Chapter 15 - Jeff Makes a Deal
When they returned to the house, Jeff told Kaytana that he wanted to change into cleaner clothes. While they were exploring the woods, Jeff had slid down a slight embankment and got mud on his pants, so much for Mr. Extreme.
While Jeff was changing, he was trying to figure out a way to convince Aunt Kay to sell him that piece of property, without her wanting to see it first. Perhaps he should approach Kaytana's uncle instead.
Jeff changed into his favorite pants; his cow pants. Jeff entered the kitchen to find Kaytana and Aunt Kay deep in a conversation, not wanting to interrupt them, he told them was going to go talk to Kaytana's uncle. Jeff knew that he would find him in the basement.
"Hey Rick, how's the plans coming?" Jeff asked when he entered the office, located at the back of the basement.
"Well, I have changed a few of my original ideas, but they are just about finished. Come here and have a look" Uncle Rick offered.
Jeff went and sat beside Rick at the drafting table to have a look at the new plans. Jeff was amazed to see that he had made even better modifications this time around. Rick explained what he had changed and tried to give Jeff a clear picture of the room he wanted to add to the house.
When they were finished discussing the plans, Jeff felt this was a good time to approach Rick about buying property from him. "Hey Rick, you know that piece of land you have behind the house? Do you ever use it for anything?" Jeff asked, testing the water.
"You mean the bush behind us? No the only person that has ever gone in there is Kaytana, oh and the boys but they never venture as far back as Kaytana has. Why do you ask?" Rick asked.
"I was wondering if you ever thought of selling part of that land to anyone" Jeff confessed.
"I never actually thought about it. Why, you interested in it?" Rick asked him.
"As a matter of fact I am. While Kaytana and I were walking back there, I found a spot that I absolutely loved. You see I am a real nature person and love the outdoors. The spot we stumbled upon was exactly the type of property I have been searching for. Believe me, I have been looking for a long time for land like that, but with no success. I feel this is fate, otherwise I never would have found it. So what do you say, interested in selling me some land?" Jeff finally asked.
"Let me just go get my deed and you can show me exactly where you want this piece of land." Rick got up from the drafting table and was searching for the deed when it occurred to Jeff that he had no idea where about this piece of land was, only Kaytana did. How was he going to get that information?
Rick returned with the deed of his property and showed it to Jeff. Jeff looked it over but couldn't figure out where the piece of property was. He confessed to Rick that he would have to ask Kaytana where it was, because she was so familiar with the layout of the land.
"Rick, I only have one problem, I don't want Kaytana to know that I am doing this. I would like to surprise her with it. So can you please keep it quiet for now? I will make up some stupid excuse and try and get the information out of her. How does that sound?" Jeff asked hopefully.
"Your secret is safe with me" Rick promised Jeff.
Jeff went upstairs looking for Kaytana and hoping that he could pull this off. Jeff entered the kitchen and was surprised to find it empty. Where could she be, Jeff thought. He went upstairs hoping he would find her in her room. He knocked on her bedroom door, but got no response. Jeff decided to look in her Aunt's room, maybe they had gone up there. When he approached the door, he could hear the two women talking…
"Yes Aunt Kay I am sure. Why do you sound so surprised?" Kaytana was saying.
"It's not that I am surprised it is just I know the kind of person you are and how closely guarded your heart is. I am very happy for you, does Jeff know yet?" Aunt Kay said.
"No, I haven't told him and I don't know that it is the right time to" Kaytana admitted.
"Well, don't wait too long my dear, otherwise, you may regret not telling Jeff that you are in love with him." Aunt Kay advised her.
Jeff smiled when he heard what was being said. He would wait until Kaytana brought up the subject, if he could. He approached the bedroom door and knocked gently.
"Come in" Aunt Kay yelled.
"Sorry, am I interrupting anything? If I am, I will come back later" Jeff said
"Don't be silly, come in, you aren't interrupting at all. We were just having girl talk. What is it we can do for you?" Aunt Kay asked.
"Actually, I was hoping to steal your niece away for a while. I will give her right back. I need her to help me with something." Jeff told them; seeing the curious look on Kaytana's face.
Kaytana stood up and walked over to where Jeff was standing. "I'm all yours!" she told him.
Jeff took her by the hand and led her down to the basement where her uncle was waiting.
When Kaytana saw the deed out on the drafting table she froze. Did Jeff tell her uncle about her special spot in the woods?
"Hey, Tana, how are you? Jeff tells me that you guys were strolling through the woods today. You know I have never looked at this deed since I bought this land. I never realized that this property was so big" her uncle confessed.
Kaytana could feel her stomach turning over. This can't be happening. Why were they looking at the deed?
Jeff could see that Kaytana was worried and felt he owed it to her to relieve her stress. "When I came down here, Rick was looking at the deed and we starting discussing the size of the property. He wanted to know how much of it you had explored. I told him that I was the wrong person to be asking, I was just following you; so I decided to go and get you so that you could answer him yourself." Jeff explained, hoping it cleared up some misgivings she was having.
Kaytana looked at him, searching for some kind of hint as to why her uncle wanted to know but could read nothing in his facial expression.
Kaytana took the deed in her hand and looked at it closely. Without realizing what she was doing, Kaytana traced a spot on the deed where her special spot was located. Jeff was watching closely to make sure he knew where it was. Kaytana put the deed back down on the drafting table and said she had explored the entire property at some point in her life. She explained that today they had only seen a portion of it, the property was too big to explore in one day.
Satisfied with her explanation, her uncle thanked her. "You know I will have to explore this property some day. Maybe when all the snow has melted, I will take the boys and we will make a day of it" he told them.
Kaytana started getting the terrible feeling in her stomach again and looked at Jeff with pleading eyes, hoping he understood what she was silently asking.
Jeff winked at her, knowing what she was thinking. "When you first enter the woods from the back, it is pretty open but if you explore too far, then you are running into the chance that someone could get hurt. There are a few steep cliffs back there and the trails are really rugged. Trust me I know, I almost fell into the creek back there that runs through this house. Of course, Kaytana found it funny, but I am worried about the boys" Jeff explained. He glanced over at Kaytana and she mouth 'thank you' to him.
"Well, maybe some day when the boys are older" her uncle said. "Now would you mind if I kept your boyfriend a while longer, we were discussing my new plans and I know how much you hate it when I start into all this" her uncle said, hoping she got the hint to disappear.
"Sure, Aunt Kay and I were talking anyway. Jeff, when you are done, come and get me?" Kaytana asked, hoping they would get some time alone together this evening.
"Thanks Rick, I appreciate what you just did for me" Jeff admitted.
"I told you, your secret is safe with me" Rick assured him.
"Now, do you have any idea where it is you would like to buy that piece of land?" Rick asked him.
Without hesitating, Jeff pointed to the spot that Kaytana had traced with her finger, "Right there" Jeff said, showing Rick whereabouts on the deed.
"That seems like a good spot, any idea on how many acres you would want?" Rick asked him.
"How many acres do you own?" Jeff asked.
"Kaytana never told you? I own 25 acres, from here to here" Rick said, showing Jeff on the deed. "When I first heard about this property, I never thought that I could afford it, but it turned out that the couple that owned this land were desperate to sell it. They were an elderly couple and couldn't care for it anymore. When I told them what I wanted to do with it, they pleaded with me to buy it, so I did, cheap too!" Rick explained.
"Well, how much are you willing to sell?" Jeff countered.
"That all depends on how much you want," Rick countered.
"How about 5 acres?" Jeff negotiated.
"You've got yourself a deal. I will call my attorney tomorrow and have him draw up the new deed to your property. Now, how much are considering paying for this 5 acres?" Rick asked him.
"You name your price and I will pay it. Money is not a problem," Jeff told him.
"How does $10,000.00 sound? If that is too low than you name your price," Jeff told him.
"$10,000.00 is fine. You are practically family after all!" Rick hinted.
"I will arrange for the money to be transferred to you in the morning, just give me all of your banking information and by noon you will have $10,000.00 transferred to you." Jeff told him.
They firmed up the deal and exchanged the pertinent information. They shook hands to seal the deal and Jeff told Rick that he was going to go find Kaytana so that he could spend some time with her.
***
"Did you guys get everything done you wanted to?" asked Kaytana when Jeff knocked on her bedroom door.
"Oh yeah. Everything is great!" Jeff said rather happily.
"You seem to be in a strange mood tonight. What are you up to?" Kaytana asked.
"Who me, nothing. I just had a good time talking with your uncle. He is a very understanding man you know. We were having guy talk while you ladies were having your girl talk!" Jeff teased Kaytana.
"So what would you like to do?" asked Kaytana.
"Now that is a loaded question!" teased Jeff. "Whatever you would like to do is fine with me, I am all yours for the evening" Jeff told her.
"In that case…how would you like to watch a movie? My cousins talked my aunt into renting them some movies tonight and they both fell asleep before they could watch them, so I thought we could steal them and watch them instead." Kaytana explained.
"Well, so long as there is no "chick flicks" it's fine with me!" Jeff teased.
"Yeah right, like my cousins would ever watch any of those. They are all action. Is that ok?" Kaytana explained.
"Sure!" Jeff answered.
Kaytana brought the movies over for him to have a look at. She left the decision up to Jeff on what movie he wanted to watch first. He chose The Fast and the Furious. Kaytana took the movie from Jeff and put it in the DVD and came and sat next to Jeff on the leather sofa. The two of them were snuggled together as they watched the movie unfold in front of them.
Kaytana could feel herself getting tired so she laid down and puts her head in Jeff's lap. Jeff gently caressed Kaytana's arm and occasionally played in her hair. Jeff's gentle touch relaxed Kaytana so much that she fell asleep.
Jeff could feel Kaytana's head get heavy in his lap. When he looked down at her, he saw that she had fallen asleep. Not wanting to disturb her, Jeff let her stay right where she was, besides he was enjoying her company and the movie.
When the movie had ended, Jeff carefully crawled out from under Kaytana's head, hoping not to wake her. He carefully picked her up and placed her on her bed, covering her up. Jeff was having a very familiar feeling of déjà vu. Jeff bent down and gently kissed Kaytana good night. He wished her a good night and told her he loved her, knowing it was safe because she was sleeping.
Jeff quietly left the room, closing the door behind him. Kaytana opened her eyes when she heard Jeff close the door behind him. She smiled to herself. Jeff loves her!
When they returned to the house, Jeff told Kaytana that he wanted to change into cleaner clothes. While they were exploring the woods, Jeff had slid down a slight embankment and got mud on his pants, so much for Mr. Extreme.
While Jeff was changing, he was trying to figure out a way to convince Aunt Kay to sell him that piece of property, without her wanting to see it first. Perhaps he should approach Kaytana's uncle instead.
Jeff changed into his favorite pants; his cow pants. Jeff entered the kitchen to find Kaytana and Aunt Kay deep in a conversation, not wanting to interrupt them, he told them was going to go talk to Kaytana's uncle. Jeff knew that he would find him in the basement.
"Hey Rick, how's the plans coming?" Jeff asked when he entered the office, located at the back of the basement.
"Well, I have changed a few of my original ideas, but they are just about finished. Come here and have a look" Uncle Rick offered.
Jeff went and sat beside Rick at the drafting table to have a look at the new plans. Jeff was amazed to see that he had made even better modifications this time around. Rick explained what he had changed and tried to give Jeff a clear picture of the room he wanted to add to the house.
When they were finished discussing the plans, Jeff felt this was a good time to approach Rick about buying property from him. "Hey Rick, you know that piece of land you have behind the house? Do you ever use it for anything?" Jeff asked, testing the water.
"You mean the bush behind us? No the only person that has ever gone in there is Kaytana, oh and the boys but they never venture as far back as Kaytana has. Why do you ask?" Rick asked.
"I was wondering if you ever thought of selling part of that land to anyone" Jeff confessed.
"I never actually thought about it. Why, you interested in it?" Rick asked him.
"As a matter of fact I am. While Kaytana and I were walking back there, I found a spot that I absolutely loved. You see I am a real nature person and love the outdoors. The spot we stumbled upon was exactly the type of property I have been searching for. Believe me, I have been looking for a long time for land like that, but with no success. I feel this is fate, otherwise I never would have found it. So what do you say, interested in selling me some land?" Jeff finally asked.
"Let me just go get my deed and you can show me exactly where you want this piece of land." Rick got up from the drafting table and was searching for the deed when it occurred to Jeff that he had no idea where about this piece of land was, only Kaytana did. How was he going to get that information?
Rick returned with the deed of his property and showed it to Jeff. Jeff looked it over but couldn't figure out where the piece of property was. He confessed to Rick that he would have to ask Kaytana where it was, because she was so familiar with the layout of the land.
"Rick, I only have one problem, I don't want Kaytana to know that I am doing this. I would like to surprise her with it. So can you please keep it quiet for now? I will make up some stupid excuse and try and get the information out of her. How does that sound?" Jeff asked hopefully.
"Your secret is safe with me" Rick promised Jeff.
Jeff went upstairs looking for Kaytana and hoping that he could pull this off. Jeff entered the kitchen and was surprised to find it empty. Where could she be, Jeff thought. He went upstairs hoping he would find her in her room. He knocked on her bedroom door, but got no response. Jeff decided to look in her Aunt's room, maybe they had gone up there. When he approached the door, he could hear the two women talking…
"Yes Aunt Kay I am sure. Why do you sound so surprised?" Kaytana was saying.
"It's not that I am surprised it is just I know the kind of person you are and how closely guarded your heart is. I am very happy for you, does Jeff know yet?" Aunt Kay said.
"No, I haven't told him and I don't know that it is the right time to" Kaytana admitted.
"Well, don't wait too long my dear, otherwise, you may regret not telling Jeff that you are in love with him." Aunt Kay advised her.
Jeff smiled when he heard what was being said. He would wait until Kaytana brought up the subject, if he could. He approached the bedroom door and knocked gently.
"Come in" Aunt Kay yelled.
"Sorry, am I interrupting anything? If I am, I will come back later" Jeff said
"Don't be silly, come in, you aren't interrupting at all. We were just having girl talk. What is it we can do for you?" Aunt Kay asked.
"Actually, I was hoping to steal your niece away for a while. I will give her right back. I need her to help me with something." Jeff told them; seeing the curious look on Kaytana's face.
Kaytana stood up and walked over to where Jeff was standing. "I'm all yours!" she told him.
Jeff took her by the hand and led her down to the basement where her uncle was waiting.
When Kaytana saw the deed out on the drafting table she froze. Did Jeff tell her uncle about her special spot in the woods?
"Hey, Tana, how are you? Jeff tells me that you guys were strolling through the woods today. You know I have never looked at this deed since I bought this land. I never realized that this property was so big" her uncle confessed.
Kaytana could feel her stomach turning over. This can't be happening. Why were they looking at the deed?
Jeff could see that Kaytana was worried and felt he owed it to her to relieve her stress. "When I came down here, Rick was looking at the deed and we starting discussing the size of the property. He wanted to know how much of it you had explored. I told him that I was the wrong person to be asking, I was just following you; so I decided to go and get you so that you could answer him yourself." Jeff explained, hoping it cleared up some misgivings she was having.
Kaytana looked at him, searching for some kind of hint as to why her uncle wanted to know but could read nothing in his facial expression.
Kaytana took the deed in her hand and looked at it closely. Without realizing what she was doing, Kaytana traced a spot on the deed where her special spot was located. Jeff was watching closely to make sure he knew where it was. Kaytana put the deed back down on the drafting table and said she had explored the entire property at some point in her life. She explained that today they had only seen a portion of it, the property was too big to explore in one day.
Satisfied with her explanation, her uncle thanked her. "You know I will have to explore this property some day. Maybe when all the snow has melted, I will take the boys and we will make a day of it" he told them.
Kaytana started getting the terrible feeling in her stomach again and looked at Jeff with pleading eyes, hoping he understood what she was silently asking.
Jeff winked at her, knowing what she was thinking. "When you first enter the woods from the back, it is pretty open but if you explore too far, then you are running into the chance that someone could get hurt. There are a few steep cliffs back there and the trails are really rugged. Trust me I know, I almost fell into the creek back there that runs through this house. Of course, Kaytana found it funny, but I am worried about the boys" Jeff explained. He glanced over at Kaytana and she mouth 'thank you' to him.
"Well, maybe some day when the boys are older" her uncle said. "Now would you mind if I kept your boyfriend a while longer, we were discussing my new plans and I know how much you hate it when I start into all this" her uncle said, hoping she got the hint to disappear.
"Sure, Aunt Kay and I were talking anyway. Jeff, when you are done, come and get me?" Kaytana asked, hoping they would get some time alone together this evening.
"Thanks Rick, I appreciate what you just did for me" Jeff admitted.
"I told you, your secret is safe with me" Rick assured him.
"Now, do you have any idea where it is you would like to buy that piece of land?" Rick asked him.
Without hesitating, Jeff pointed to the spot that Kaytana had traced with her finger, "Right there" Jeff said, showing Rick whereabouts on the deed.
"That seems like a good spot, any idea on how many acres you would want?" Rick asked him.
"How many acres do you own?" Jeff asked.
"Kaytana never told you? I own 25 acres, from here to here" Rick said, showing Jeff on the deed. "When I first heard about this property, I never thought that I could afford it, but it turned out that the couple that owned this land were desperate to sell it. They were an elderly couple and couldn't care for it anymore. When I told them what I wanted to do with it, they pleaded with me to buy it, so I did, cheap too!" Rick explained.
"Well, how much are you willing to sell?" Jeff countered.
"That all depends on how much you want," Rick countered.
"How about 5 acres?" Jeff negotiated.
"You've got yourself a deal. I will call my attorney tomorrow and have him draw up the new deed to your property. Now, how much are considering paying for this 5 acres?" Rick asked him.
"You name your price and I will pay it. Money is not a problem," Jeff told him.
"How does $10,000.00 sound? If that is too low than you name your price," Jeff told him.
"$10,000.00 is fine. You are practically family after all!" Rick hinted.
"I will arrange for the money to be transferred to you in the morning, just give me all of your banking information and by noon you will have $10,000.00 transferred to you." Jeff told him.
They firmed up the deal and exchanged the pertinent information. They shook hands to seal the deal and Jeff told Rick that he was going to go find Kaytana so that he could spend some time with her.
***
"Did you guys get everything done you wanted to?" asked Kaytana when Jeff knocked on her bedroom door.
"Oh yeah. Everything is great!" Jeff said rather happily.
"You seem to be in a strange mood tonight. What are you up to?" Kaytana asked.
"Who me, nothing. I just had a good time talking with your uncle. He is a very understanding man you know. We were having guy talk while you ladies were having your girl talk!" Jeff teased Kaytana.
"So what would you like to do?" asked Kaytana.
"Now that is a loaded question!" teased Jeff. "Whatever you would like to do is fine with me, I am all yours for the evening" Jeff told her.
"In that case…how would you like to watch a movie? My cousins talked my aunt into renting them some movies tonight and they both fell asleep before they could watch them, so I thought we could steal them and watch them instead." Kaytana explained.
"Well, so long as there is no "chick flicks" it's fine with me!" Jeff teased.
"Yeah right, like my cousins would ever watch any of those. They are all action. Is that ok?" Kaytana explained.
"Sure!" Jeff answered.
Kaytana brought the movies over for him to have a look at. She left the decision up to Jeff on what movie he wanted to watch first. He chose The Fast and the Furious. Kaytana took the movie from Jeff and put it in the DVD and came and sat next to Jeff on the leather sofa. The two of them were snuggled together as they watched the movie unfold in front of them.
Kaytana could feel herself getting tired so she laid down and puts her head in Jeff's lap. Jeff gently caressed Kaytana's arm and occasionally played in her hair. Jeff's gentle touch relaxed Kaytana so much that she fell asleep.
Jeff could feel Kaytana's head get heavy in his lap. When he looked down at her, he saw that she had fallen asleep. Not wanting to disturb her, Jeff let her stay right where she was, besides he was enjoying her company and the movie.
When the movie had ended, Jeff carefully crawled out from under Kaytana's head, hoping not to wake her. He carefully picked her up and placed her on her bed, covering her up. Jeff was having a very familiar feeling of déjà vu. Jeff bent down and gently kissed Kaytana good night. He wished her a good night and told her he loved her, knowing it was safe because she was sleeping.
Jeff quietly left the room, closing the door behind him. Kaytana opened her eyes when she heard Jeff close the door behind him. She smiled to herself. Jeff loves her!