The young couple who lived here decided to move to Memphis in search of higher-paying jobs.”
“I’ve lived in Memphis,” Teresa murmured, glancing out a window at the quiet-looking neighborhood. “There’s something to be said for the slower pace of small-town life, even when it means a cut in pay.”
“I’m sure that’s especially true for a single mother,” Marjorie commented. “Edstown is such a pleasant place to raise children.”
Riley seemed to come to a decision. “If you’re interested, you can move in as soon as you want.”
Teresa’s eyebrows rose. “You would let me rent this apartment?”
“Yeah. If you want.”
“My children, too?”
He rolled his eyes. “No, you have to leave them on the street. Of course the kids, too.”
For only a heartbeat she considered it—and then she shook her head. The thought of living here with Riley O’Neal on the other side of her bedroom wall was just too much to comprehend. “I don’t think so.”
Marjorie looked disappointed. “You don’t like it, Terry?”
An image of that lovely washer and dryer flashed through her mind. “I like it just fine. But I don’t think it’s right for us.”
“You’ve got something against the landlord?” Riley inquired.
“The landlord isn’t used to children,” she returned evenly. “Mark and Maggie are well-behaved, for the most part, but they’re normal kids. Sometimes they get rowdy. Make noise. And they like you—they’d probably pester you half to death.”
He straightened away from the wall, his expression suddenly serious. “I know what to expect from kids. They’d have their own yard to play in, and these walls are very well insulated for soundproofing. As for the other part, I’m quite capable of letting them know when I need to be left alone to work.”
Teresa was shaking her head even before he finished speaking. “I just don’t think it would work out.”
“Your choice,” he said cordially. “Of course there aren’t many rentals available in Edstown, especially in this area. And as far as us being neighbors goes, whole days sometimes went by without me even seeing the couple who lived here before. You’d have plenty of privacy, just as I tend to protect my own.”
“What makes you think I would be a good tenant?”
He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I think you’d be a responsible renter who’d pay your bills, take care of the place and not give me much hassle. That’s pretty much all I look for. As for your kids—I’ve seen you keep them in line. I’m not worried about them being much trouble. I’m ready to get the place rented so I don’t have to worry about it anymore, and Marjorie has vouched for you, which is good enough for me.”
Teresa chewed her lower lip while she considered his words. As he’d said, there weren’t a lot of other options. This neighborhood was ideal, the apartment—while a bit cramped—was adequate for her needs, and the rent was affordable. “Would I have to sign a lease?”
“Why don’t we take it a month at a time until we find out if the arrangement works for both of us?”
She considered the suggestion for another moment. While there were certain disadvantages to not having a lease, there was also the advantage that she could move at any time if the arrangement didn’t work out. Of course, that would mean uprooting the children again, something she would prefer to keep to a minimum. But they would enjoy that nice backyard—and they’d like being so close to the school and their friends….
“I think you should try it, Terry,” Marjorie advised. “It’s the most suitable place I know of in this school district.”