On the Street Where you Live Read Online Free Page A

I’m divorced and that I’ll be working in New York, so I have no guilty secrets.”
    He looked amused. “Somehow I don’t visualize you as harboring guilty secrets.”
    Emily hoped her smile did not look forced. I do intend to keep to myself the fact that I’ve spent a fair amount of time in court this past year that had nothing to do with practicing law, she thought. She had been a defendant in her ex-husband’s suit, claiming he was entitled to half the money she had made on the stock, and also had been on the witness stand testifying against the stalker.
    â€œAs for myself,” Stafford continued, “you haven’t asked, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I was born and raised about an hour from here, in Princeton. My father was CEO and chairman of the board of Lionel Pharmaceuticals in Manhattan. He and my mother split when I was sixteen, and since my father traveled so much, I moved with my mother to Denver and finished high school and then college there.”
    He ate the last of his sausage. “Every morning I tell myself I’ll have fruit and oatmeal, but about three mornings a week I succumb to the cholesterol urge. You obviously have more character than I do.”
    â€œNot necessarily. I’ve already decided that the next time I come here for breakfast it will be to have exactly what you just finished.”
    â€œI’d have given you a bite. My mother taught me to share.” He glanced at his watch and signaled for the check. “I don’t want to hurry you, Emily, but it’s nine-thirty. The Kiernans are the most reluctant sellers I’ve ever bumped into. Let’s not keep them waiting and give them a chance to change their minds about the house.”
    While they waited for the check, he said, “To finish the not very thrilling story of my life, I married right after law school. Within the year we both knew it was a mistake.”
    â€œYou’re lucky,” Emily commented. “My life would have been a lot easier if I had been that smart.”
    â€œI moved back East and signed on with the legal department of Canon and Rhodes, which you may know is a high-powered Manhattan real estate firm. It was a darn good job, but pretty demanding. I wanted a place for weekends and came looking downhere, than bought an old house that needed a lot of work. I love to work with my hands.”
    â€œWhy Spring Lake?”
    We used to stay at the Essex and Sussex Hotel for a couple of weeks every summer when I was a kid. It was a happy time.” He shrugged.
    The waitress put the check on the table. Will glanced at it and got out his wallet. “Then twelve years ago I realized I liked living here and didn’t like working in New York, so I opened this office. A lot of real estate work, both residential and commercial.
    â€œAnd speaking of that, let’s get going to the Kiernans.” They got up together.
    B UT THE K IERNANS had already left Spring Lake. Their lawyer explained he had power of attorney to execute the closing. Emily walked with him through every room, taking fresh delight in architectural details she had not fully appreciated before.
    â€œYes, I’m absolutely satisfied that everything I bought is here and the house is in perfect condition,” she told him. She tried to push back her increasing impatience to get the deed transferred, to be in the house alone, to wander through the rooms, to rearrange the living room furniture so that the couches faced each other at right angles to the fireplace.
    She needed to put her own stamp on the house, to make it hers. She’d always thought of the townhouse in Albany as a stopgap place, although she had been in it three years—ever since she’d returned from a visit to her parents in Chicago a day early and foundher husband in an intimate embrace with her closest friend, Barbara Lyons. She picked up her suitcases, got back in the car, and checked into a