Read Garage Sale Stalker (Garage Sale Mysteries) for Free Online Page B

her mind!
    Five minutes later, with the packaged Blue Danube china braced safely in cardboard boxes on the van’s floor, she gloated. Even if you were lucky enough to find them, these pieces cost more than double what she just paid and the four-part tureen more yet!
    Euphoric, Jennifer turned toward home!

CHAPTER 5
    H er time-sens itive jaunt finished and aglow with her success at the sales, Jennifer relaxed on the drive home. Gliding past the well-kept McLean houses surrounded by manicured lawns, she reflected that this community “showed” well today just as it had twenty-five years ago when Jason’s new job first prompted their springtime visit to the Washington, D.C. area.
    After a week of fruitless house-hunting but still seeking a roomy, affordable home for their five young children, they extended their search to a Virginia suburb of D.C. called McLean. That morning their agent showed them a house new on the market—colonial-style on a quiet cul-de-sac where springtime flowers splashed glorious colors across the yard. With a large yard bordered behind by wooded park land for their kids to explore, two blocks from pool and tennis and three blocks from an outstanding Fairfax County elementary school, this property seemed perfect . But the cost! Would they sacrifice the kids’ college funds to buy it? They moved in a week later.
    Jennifer smiled. Despite a tight budget in those early days, time proved this decision wise. Their family thrived in this congenial neighborhood and the property’s price quadrupled in the intervening twenty-five years. Eventually, they financed their children through college after all.
    Nearing home, Jennifer snapped out of her reverie, pressed the remote control to open the iron driveway gates, maneuvered the van through the tall brick columns on either side, pressed a second remote to open the garage door and drove inside. Jumping out of her SUV, she picked up the toaster, piled an armful of her other purchases atop it and hustled them into the house.
    She found Jason drinking coffee and reading the newspaper on the long glass-enclosed sun porch covering the entire back of their house. “Hello, Hon,” she called. “Are the children up yet?”
    “Just me, but I heard the shower, so at least one’s awake.” Jason looked up from the paper and added, “The girls usually sleep late like all college kids—lucky if we see them before noon. Aren’t you home sooner than usual?”
    “Becca’s summer job interview is this morning. Her car’s in the shop so she asked to borrow mine because you need yours for golf at ten.”
    Though eager to tell him about her buys, she knew function equaled desirability to her engineer husband: something to use ranked higher than something to see . So she needed to apply some finesse. Ignoring his skeptical frown, she held up two sturdy garden trowels and said, “Here’s something for you! Didn’t your last one break yesterday? They’re new and only a dollar each!”
    “Great,” he said without enthusiasm, but she knew he’d garden with them before the day ended.
    “And a lot of ‘smalls’ plus these nice earrings!” She pointed to her earlobes. “The clip-on’s I wear are nearly impossible to find retail any more. And a bamboo tree that will look stunning in the living room and a bench for the seating we need in the mudroom.”
    He grunted and lowered his eyes back to the paper. “Need help bringing anything in?”
    “Thanks, Jay. Just the tree and bench.” She poured herself some coffee, wanting to share what weighed uppermost on her mind: the scary encounters with Wrestler! But she hesitated. This would worry him and maybe further dampen his marginal enthusiasm for her garage sale hobby. She valued his love and protectiveness, but why alarm him with information that might elicit strong objections or even challenge her cherished independence?
    And in the unlikely event she ever saw Wrestler again, she’d really avoid him this time!