Good Buy Girls 05 - All Sales Final Read Free Page A

Dillon hissed which made Maggie jump and she let him go. He leapt down onto the porch with the scruff of his neck in an agitated ruff and his tail fluffed.
    “Well, hello there, little fella.”
    Marcy knelt down and wiggled her fingers at Marshall Dillon then made kissy noises. Maggie did not think Marshall Dillon was going to go for this in the least but he lowered his head and plowed toward Marcy, not stopping until she was scratching him under the chin and he was purring. His fur slowly lowered from its full alert state.
    “What do you suppose that was about?” Maggie asked Sam.
    “Maybe he smelled another cat in the area. The place has been empty for a while. It could be we have some feral cats living under the porch.”
    Maggie looked at him. “I like the way you’ve already mentally moved in.”
    “Noticed that, huh?” he asked.
    Marcy rose to her feet and Marshall Dillon twined around her ankle.
    “He is just precious,” she said. “I think he’d really lovehaving such a big house to play in, and maybe you could even get him a friend.”
    “We were thinking about a dog,” Sam said.
    “Oh, the backyard is just perfect for a dog,” Marcy said. “So much room to run and play.”
    Maggie pressed her lips together. She had a feeling they could say they were going to breed elephants and Marcy would find a way to make the house the perfect location for them.
    “Let’s go inside and I’ll give you the room-by-room tour,” she said.
    Sam gestured for Maggie to follow Marcy first. She had a feeling Marcy wasn’t going to have to work too hard to sell Sam on the place. As for her, this was probably the biggest change she’d made in her life since she quit her job working for Dr. Franklin, bought her own business and started dating Sam.
    Okay, now that she considered it that was a lot of change in the past few years, and all since Sam came back to town. Maybe buying a house together would be the final upheaval for a while. She tried not to think about how leaving her home of so many years was going to feel.
    She stepped into the foyer with Marshall Dillon scampering ahead. There was no furniture in the house. Wainscoting was the only decoration on the walls. It looked prim and proper but homey, too. The floors were hardwood and polished to a high gloss.
    Maggie’s footsteps echoed in the empty rooms, and then Sam’s joined hers and it didn’t sound so lonely anymore.
    “This is the front parlor,” Marcy said. “It could be turned into a library, however, and the fireplace is original but was converted to gas about ten years ago.”
    Maggie crossed to the fireplace. The mantel shelf looked good and strong, the perfect place to put all of the pictures of their loved ones. Sam’s hand slid into hers and he laced her fingers with his.
    “We could put a loveseat right here,” he said. “And read in front of the fire on cold winter evenings.”
    “Oh, that sounds nice,” Maggie said.
    “Through here is the formal dining room,” Marcy called as she disappeared through a door on the far side of the room.
    It was a large space with a big bay window that overlooked the side yard. Maggie could see her own dining room table in here. It would look amazing when set with her grandmother’s china for the holidays.
    “The kitchen is in here,” Marcy called, still trotting on ahead. Maggie wondered if Marcy was moving at such a fast pace because she had another appointment or because she didn’t want them to linger in the house. Hmm.
    Marcy didn’t sound as peppy as she had before and Maggie got the feeling Marcy was hoping to finish up quickly with something distasteful. As soon as Maggie and Sam stepped into the kitchen, Maggie knew what Marcy had been dreading.
    The kitchen was sparkling clean, but it was also locked somewhere in the year 1956 with gray steel cabinets, aqua tile countertops and even a matching aqua refrigerator.
    Maggie ran her hand over the counter. It was inperfect condition with no