After breakfast, Chandler returned her to her apartment, then left to tend to some business at work. Whitney called Jack Billings, a realtor, explaining to him what she was looking for. Three days later, Jack called to tell Whitney that he had the perfect place for her, saying that it was a great bargain because the owner had passed away and the family was anxious to get rid of it. They set up a time to go look at the house for the next afternoon.

When Jack stopped by Whitney’s apartment the next day, he was instantly attracted to her, but when he saw the engagement ring on her finger, he knew she wasn’t available. They talked nonstop on the way to the house, but when they pulled up into the driveway and saw the sight that greeted them, they were both speechless with horror.

The yard was filled with twelve old vehicles in several stages of disrepair, the house had peeling paint on the two sides they could see, and the front porch looked as if it would blow down with the next gust of wind.

“I’m sorry Miss O’Rourke. I hadn’t any idea the place looked this bad. I guess I should have figured there was a reason they were asking such a ridiculous low price for the place.”

“Maybe the house isn’t as bad as it looks,” she added hopefully.

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” he commented sarcastically.

They got out of the car and maneuvered their way around the cars to the front porch. Whitney didn’t know much about cars, but she did know enough to realize these vehicles were very old models and that someone would probably pay good money to get their hands on these vintage cars. Her mind was busy thinking about how she could go about getting rid of them and make a profit at the same time.

They carefully stepped onto the front porch. Jack pulled open the wooden screen door, jumping back when it fell off in his hands. He laid the door against the house, unlock the front door and they slowly entered the house. Whitney’s eyes swiftly inspected the first room, seeing that the wallpaper was a disgrace, and the wooden floor had all sort of scratches and scuffmarks covering it, but that didn’t discourage her to the house’s potential.

With a good refurbishment, the walls and the floors would be as good as new. As they walked through the house, Whitney became more excited and knew that this property wouldn’t last long once a person with the right vision saw it. The house had four bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen with a washer and dryer hookup in it.

“There’s a barn out back. Do you want to look at it?”

“Might as well since we’re here,” she muttered, afraid it wouldn’t be useable. If so, she wasn’t sure if she wanted this place.

They stepped out the back door, and from where they stood, they could see the old barn, and Whitney was surprise how good it looked from where they were.

“I wonder how it looks inside.”

“Only one way to find out,” he said, carefully stepping down the steps.

They didn’t speak as they walked down the brick walkway to the barn. Jack grabbed the door handle and pulled the door back, it let out a loud squeak as he slid the door along its track, then they slowly stepped into the barn. Right smack in the middle of the barn was another old car. This one was considerably older, but was unquestionably in better shape than the vehicles in the yard. Whitney’s eyes moved away from the car to see the five horse stalls along one wall. The barn was in excellent shape, needing only a good cleaning and a fresh coat of paint, then it would be perfect to use for horses.

“Jack, I want it.”

He turned to her, his mouth dropping open from his shock. “You got to be kidding. This place is a worthless mess.”

“No, with a good restoration on the house, a good cleaning everywhere else, this place will be great.”

“Are you sure?” He wanted to talk her out of this, but a sale was a sale.

“Yes. It’s exactly what I want.”

“Don’t you want to talk to your fiancé before you make a decision?”

“No, Chandler told he didn’t care what I bought, and this is the place I want.”

“I’ll start on the paperwork for an offer as soon as I get back to the office. Do you want to offer less than they’re asking?” he asked hopefully.

“No.” She didn’t want there to be any reasons the seller would refuse to sell her the property.

He hated to see her waste her money for this run down place. “You should,” he said, thinking how he hated the thought of this lovely woman buying this place at this price, especially in its dilapidated condition. “How much do you want to put down?”

“I’ll give you a fifty thousand dollar deposit.”

“That much?”

“I don’t want to take the chance someone else could steal the place out from under from me.”

“I doubt that’s likely to happen,” he said as they returned to the house.

She smiled at him. “You just don’t have the imagination to envision what this place will look like after the right repairs. Give me six weeks and you won’t recognize the place.”

“Maybe I should give you six months just to be sure.”

Whitney laughed. “Let’s bet on it.”

He nodded. “Okay, what kind of bet?” He would like to take her to bed, but he doubted she would go for that kind of bet.

“Whoever loses takes the winner out to lunch.”

He put out his hand. “It’s a bet.”

When they got back to her apartment, they said their good-byes and Jack promised to call her as soon as he knew if the seller accepted her offer or not. Whitney called Chandler, excitedly telling him that she had found the house she wanted to buy. He told her that he would like to see it before he signed anything, but that was the last thing she wanted. She knew he would try to talk her out of buying the property if he saw the horrible condition of the place, so she begged him to let her fix it up before he saw it, and he promised he would.

An hour later, Jack called Whitney to tell her that she’d just bought a house and the paperwork was ready for signing. Whitney left work to meet Chandler at the realtor’s office, telling her boss that she would be gone for the rest of the day. Chandler looked at the price of the house on the contract and was satisfied with it. He just was glad Whitney had found a place, and now they could set the date to get married, so he didn’t read over the description of the property, so he wasn’t aware that a barn and eighty acres came with the house. After he signed his share of the mountain-size amount of paperwork on their new house, he turned to Whitney. “Well, I guess we now own a house.”

“When can I start working on it?” she asked excitedly.

“As soon as I give you the keys to it,” he teased.

“Can I have them today?” she asked sexually, giving him an inviting grin.

He laughed, then handed her a set of keys, but then quickly pulled them back.

Whitney quickly looked up at him. “What’s wrong?” she muttered nervously, afraid he’d change his mind about seeing the house.

“I want a kiss first.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “No problem.”

He gave her a swift kiss, then handed her the keys. “Here you go.”

“Thank you,” she responded absentmindedly as she was already thinking about all the remodeling projects she wanted to have done on the house before he could see the place.

He laughed, knowing where her mind was. “I can’t wait to see this place.”

She quickly glanced at him. “Now Chandler you promised you wouldn’t look at it until I’m ready for you to see it.”

“How much work do you think it needs?” He was eager to see the place they were going to call home.

“Well,” she hedged, “at least a week,” she said, figuring she could keep putting him off until the house was completely done.

“Then we can set the wedding for a week from today?”

“Chandler, I . . .” she started as her mind went into turbo speed, trying to think of some logical reason to stall him, but wasn’t sure what it could it be.

“I know a week isn’t long enough for you to plan our wedding, but I’m sure with your sisters’ help it could be done.”

“Could I have two weeks instead?” she asked, thinking they would just have to live in his place until the house was ready.

“Two weeks and not a day longer,” he teased, as his eyes bored into hers.

“Then two weeks it’ll be.” She grinned at him, wishing she didn’t have to lie to him. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, I think.”

She laughed at his comment. “I need to talk to Mariah.”

He smiled at her. “You want to tell her all about our new house?”

She had to get his mind off that subject, so she used the best subject to do just that. “No, silly I want to talk to her about our wedding.”

“Tell her not to go to overboard with the plans. I would like something small like the twins’ wedding was.”

She smiled at his comment. “I’ll follow you to the office so that I can talk to her today,” she said as they walked out of the realtor’s office together.

“I have a meeting to go to when I get back to the office, so I’ll just see you later.” He leaned over and gave her a short kiss. “Think about quitting your job and being a full time mother.”

Her eyes watered up. “Oh, Chandler, I love the idea of being able to stay home with the baby. I’ll give notice as soon as we have a definite date for the wedding.”

They said good-bye before getting into their vehicles and heading in the direction of Clemmens Manufacturing. When Whitney arrived, she hurried into the office, telling the receptionist that she needed to see Mariah. Soon she was sitting next to her sister; still feeling uncomfortable around her, tears appeared in her eyes as she thought of what she and Evan had done together.

Mariah frowned. “Whitney, do you have some bad news to tell me?”

Whitney grinned at her sister. “I wouldn’t call it bad news.”

“Then why the tears?”

“I was just thinking about us,” she said, taking hold of her sister’s hand.

Mariah wasn’t fooled, she knew Whitney had been thinking about her relationship with Evan. “Whitney, you have to forget about that night with Evan.”

“I’m trying, but I was thinking about the four of us being together again,” she said, telling her sister a small white lie.

“Who would believe the way we found each other,” Mariah said, smiling a warm grin, letting Whitney think she believed her lie. “Or how we are all related to one another with three of the husbands being brothers. I wish you’d marry Chandler, then all four of us would be married to brothers,” she replied despondently.

“Well, if you’re willing to help me plan the wedding, your wish will come true.”

Mariah screamed, jumped up, and grabbed hold of her sister. “You said yes?”

“I did,” she said breathlessly as Mariah gave her a tight hug.

Mariah stepped back from her sister. “You’re not doing this just to make me happy are you?” Her eyes watched her closely as she waited for her response.

“No, Chandler and I decided this is what we both want.”

“I hope it goes well for you.”

“Me too,” she said, giving her sister a weak smile.

“Let me get in touch with the twins, then I’ll call you. How soon do you want the wedding?”

“We just bought a house.”

Mariah screamed again. “How wonderful!”

“It needs a lot of work before we can move in, but it’s going to be worth it when I’m done working on it. I told Chandler that I needed at least two weeks to work on the house, so plan the wedding sometime after that. If the house isn’t ready, I’ll go ahead and move in with him at his place.”

“I’ll start on the planning as soon as you leave.”

“Are you sure your boss won’t mind that you aren’t doing your work?” she asking teasingly.

“If he does, I’ll just complain to the President.”

She couldn’t believe her sister enjoyed working this closely to her family. “Mariah, don’t you find it hard working here?”

“How do you mean?” she asked, confused to what her sister was referring.

“Chandler is your boss, Evan is the President of the company, and Casey is in and out all the time. Working with your husband and two of your brothers-in-law, doesn’t that ever smother you?”

She laughed. “It won’t matter in another few months since I’ll be quitting to stay home with the baby, but it hasn’t been hard. Chandler is a great boss and I get to see my husband throughout the day.” She looked around her, then lowered her voice. “Occasionally, we’re able to get in a nooner,” she said, then laughed, embarrassed by what she had told her sister.

“Mariah!” Whitney exclaimed. “You’ve done that here at work?”

“Evan has a comfortable couch in his office.”

Whitney shook her head. “I don’t think I want to hear any more. As it is, the next time I see Evan, I’m going to be thinking about this conversation.”

“At least it got your mind off you and Evan.” Whitney gave her a strained look and Mariah laughed. “Maybe after you and Chandler have had sex, you can tell me about it.” When she saw Whitney’s blush, she knew that they had already been intimate. “I take it by your face that you have, and since you’re going to marry him, I’ll assume it was good.”

“Mariah! I’m not going to talk to you about my sexual experience with your brother-in-law.”

“Not even to tell me if Chandler’s as big as Evan told me he was.”

Whitney stood, her face covered in a dark pinkish hue. “I think this conversation has gone too far.” At the time they had made love, she had been too occupied with his lovemaking to notice Chandler’s size, but now she wondered about it. Was he larger than the average man was? She couldn’t compare him to Evan since she didn’t remember anything about that night and she wasn’t about to ask him about it.

Mariah reached out to grab Whitney’s hand. “I apologize, I shouldn’t tease you like this. It’s just that I really don’t have any close girlfriends, and now that you and the twins are back in my life, I feel I have someone I can confine in about this kind of stuff.”

Whitney move to Mariah and pulled her into a hug. “It’s okay. I’m just uncomfortable about talking to you about sex. I’ve had sex with three different men, I was raised that this sort of behavior is wrong and I felt guilty for what I’ve done.”

“I understand, but I don’t think badly of you because of it.”

“Thanks, that means a lot to me.”

They said their good-byes, then Whitney drove to back to her apartment. As she thought about her new home, she decided that the first thing she needed to do was to empty the yard of the old cars, and so she started looking in the yellow pages until she found someone for the first project. She dialed the number, then waited impatiently for someone to answer, smiling when someone finally did.

“Hello. Gary’s Vintage cars. This is Gary, may I help you?”

“I hope so. My name is Whitney O’Rourke. I’ve bought a property that has thirteen old cars on it. I need to get rid of them, and was wondering if you might be interested in them.”

“Do you know what year they are?”

“No, but I would guess they’re from somewhere between the twenties and thirties.”

“Do you an amount you want for them?” he asked excitedly.

“I wouldn’t have a guess. I’m not even sure if they’re even salvageable.”

“Give me your address and I’ll go check them out.”

“I’ll meet you there and hopefully we can come to an agreement.” Whitney quickly gave him the address to the house, then left to meet him at there. As she waited for Gary to show up, she walked around the house, taking pictures of the yard, porch, and the house, as she wanted documentation of everything. Once all the work was done, she could show Chandler how the place had looked before she started redoing it.

She had just returned to the front porch when she saw Chandler drive up into the driveway. A sinking feeling filled her as she watched him get out of the car with a disgusted expression. This was not a good sign, she thought.

“Whitney, do you want to explain this?” he asked, spreading his arms to indicate the entire front yard.

“You promise you wouldn’t see the house for two weeks,” she said weakly.

“I thought you meant the inside of it. I had no idea you didn’t want me to see the outside either. Now I know why you didn’t want me to see this junk yard. I’m guessing the inside isn’t much better.”

Whitney stood in front of the door, preventing him from entering. “You said you’d give me two weeks. Come back then and I’ll let you inside.”

“Whitney, I can’t afford to pay good money for this run down dilapidated pit. I want you to call the realtor and tell him we’ve change our minds.”

“We’ve already signed the papers. Besides, I want this house,” she said forcefully.

“I don’t,” he hollered, giving her a stern look.

“Fine, then I’ll buy the house myself.” She knew as soon as she said it, there wasn’t any way she could afford to buy this house.

“How do you plan to do that?” he taunted, knowing she didn’t have the money to buy any place on her own, let alone this one.

“I’m not sure, but I’ll find a way to reimburse you the money you invested into it.” She sure hoped she could do just that with the money Gary would give her for buying the old cars. She turned towards the door, but stopped to turn back to him, then she slid her engagement ring off her finger and handed it to him.

He looked down at the ring in his hand, then looked back at her. “Why are you giving back the ring?” he asked, even though he had a dread feeling in the pit of his stomach that she was calling off their engagement.

“I’ve changed my mind about us.”

Chandler reached out to stop her. “You don’t mean that!” He yelled angrily at her.

“Getting married was a stupid idea anyway. We don’t know anything about each other. You were only marrying me because . . .” she couldn’t continue, her tears preventing her from completing her sentence. “Never mind.”

“Whitney, please don’t do this!” He reached out to grab her hand. “Don’t let a house come between us.”

“Go away,” she insisted, refusing to look at him.

“If that’s what you want,” he replied sadly.

“It is.” She opened the door, hurried inside, slamming the door closed before she could become hysterical in front of him. As she leaned against the door, she let the tears fall, madder at herself for what she had just done than she was at Chandler for not wanting the house. If only she had kept the engagement ring and hadn’t said what she had to him, then maybe they could have worked through this, but not now.

It was a good thing she hadn’t given her notice at work yet, otherwise she would be in more trouble than she already was. When she heard his car start up, she peeked outside and watched as him drive away, taking her heart with him. She remained standing there looking out the window until she saw an unknown vehicle drive up, then she wiped her tears way, and stepped outside to greet her guest.

“Hello. Are you Gary?”

He put his hand out. “Yes, I’m Gary Elder.” He noticed her tears, but didn’t comment on them.

“I’m Whitney O’Rourke,” she said, putting her hand out to him. “I’ll hope you have good news for me.”

“From what I can see from here, I think you and I can do business,” he said, giving her a happy grin.

“There is another vehicle out back in the barn and it’s in better shape than any of these.”

Twenty minutes later, Whitney had a check in her hand, surprised the old cars had been worth anything at all. The check was large enough for her to reimburse Chandler, pay off the mortgage, and still have some money left over for the things she wanted to do to the house.

She went to the bank to deposit her check, and then had a cashier check made out to reimburse Chandler, plus a little extra for interest. Then she went to the post office to mail the check to him, as she was afraid to face him, thinking her heart would break if she did.

She returned to her apartment and picked up the yellow pages again to find a carpenter to demolish the porch and install a new one. She was tickled when she found out that he could also redo the floors and remove the old wallpaper, but was especially thrilling that he could get started on her house the first thing tomorrow morning.

She had just laid down to take a nap when her phone rang; she looked over at it but didn’t answer afraid it might be Chandler. When she heard Mariah’s voice leaving a message on her machine, she quickly picked up the phone. “Mariah, I’m here.”

“Are you okay?” she asked carefully.

“I’m fine. Why do you ask?” she asked as her tears started, even though she knew the answer to Mariah’s question.

“Chandler stopped by my desk and told me what happened.” Mariah waited, but Whitney didn’t respond to her statement. “Aren’t you going to talk to me?”

“What can I say that he didn’t already tell you?” Her tears made it hard to talk.

“Maybe why you bought that house, or maybe why you broke off your wedding.”

“I don’t have to justify myself to you,” she replied tearfully. “It isn’t as if he and I are in love. He just wanted to marry me because of the baby.”

“Whitney, you know it’s more than that,” she insisted, trying to give her sister some comfort.

“I don’t know any such thing,” she lied, knowing that she and Chandler did have something special. “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to talk about Chandler or our relationship.”

“Call me if you want to talk.”

“Thank you.” She hung up the phone, lay back down, and cried herself to sleep.

* * *

Two days later Chandler was going through his mail, when he came across an envelope with Whitney’s name on the return address, he quickly opened it. When he pulled out the check, he let out a loud swear word. He didn’t know how she could come up with this amount of money, but he knew he had to find a way to get back into her good graces. For he’d found out recently that his life was empty without her in it.