A Face in the Shadow Part 1 Chapter 16

Sixteen
“Thank you for coming up this weekend.” Rachel said to Shannon as they drove to church.
“You’re welcome.”
“This house was so much better than the other one.”
“Have you decided on an offer yet?” Shannon’s nail file made a loud scraping sound.
“I have to look over the numbers.”
“Of course you do.”
Rachel smiled. “I also need to decide if I want to be that close to my parents’ house.”
“It’s only a difference of ten minutes.”
“Yes, but ten minutes can be the difference between them popping in for dinner or only coming on weekends.”
“Of course you would have thought that through. Did you notice this church is pretty close to that house too?” Shannon shook her head and went back to filing her nails. “Can we sit in the back of the church or do we have to sit way up in the front?”
“Wherever. That’s the church up there.” Rachel turned left in the parking lot and pulled in to the first parking space she saw. “They’re going to think I found religion. This is the second week in a row I’ve been here.”
The back of the church had a long hallway with a drinking fountain and restrooms. Her mom’s voice echoed down the hall.
“I think we found your mom.” Shannon said.
Rachel turned the corner and stood beside her mom. She was talking to a young man with sparkling blue eyes and bright hair.
“Oh, honey. I didn’t see you there.” She took Rachel’s arm and brought her forward a step. “Rachel, this is Curtis. He is the man who helped us with our mortgage.”
“Nice to meet you.” He leaned forward and extended his hand. Rachel shook it. “And this is Shannon.” Rachel stepped back so they could shank hands.
“Mortgages?” She nodded her head as she spoke. He seemed too young to be done with college. “Mom has been busy.”
“It’s good to have connections is all.” Her mom chimed in.
“Your mother tells me you’re looking for a house in the area.”
“It’s more like looking at a house in the area. I’m not sure I’m in the market to buy quite yet.”
“It’s a buyer’s market so if you’d like to stop paying rent now would be a good time to do that.” Curtis shifted his large Bible from one hand to the other then reached in his pocket. “If you decide to buy I’d be happy to get you the kind of deal I got for your parents.”
“He cut ‘bout a hundred dollars a month off our mortgage.” Her mom patted Rachel’s arm as she spoke.
“Oh really? That’s a good deal. I’ll keep that in mind.” A couple of ladies walked by and waved to her mom. Her mom whispered back hello with exaggerated facial expressions.
“I need to get up stairs.” Curtis tapped his watch. “I’m leading the junior high today.”
“So we’ll see you at one?” Her mom said
“One?” Rachel repeated.
“Curtis is joining us for lunch.”
“I’m not imposing am I?” He looked between Rachel and her mom.
“Not at all.” Rachel tried to recover from her faux pas. “It’s fine. I need to be back on the road by three so I can finish up some preparation for Monday.”
“Yes, we have big clients first thing Monday.” Shannon quickly added.
“Don’t tell me you work on Sundays.” Curtis gently teased.
“Isn’t that what you are doing?”
He nodded his head as if to say touché. “I guess you could call it work. I prefer to look at it as talking.” He started walking down the hall. “I’m sorry Lisa. I really do need to get down there.”
“Go on. We’ll see you this afternoon.”
“Rachel, Shannon, it was nice to meet you. Lisa I’ll see you this afternoon.”


You are reading A Face in the Shadow by Tiffany Colter.
Tiffany is a writer, speaker and writing career coach. She is a frequent contributor to print and online publications in addition to her regular marketing blog at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
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This story is copyright Tiffany Colter. 2007. It may not be copied, distributed, sold or included in any larger work without the expressed written permission of Tiffany Colter.
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