Page 33 of Raven's Instinct
“It’s a pretty standard part, so I can get it in town, and labor’s not the biggest part of this job. Couple of hours, probably. Not more than three. Pricey piece, though.” He quoted the cost.
Kendra swallowed and then nodded. “I can pay that.” She could, though it would set back her savings plan. Well, a few more months in the van instead of a house wouldn’t be that much of a hardship. She got her purse and gave Mason the key.
“I’ll get Logan to call for the part and we should have it done by lunch,” Mason said, accepting it. “We don’t have much of a waiting room, sorry.”
“I can walk the block to Heads Up Cafe,” Kendra said. Losing half a day wasn’t too bad. None of her morning clients were time critical appointments and she could reschedule them for later in the week.
Of course, at the bakery, she felt obligated to buy something in exchange for taking up space. Nursing a drip coffee and the cheapest pastry from their display, she sat at a crowded corner table and texted her clients about the delay. Both of them responded promptly with understanding, putting her concerns to rest and saving her from having to make a follow-up call. She texted them back with new appointments.
“Are you using this chair?”
The bakery had gone from busy to packed, even though it was still a while before lunch and Kendra’s (rather dry) cookie had been reduced to a few crumbs on her napkin. “I’m just leaving,” she said apologetically, gathering up her things.
She swallowed the last of her coffee and bussed her dishes, tossing the trash instead of leaving it balled up on the plate like most people had.
She hadn’t unpacked her winter coat from beneath the rig yet, and it was getting cold enough that her company coat (as opposed to her blood-stained work coat) was not warm enough for the weather. Kendra wandered nearly a block and found herself in front of a real estate office. The front window was covered with the choicest—and least affordable—options. Kendra skipped the ones with swimming pools (in Nickel City? Why?!) and lingered on the ranch houses and sprawling mansions. Who really needed six rooms and an equal number of bathrooms…but wouldn’t a ballroom be nice? One of the cabins appeared to come furnished with taxidermy.
It was too cold to linger outside and Kendra had nowhere else to be, so she went in. Maybe they had some more humble two-bedroom choices available, and there was nothing wrong with shopping, even if her plans were set back a while by an expensive repair.
A mousy young woman with thick glasses behind the counter leapt up from a computer with an air of desperation. Her name tag saidClariceand it had a little sunflower hand drawn beside it. “Are you house shopping? Can I help you find something? Are you thinking of a condo or a cottage? We have some single family homes that have just come onto the market. How many bedrooms?”
A little overwhelmed by the greeting, Kendra rubbed her cold hands together. She’d managed to forget her gloves in Rita.“Ah, I’m really in the very earliest stages of looking. Something modest. Two bedrooms.”
“Let me get the folders for you!”
The over-eager woman brought out a stack of thick binders. “I’ve organized the properties in three different ways,” she said, plunking them down on the counter in front of Kendra. “This one is by location, in case there’s a particular part of Nickel City you’re looking at. The Bluffs are in the front, the Tails in the back. This folder is by square footage. You’d think that would mean by price, but don’t be fooled. This folder is by price. Do you have an idea of your budget? We have all the paperwork you need for loan applications and we are FTC certified, of course. Oh, and there’s a key in the front to show what the stickers mean. The little house means a HOA, that’s a private well, the swing is a back yard…”
A little dazed by Clarice’s non-stop monologue, Kendra flipped one open at random and found herself staring at the perfect house.
Nothing is random, her owl assured her.
It was not a remarkable house, and it needed a coat of paint in the worst way, but it had trees all around it, and a large, fenced yard. It was two stories, with a little porch on the top level looking out the back. Kendra could imagine using it as a landing pad after a discreet flight. The rooms were small and the bathrooms were old-fashioned, but it looked charming, even empty and undecorated.
Room for a headboard,her owl reminded her.
“That’s a three-bedroom, see the tabs here?” Clarice leaned forward to flip the binder back, but Kendra kept a finger on the page as she nodded along with the sales pitch for a sterile condo with access to a swimming pool. (Again, in Nickel City?) Kendra bit her tongue to keep from commenting.
She was glad when the phone rang and Clarice scampered to answer it.
Kendra took the binder to a table ringed by chairs that had stacks of flyers and carpet samples off to the side, and turned the page back to the first house. The yard was quite overgrown, and there were some cracks in the cement floor of the garage, which would not have been big enough for her rig anyway. Did that indicate foundation damage?
Kendra shook herself. Why was she even worried about it? The house’s price was right there, and she’d have to wait another full year to save for the down payment at her current pace. There was no promise that it would still be on the market then, and did she really want to live with a four-year-old in Rita until she could afford something better than basic? Not-quite-three was enough of a handful.
She shut the binder and pulled her coat closed again as she stood. She was warmed up again, and there was no point in making herself crazy dreaming about things she couldn’t have.
The bell at the door rang and a very angry woman swept in, impractical high-heeled boots clicking on the floor.
Kendra was not an expert at people, but she knew animal cues, and this one was a trample risk, for sure. Clarice stammered her way off of the phone call and stood with her hands clasped behind her back fearfully. “Miss Chase?”
Kendra realized that the woman’s face was the same one as on the business cards on the counter: Veronica Chase. She had plastered a company smile on for the photo and she was scowling heartily now.
“I want the contract for Tiny Paws,” she hissed. “That Cherry has crossed me for the last time, and I am shutting down thatunnaturalabomination forgood.”
23
KENDRA
Not unnatural, Kendra thought to herself. Unnormal.
