Chapter Twenty-One

Dean climbs out of the car when he sees Kaitlyn park beside him. He waits for her at the front of her car, smiling when she walks over. "Hi," he says. Leaning down, he gives her a quick kiss.

"Hi," she responds. "Running a little late. Had an impromptu parent-teacher conference."

"No problem." He takes her hand as they walk toward the door. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. They were just worried about a couple things." She smiles up at him when he gestures for her to walk in. Only as she passes do they drop hands. She steps to the side and waits for him.

"Hello," the woman sitting at the desk says.

Dean smiles at her. "Hi. We're here to see Summer."

"She had to run out for a quick minute. But if you want to have a seat, she'll be back any minute."

"Thank you." Dean sits down beside Kaitlyn. "How'd it go today?"

Kaitlyn shrugs. "It was good. Found out that there's a teacher leaving at the end of the school year. Thinking about going and talking to them about that position."

"Oh? Not liking yours?"

"No, I do. But when I got into teaching I always wanted to do fourth or fifth grades. Second was all they had open. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it. But there are things that I would love to be able to do that I can't because they aren't learning that stuff." She shrugs. "What do you think?"

"I think you need to do what makes you happy. If nothing else, go talk to them. The worst that can happen is they say no. Right?"

She nods. "Yeah." She looks over when the bell on the door rings to see a blonde woman walk in. The woman looks over and smiles at them.

"Dean," she says.

Dean looks over before standing up. "Summer." He looks at Kaitlyn as she stands up and winks at her. They step over to Summer. "Been a while."

"It sure has." She hugs Dean. "How are you?"

"I'm doing good." Dean smiles after they pull away. "This is my girlfriend, Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn, this is Summer."

Summer smiles as she shakes Kaitlyn's hand. "Kaitlyn, it's nice to meet you. Come on over and we can get started."

Dean takes Kaitlyn's hand as they follow Summer over to one of the desks. He pulls the two chairs out, letting Kaitlyn slide in before sitting down beside her.

"So, I hear Eva went and saw you when you were in the hospital," Summer says as she signs into her computer.

Dean groans. "Yeah. Still have no clue how she even found out."

"When was the last time you saw her before that?"

"The day we signed the papers." He reaches over, linking his fingers through Kaitlyn's. "Have you talked to her?"

"Nope." Summer smiles at them. "All right, so house. What are you looking for?"

"A house." He smiles widely when both women glare at him. "Wow, double glare."

"You're lucky that's all you got," Kaitlyn says. "We aren't too picky. Prefer at least three bedrooms, but would be open to two bedrooms. Two bathrooms for sure. Kitchen needs to be a good size. Doesn't need to be huge or anything, just big enough that we can both be in there. I like to cook."

"Okay," Summer says. She writes a few things down. "Master bath?"

"Doesn't have to have one," Dean answers. "Also, if the laundry room is in the basement, it needs to be a finished basement or at least partially finished."

Kaitlyn smiles at him. "Yes, that would definitely be preferred."

Summer grins. "Unfinished basements creep me out."

"Same here." Kaitlyn looks at Dean again. "I think that's pretty much everything that we'd like."

"Okay, so price range. What are your thoughts?"

Dean sighs. "That's where we have no clue. I know nothing about prices on houses."

"Okay. Well, what would you be comfortable paying?"

Dean looks over at Kaitlyn. "One-fifty I think."

Kaitlyn nods. "I would go up to one-sixty, but above that I'm not sure we should try."

"Okay," Summer says with a smile. "Well, let me look to see what I have. So, Kaitlyn, what do you do?"

"I'm a teacher."

"Yeah? Where at if you don't mind me asking?"

"Course not. I'm at Red Pine Elementary. I teach second graders."

"I used to say I wanted to be a teacher. Then I realized I can't handle kids."

Kaitlyn laughs softly. "Probably wise not to teach then."

"That's what I thought. All right, let's see. I'm going to print out a few houses for you two to look at and then we can take it from there."

"Sounds good," Dean says. He looks at Kaitlyn.

After getting a little information on each of the houses, Dean and Kaitlyn walk out of the office. He looks over at her as they approach their cars. "I think we have some good choices here," he says.

Kaitlyn nods. "Yeah, definitely need to look over the papers and see what's what." She pulls her keys from her purse. "My place for dinner?"

He nods. "Sure. I'll pick up tacos on the way home."

She smiles up at him. "Okay. I don't mind cooking though."

"Neither of us have anything out to cook. Besides, I have the taste for tacos."

She nods. "Okay. I'll see you at home then." She pulls Dean down and kisses him. "See you soon."

Dean walks into Kaitlyn's house after getting their dinner. He closes the door and heads into the kitchen. "Kaitlyn," he calls out as he puts the bags on the counter.

"Be right out," she calls from the laundry room.

He pulls one of the containers out of the first bag. "What do you want to drink, Baby?"

"Whatever you get me."

He smirks at that answer. "Thanks for the help."

"No problem."

He grabs two bottles of pop from the fridge. "If you don't like what I give you, I'm not sleeping with you tonight."

Kaitlyn walks in and smiles at Dean. "Yeah right." She kisses his cheek. "Smells good."

"Me or the food?"

"Jackass, I'm talking about the food." She shakes her head. "I'm going to go grab the papers with the info."

He nods. "Okay." He grabs the container he'd pulled out of the bag and brings it over to the table.

As they eat, they go over each house that Summer had given them information on. Each have their pros as well as their cons. Dean grabs one of the pages and lets out a heavy breath. It's one that's over their comfortable budget, but Summer had to have given it to them for a reason. He holds it out to Kaitlyn.

"What do you think?" he asks.

She takes it and looks at the details. "It's over budget though," she says.

"But what do you think?"

"I like it. It looks nice from the outside. It has what we're looking for." She looks at Dean. "Why do you think she gave this one to us?"

"I don't know. Let's not rule it out yet. We'll talk to her about it if we do want to look at it."

She nods. "Okay. That sounds good."

******

Dean walks into the kitchen of the house they're looking at. "Wow," he says. He looks at Kaitlyn to see what her reaction is going to be.

"Oh my," she says. "This is gorgeous."

"As you can tell, it's newly renovated," Summer says. She gestures toward the refrigerator. "All the appliances stay. There is a dishwasher as well. Would this work for you, Kaitlyn?"

"Yeah, absolutely. Good counter space." She looks at Dean. "What do you think?"

"I think I'll have to find a good way to get you out of this kitchen. Guess I'll have to work on my bedroom skills."

Kaitlyn smacks his stomach. "Dean…"

Summer opens the sliding door. "If you're finished now, Dean." She gestures outside.

Dean follows Kaitlyn outside. "It didn't mention having a pool."

"I thought it would be a nice surprise," Summer says.

"This is really great," Kaitlyn says.

"Well, let's go see the rest of the house."

Kaitlyn follows Summer inside, with Dean right behind her. "Is it two full baths?"

"Two full and one half. There's one full and the half on the main level and one full downstairs in the basement. Basement if finished." Summer points to the left. "Here's the first bathroom. This is the half bath. It's nice because it's right off the kitchen and you wouldn't have to walk through the entire house if you were to come in from the pool."

Dean nods. "I like that. I like the color too."

Kaitlyn nods in agreement. "Yeah, it's bright but not too bright either." She smiles at Dean.

"This is the smallest of the three bedrooms," Summer says. "The family that had lived here used it as their nursery." She smiles at Dean. "You could always use it as one too."

"We aren't to that part yet," Dean says with a chuckle. "It would be a good room for my exercise equipment though." They follow Summer into the next bedroom.

"This is the next size up."

"Good size," Kaitlyn says. "We could put a bed in here for a guest room."

Dean nods. "Yeah, definitely." He steps out of the room and waits for Summer.

"This is the full size bathroom," Summer says. "And then this is what's considered the master bedroom."

Dean looks around the room and nods. "This would work."

After they see the basement, they head out to the front. Dean looks at Summer. "It's over budget."

Summer nods. "It is. However, I think we could talk them down if not to your budget, then slightly above. I think this is a good fit. It's in your district which you obviously have to be. And it's close to Kaitlyn's work."

Dean nods. "Yeah, there is that. I think it's something we need to talk about." He looks at Kaitlyn. "What do you think?"

"I can't rule it out yet," she says. "I think we need to see that other one we really liked. The green one."

"We have an appointment to see that one on Friday," Summer reminds them.

"So let's wait until after we see that one before deciding anything on this one," Kaitlyn says.

Dean nods. "Yeah, absolutely." He looks at Summer. "Thanks you."

"You're welcome." She smiles at them. "So if you have any other questions, feel free to get a hold of me. Otherwise I will see you two on Friday."

Dean looks over at Kaitlyn as they drive home. "What do you really think?"

"I like it. I really do. I'm just afraid that we won't be able to get the price down if we do want that one."

He nods. "But it had everything we wanted. I do wish the master was a little bigger."

"Yeah, me too. But it's doable." She looks at him. "I'm hoping the kitchen in the next one is as nice."

He chuckles. "Yeah, me too."