The Ace by Rhonda Shaw Read Free Book Online Page A

price, just find me the perfect house.”
    “Yeah, yeah, of course,” she said, waving him off. “When do you want to go looking?” She stopped and looked back at him with a frown. “Oh, wait, are you going to look at them or do you have some personal assistant you’re going to throw at me?” She tried to shove down the sharp feeling of disappointment at the thought.
    “Nope. No personal assistant. All me.” He finished off his beer and stood up. “I’ll have to check my schedule, but start finding some places to look at. I should have some free time before we head out on the road.”
    “All right. I can start pulling some listings tomorrow.”
    “Great.” Jerry held out his hand to her and waited until she placed hers in it. When she did, he gave it a gentle squeeze as he kept his eyes strong on hers. She liked how her hand felt so small in his and she could feel where callouses had formed, feeling rough and coarse. “It’s a date then. I’ll see you around, Aunt Karen.”
    Karen watched his back before it disappeared from her view as he walked into the house to say his good-byes to Maddie and Chase. She couldn’t believe she was going to be showing houses to Jerry Smutton. The thought of spending time alone with him was exhilarating and made her feel bubbly inside, even if it was only business.
    It was still strange to sit and have a normal conversation with him, have him hug her or touch her hand...as if they were old friends. She had thought that any attraction was one-sided, but after the display on Opening Day and now here, she was beginning to think that perhaps it wasn’t. Something was going on between them, but what it was exactly, she couldn’t put her finger on it. It wasn’t as if he’d asked her out; all he’d asked her to do was her job. But there was definitely something.
    And if it were more, if he felt it too and wanted to act on it, would she accept it? Would she jump at the opportunity to be with Jerry? Absolutely, without a doubt, no questions asked. There was no way she was turning that down.
    Karen laughed at herself and shook her head as she finished her wine, thinking she’d probably had too much with the way her thoughts were going. She would show him houses, they would stand up together in a wedding for their friends and that would be it. It was a nice fantasy, at least.

Chapter Five
    Karen pulled her small red Honda into the driveway of the first house on her list to show Jerry and turned off the engine. He wasn’t there yet, so she took her time organizing the comps on this one plus the other three she’d arranged for that afternoon. He’d called her that morning, which hadn’t given her a lot of time, but she’d managed to snag a few appointments on short notice.
    The one they were starting with had the backyard he was looking for, but not a finished basement. Since he could afford to finish it any way he wanted, it shouldn’t be a deal breaker, in her opinion. The rest he claimed he didn’t care about, but she hoped he would be satisfied with what he saw. It had sounded nice to her online, and now sitting outside of the redbrick ranch, she still thought it looked okay, but wasn’t as excited about it as she had been. She wouldn’t want something so plain, but it wasn’t for her.
    She climbed out of her car, stepped up the cement steps to the front door and knocked. Even though she’d been told the owners would not be home, she’d learned her lesson after catching some homeowners in compromising positions.
    When no one answered after a few seconds, she punched in the lockbox code and pulled out the key.
    Stepping inside, she looked around. Crap , Karen thought, immediately realizing it was a no-go. The only way Jerry would possibly like the house was if he were eighty years old. It was one thing to keep things neutral, but whoever had decorated this place had gone overboard. Everything was boring, with bland brown carpeting throughout the whole house. The walls