Newton Neighbors (New England Trilogy) (4 page)

Maria figured it out and laughed. “Thanks,
chica
.”

Cathi took a sip of her punch. “Look, honey, for a start there aren’t many of them around—thank the Lord—and second, are you sure you aren’t blowing this a little out of proportion? I mean, you’re gorgeous. I’ve always told you that. I still see men checking out your curves. That Puerto Rican va va voom is really impossible to beat. It’s downright sexy.”

Maria shook her head vigorously. “Wait till you see her. She looks like a cross between Taylor Swift and a Victoria’s Secret model.”

“Ew, Taylor Swift? The girl who was voted sexiest woman alive last month?” Cathi put her arm around her friend’s waist again. “Okay, if she freaks you out this much, just don’t use her again after tonight.”

“But you should have seen her with Alice. I thought we were going to have a problem being able to leave tonight. Alice just wouldn’t settle with me—nothing new there—but this kid, Jessie, she just took my little girl in her arms, my baby, and Alice cheered up right away. It’s damn annoying. Go figure.”

Cathi laughed. “If she hadn’t managed that, you would have missed the party.”

“I know. It makes no sense.” Maria swirled her red drink and studied the miniature tornado she’d created.

“Ah, that’s where you’re wrong. It all makes perfect sense. First off, she’s pretty and you think Rick noticed, so you feel threatened as a wife and woman. Second, even Cody spotted how cute she was, and now you feel bad because at some subconscious level you know your darling little boy is getting older and will one day leave you for another woman. And third, even Alice was happy with this new woman. I figure that threatened you most of all, because being a mother is what you’re all about. It’s how you define yourself. You were really sideswiped.”

Maria stared at her friend openmouthed. She didn’t know how to respond, but she knew there was no need—her friend was on a roll.

“In theory this woman could replace you. That’s gotta be tough to absorb.”

“Seriously? You got all that just from what I said?”

Cathi nodded and raised her empty glass. “Well, something very similar was on
Dr. Phil
yesterday.”

Maria laughed. The party was getting busier and the music louder. “What happened at the end of the show?”

Cathi, never one for subtlety, sighed. “The couple broke up. That’s quite unusual for
Dr. Phil
.”

“Twenty minutes in the company of a pretty new sitter and you think Rick and I are heading for divorce?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean you guys. I was talking about the people on the show. No way. You guys are cool. All you have to do is seduce Rick tonight. Remind him how good you are. You’re a red-blooded woman with a terrific body. Let him at it.”

Maria slapped her forehead. “Cathi, I just stopped nursing Alice. I still have all my baby weight. I’m not as hot as I was a couple of years ago.”

“Neither is he. Come on, girl. We’re all aging, but remember, youth is no replacement for experience. You may be a little softer around the edges, but you’ve given him two amazing kids and he loves you.”

“Thanks, Cathi. I need a refill.” Maria sighed, noticing she’d drunk her swirling tornado.

“Now that’s a great idea. Afterward, we can come up with lots of X-rated ideas for how you’re gonna spice up your love life when you get Rick home later tonight.”

Maria groaned. “I’m done with X-rated sex. You know Alice is a
Fifty Shades
baby.”

“I think half the babies born last year were
Fifty Shades
babies. You don’t have to make a baby. Just play with Rick. If you blow his mind, he won’t be able to think about your pretty little sitter. Trust me.”

The women headed back to the punch bowl and put Jessie right out of their minds.

“Tell me, have you had any luck with your old neighbor, Noreen Palmer?”

Maria gave a helpless shrug. “I don’t know how to get through to that woman,” she said. “It’s easy enough to bump into her because she’s out walking her dog so much. I just grab Orga and head out. I’ve already had three conversations about this with her in the last two weeks. She knows I’m up to something.”

Cathi looked eager. “What did you say to her?”

Maria saw two seats by the window and headed for them. When they got settled, she continued. “The first time, I asked if she was finding the house a little big now since the kids are all gone. Of course, I didn’t just blurt it out. I kinda worked up to it. Anyway, she didn’t seem to think so. I told her I thought I knew somebody who might want to buy her house for a fair price. She looked a little interested, but then she changed the subject again. Then yesterday I asked her if she’d thought any more about my friend who was interested in her house, and she looked at me like it was the first she’d heard about it.”

Cathi huffed in frustration. “Is she getting confused in her old age? Does she know I want to make her an offer?”

“Oh, I think so. I more or less said that, but she just laughed and waved her hands. I don’t think she’s interested, Cathi. What more can I do?”

“Try harder.” Her friend looked exasperated.

“You know, hers isn’t the only house with a view of the water. You could get a realtor to approach all the homes overlooking Crystal Lake. Maybe somebody else would think of selling.”

“I like her house best, and you’d be surprised how few do sell in a year. There are lots of houses in the neighborhood but not right on the lake. They seem to change hands privately, which is where you come in. You’re right there. You live on Newton’s most desirable street. I know you can find me a way in,” Cathi said, pleading.

“You know we found our house by pure chance. We were just out walking and saw the for sale sign. I’m sure that could happen to you.”

Cathi shook her head, looking impatient. “That was a decade ago. Things have changed, Maria. You and I have to think outside the box. The trick is for me to hear about a house first and make an offer, which I get accepted before it goes on the open market.”

Maria wasn’t convinced. Of course she would love it if Cathi lived closer. They were best friends, after all. Their husbands had been working at the same marketing company for about nine years, and the four of them had become very close. But did it have to be right next door?

Plus, Maria
liked
Mrs. Palmer. She was a widow who lived alone. The woman was a little absentminded now in her old age, but the kids adored her—even Alice. She was a soft little woman in the Angela Lansbury mold. One time, Cody had even asked his mom if Mrs. Palmer was the woman from
Murder, She Wrote
. Maria had really laughed at that.

A decade earlier, when she and Rick had bought number seven, Crystal Lake, the house had been in bad condition. Back in those days, they had been just starting out, so what they’d lacked in finances they’d made up for in energy. Ricky had done a lot of the renovations himself. Maria hadn’t been able to do too much—she’d been pregnant with Cody—but as soon as he was born, it had been a different story.
 

Most of Newton’s new moms cocooned themselves in a love-bubble of soft pink or blue. They breastfed their newborns, took gentle walks around the lake, and did multiple mommy-toddler mornings. Maria was cut from a different cloth.
 

Cody had dozed happily while she’d painted the nursery sky blue. She’d nursed him in the Lowes plumbing department and changed his diapers at Home Depot. She had been up ladders, down at the DIY stores, and around that house like a woman possessed.
 

Maria had laughed when Mrs. Palmer urged her to slow down. She’d said she would stop when the house was finished. Noreen was a treasure in those early years. The older woman had helped with the newborn Cody, and she’d given Maria lots of old furniture, including all her old baby stuff that had been stored for years in the loft of number nine.
 

Mrs. Palmer had been a bit like a mother figure to Maria over the last decade, but Maria could see her next-door neighbor was aging. She was beginning to slow down. Maria thought maybe their roles were reversing now. Perhaps it was her turn to start helping the older lady.

Instead, her best friend Cathi had notions of getting her hands on number nine, Crystal Lake. She wanted to renovate the house and then live in it herself. When Maria had told her friend the next-door neighbor had been living in the house for fifty years, Cathi had become even more determined. She’d made a powerful argument that Mrs. Palmer was sure to make a financial killing and end up being a very rich woman. She could head to Florida and kick her heels up in the sun. Newton was too cold in the winter for the elderly.
 

That’s what Cathi said, but Maria knew Mrs. Palmer never headed south in the colder months. She stayed in her home at Crystal Lake. Noreen was a hardy woman and walked her dog once the roads were cleared of snow. She wrapped up warm and got out in the winter weather. She wasn’t one of the snowbirds who left at the first sign of frost.
 

Noreen was a Newton woman through and through. Cathi didn’t seem to appreciate that. Half a century in one house was an amazing achievement, and her roots were deep. Having had the conversations with her neighbor, Maria seriously doubted Cathi would manage to get her hands on the property.
 

“What about the other side of the lake?” she said, but Cathi shook her head.

“Believe me, I’ve done the research. The houses on your road look over the lake to the west, so you guys get sunsets over the water. It has to be on your road and your side of the street. And you know I can only afford one that needs renovation. Numbers five and three have been renovated in the last few years, so they’d be crazy money if they ever went up for sale, and the other three on the waterfront seem settled. I can’t get any info on them.” Cathi looked very serious as she spoke. “The even numbered houses don’t interest me because they don’t back onto the lake. They’re on the wrong side of the road. No, I think it has to be Noreen Palmer’s house. We just have to find a way to convince her to sell.”

Maria had already knocked back two glasses of punch, and she was a beginning to feel a little calmer, maybe even good. Looking at Cathi’s intensity, she began to giggle. “You know, you’re taking all of this very seriously. Does it really matter? It’s just a house.”

Cathi didn’t look amused. “It’s not just a house, Maria. It’s a home. It’s a statement of where you’re at in life. It says how rich and successful you are. It tells the world what your values are—big house, big family, big success. You know all that.”
 

Maria frowned. “
Chica
, if you ask me, big houses mean big bills and lots of cleaning. Our house isn’t so big. I think you’re crazy. You don’t even have a big family—unless you have something to tell me?”
 

Cathi blew out a jet of air—something she often did when she was impatient. “Are you insane? There’s no way I’m going back there! My baby days are behind me.”

“Okay, you have Katie and Stacy. You’d get by in a two bedroom if you wanted. Mrs. Palmer’s house has six bedrooms. It’s huge—too big. She had a bunch of kids, and you know her son, Greg, lives just across the road. She’s not going to want to move away from her grandson, Todd. He’s Cody’s friend. Why would you want that much space?”

Cathi’s eyes lit up. It was obvious she’d given the question a lot of thought. “I want one room for each of my girls. I want a study for myself, and I’d like to convert another of the bedrooms into a huge bathroom off the master suite. Didn’t you say she doesn’t have en suite bathrooms?”

“No. The house was built long before such things were deemed necessary.”

Cathi smiled. “It’s begging to be renovated, and I’m just the woman to do it.” She raised her glass.
 

Maria clinked and smiled—on the outside, anyway. She didn’t like to see her elderly neighbor forced into something she might not want to do. That said, she knew Cathi very well. Once her friend set her mind on something, she was rarely beaten. If Cathi wanted number nine, she’d find a way to get her hands on it. Mrs. Palmer wouldn’t stand a chance.

“Can you imagine the parties we could have? We could do joint celebrations and open up the two backyards. What fun would that be?”

Maria smiled. “It’d be fantastic in the summertime. We can have boats on the lake. Crystal Lake Lane is amazing in July.”

“Oh, I was thinking nighttime parties. If I could get a swimming pool in the backyard, it would be the best ever.”

“Why do you need a pool with the lake right beside us?” Maria wondered if her friend was going a bit too far. “What does Michael think about all this?”

Cathi glanced at her friend. “We don’t need to tell him until we’re a little further along in our plans.”

“Okay, now I’m curious. How much further?”

Cathi laughed. “I guess we’d have to tell him before the furniture removal guys arrive.”

Maria sighed. “He is a very tolerant man,
chica
. Ricky would kill me if I bought a house without telling him. I don’t even know if I could do it legally. You have such blind ambition.”

Cathi looked affronted. “It’s not blind. I have a very clear vision of where I’m going and how I’m getting there. I am simply determined to own a house on Crystal Lake.” Their husbands were approaching them. Cathi gave a dazzling loyal-wife smile and whispered to Maria, “Don’t say anything in front of the boys yet—not until I have everything under control.”