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Jake looked up from his desk as I
opened the door. Seeing it was me, he got up and, with a smile,
walked toward the railing. "Good Morning, Carl," he said,
extending his hand.
"Good morning, Jake," I replied as we shook hands.
"What brings you to town on a gorgeous day like this? I should think
you and Dalton would be out on the lake sailing or swimming." he said.
"I get enough sailing in the navy, Jake, but I'll probably be doing
some
swimming later on. Right now, Dalton and Tip Coleman, the kid you
were telling us about, are swimming. We met him and his brother,
Lyle at the pavilion
last night, and Dalton and Tip sort of clicked like most guys their age
do," I
replied, looking around the office before continuing. "We saw
Tracey and her friend Carla at the pavilion last night; is she around?"
"I'm sorry, Carl, she had to run over to Richmond for me this
morning. Is there something I can do for you?"
"No, I just wanted to tell her how much I enjoyed dancing with her last
night. I'll probably see her later on, and I can tell her." I
fibbed, and then realized that I seemed to be doing a lot of shading
the truth.
"She said you weren't a bad dancer once she got you started," Jake
said, grinning, his eyes twinkling.
"She did, did she?" I said, chuckling to myself. "I enjoyed
dancing with her; but the hard part was, like she said, getting
started. Tracey is a pretty good dancer herself and is very
persuasive."
"She gets that from her mother," Jake said, nodding his head in
agreement before saying, "How do you like the cottage? The
Andersons really want to sell it."
"We like it, Jake; it's not very big which is good, and I like the
seclusion." I said in answer to his query.
"That's the way they wanted it when they bought it, Carl, secluded and
quiet. Their
big worry was renting it out to college students, but I've avoided
that for the most part," he said eyeing me closely before continuing.
"I
really think I could get you a good deal if you want me to talk with
the Andersons; and, as far as the mortgage goes, you should qualify
for
a veteran's loan at a very low interest rate."
"I don't know, Jake; I'm leaving next Monday for my duty station in
Panama, and that doesn't give much time to work things out even if I
were interested," I said hesitating as I thought about it before saying
anything else. "I'll be gone for at least two years which would
mean someone would have to watch over it for me, and then
there is the maintenance to think about. I don't know Jake...." I
mused aloud.
"Carl," Jake said in a persuasive tone, "why don't you let me see what
I can come up with? You have nothing to lose, and I bet that if
we do
work something out your family would pitch in with the maintenance and
would
probably want to use it occasionally. I'll be here to handle the
rentals if you decide to go that way, so what do you say; want me to
see what I can come up with?"
Jake fell silent as I stood looking out the window into the
street and mulling over what he had said. He was right; it
would be nice to have a place that the family could use, and if the
payments weren't too high, I could
probably set up an allotment to handle them.
"Why not," I said to myself, turning around and almost bumping into
Jake who had moved up behind me as I was thinking.
"Go ahead, Jake, as long as I don't have to sign anything, see what you
can work out," I said.
"All right, Carl," Jake said exuberantly as he went back to his desk
and sat down. "I'll jump right on this and get in touch the Andersons
first thing after lunch to see what they have to say, and I should have
an answer for you before you leave or maybe earlier. They really
do want to sell since Mr. Anderson became ill, and that is to your
advantage."
"Oh, Christ, Jake. I forgot all about lunch and I'm supposed to
meet Dalton and Tip at the pavilion," I exclaimed. "I'll check
with you later." I said,
opening the door and leaving Jake at his desk.