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glad, when she thought about it, that Graham hadn’t waited for soft music and romantic candlelight to ask her to marry him. Pompagno’s had been crowded on Saturday night, and in those surroundings their private conversation would have stayed private for about fifteen seconds, she thought—approximately as long as it took for one person across the crowded room to jab another in the ribs and say, I’ll bet Graham Forrest just popped the question!

    “ And now you’re looking for a house. How domestic.”

    Kaye refused to be ruffled. “We have to have a place to live, Emily. My apartment is certainly too small.”

    “ No, I can see that would be a problem. It’s scarcely large enough for you and the cat.”

    “ And Graham will want to entertain more, so we might as well buy a house right away.”

    “ I suppose you’re right,” Emily said reluctantly. She came across to Kaye’s desk and gave her a hug. “Best wishes, and all that, you know. I truly do hope that you’ll be happy.”

    “ I know, Emily. And of course I’ll be happy. We’re hoping to keep this a bit quiet for a while, though. We’d like to find a house, and set a date, and then make the announcement.”

    “ As soon as you start touring houses in Henderson Heights, every one of the hundred thousand people in this city will know what you’re up to.”

    “ I suppose you’re right,” Kaye said reluctantly. “But I think I’ll go first to the real estate agent here in the plaza. It should be a bit easier to keep it mum in a branch office, don’t you think? And it can’t be too hard to find what we’re looking for. We made a list yesterday. I’ll just give that to the agent, and she can eliminate the ones we wouldn’t be interested in. I won’t have to look at many houses, I’m sure, before I find the right one.”

    “ Good luck,” Emily murmured. “When I was house- hunting, it never worked that way—but then I was on a budget. Everything I liked cost twice as much as I could afford.” She turned to the client who had just walked in and said, “Hello, Mrs. Meadows. How was the trip to Italy?”

    The telephone rang, and the rush was on again. It didn’t let up till the lunch hour, and when Kaye finally left the building to go to the delicatessen down the street, it was with a sigh of relief.

    It was always feast or famine in the travel business, she thought. Nevertheless, she liked it much better than the other jobs she’d had. Within the next few months, she hoped, she would be able to start guiding a tour now and then. Emily did regularly, and the owner of the business spent much of her time supervising groups. That was where the fun was, Kaye thought, not sitting in the office reading computer screens.

    She paused outside the door of the real estate office. Lunch first, she debated, or this? It couldn’t take long to hand her list over and get the process started, and then she could go and eat her sandwich with a clear conscience. She pushed the door open.

    A gorgeous brunette was at the reception desk, flipping pages in a thick album full of photographs of houses. Occasionally she read off an address. Sitting on the corner of the desk with his back to the door was a dark-haired man, notebook and pen in hand, writing down what the woman said. The brunette broke her page-turning rhythm, looked up at Kaye, and said with a smile, “May we help you?”

    The man on the desk turned. “Oh, no,” he said when he saw Kaye. “Don’t tell me you’ve dented my car again.”

    “ I certainly haven’t,” she said irritably.

    “ Well, that’s good news. I got the estimates of the cost to repair the damage just this morning, if you’d like to take them to the insurance people.” He slid off the desk.

    “ I thought you were going to do that.”

    “ I could, but I assume that’s what you came in for. They’re in my office.” He strode off.

    So he worked here, she thought, and wasn’t just coming in to check