=::= Erin Rhodes' PoV -- June 1989 =::=

"Hey Erin," my boss said as he stopped by my desk. "Peter and I are heading out to grab some lunch, did you want to come along?"

I hesitated for a second before shaking my head, "No thanks Mr. Miller, I brought my lunch today."

He nodded as the two men headed for the door, "All right then. We'll be back in an hour or so."

"See you later," I responded.

On the one hand it was nice that he thought to invite me, but I'd been out to lunch with the two of them before and I always felt out of place. My boss Joseph Miller and my coworker Peter Richardson were both more than twenty years older than me, and apart from real estate I didn't really have anything in common with either of them.

The other reason was I knew 'lunch hour' for them might end up taking ninety minutes, and I had a ton of paperwork and filing to get through. I really didn't want to have to stay late again catching up on it again, especially when it really wasn't supposed to be my job anymore.

I'd been a full-fledged sales agent for over two years now, but my boss and my coworker both still treated me like their secretary and assistant. Every time I talked to Mr. Miller about it he said they'd be hiring a new office assistant 'soon', but he wouldn't commit to an actual timeline or deadline.

It left me feeling like I was being taken advantage of. Either that, or making me a sales agent had just been a token gesture and I was really supposed to remain a secretary and assistant after all.

Honestly as grateful as I was to Joseph for giving me a chance to get started there were days I still thought about quitting. There were two other realtors in town and at least once a week I thought about applying for a job with one or the other. I even entertained thoughts of starting up my own agency, although I knew I'd need a lot more experience first. I'd also need a lot more money in my savings account than I had at the moment.

So for now I focused on the paperwork and the filing, while munching on a sandwich I brought from home. An hour later I was just about finished both the work and my lunch when a young woman wandered into the office then just stood there looking around as if she was lost.

For a moment I found myself staring. She was incredibly beautiful, and strangely over-dressed. Honestly she looked like a supermodel who'd taken a wrong turn and was wondering how she ended up in a real estate office instead of a fashion shoot.

She was tall and slim, with long golden blonde hair that almost seemed to sparkle and shine as it cascaded down past her shoulders. It framed her perfect face, and her bright blue-grey eyes had that same sparkle in them. She was dressed in an alluring white gown that hugged her figure. It had a plunging neckline that revealed a daring amount of cleavage, and slits up the sides that showed off nearly-scandalous levels of thigh. The white stiletto heels on her feet only accentuated those thighs, along with her behind.

About the only thing out of place on her was the taupe canvas purse she carried in her left hand. The way it seemed to strain at the handles made me think it was full of something very heavy, although she didn't seem to have any trouble at all holding it.

I watched as the strange young woman slowly looked around the front part of our office, which only reinforced my impression that she was lost. Although she did seem to be interested in some of the photographs of houses that Joseph had decorating the walls. He had pictures of all our best listings up on display. Most of them were long since sold, but a few were recent enough to still on the market.

"Hello there," I finally greeted her, once I got past my initial shock. "Welcome to J. Miller Realtors, how may I help you?"

She turned and focused those gorgeous blue-grey eyes on me, then gave me a beautiful smile that made my heart skip a beat.

"Greetings," she responded in a voice that was as pretty as the rest of her. "I understand you have houses for sale? I am new here, I only arrived early yesterday morning, and I wish to purchase a dwelling."

She spoke with a rather thick accent that I couldn't quite place, but that just gave her an exotic charm.

I blinked and tried to force myself to focus on work. I couldn't let myself get infatuated with a potential client, it was terribly unprofessional. And things were starting to get serious between me and Sherry, I really didn't want to mess that up.

So I put on my best professional work attitude and nodded, "Yes of course! You've come to the right place, I'm a licensed real estate agent and I can help you find your perfect home."

"Fabulous!" she exclaimed with a happy smile that made my heart sing, and despite my best efforts I found myself smiling back at her for a second or two, before I remembered what to do next.

I motioned towards the guest chair in front of my desk as I said, "Please have a seat? If you'd like to tell me what sort of property you're interested in we can get started on finding you the home of your dreams."

"I'm Erin Rhodes by the way," I added as I offered her one of my business cards. "And you are?"

"Thank you Erin," she responded as she gracefully swept forward and accepted my card.

She lowered herself into the chair across from me and placed her purse on her lap before opening it up. And as she carefully tucked my card away inside I got a glimpse of what else was in there, and it left my mind racing. It didn't make any sense at all, but I'd swear her purse was full of what looked like genuine gold coins.

I found myself staring once again as I tried to figure out what that might mean, but those thoughts were all but forgotten as the gorgeous woman sitting across from me flashed me another beatific smile.

"Please call me Jordan," she responded. "Jordan Strand."

• • • • •

"I'm sorry Erin," Miss Strand shook her head. "This one simply won't do either. The energy here is all wrong."

My shoulders slumped, "Are you sure? We haven't even looked at the upstairs yet."

Two days had passed since the enigmatic Jordan Strand first showed up in the office looking for a new home. We spent an hour on Tuesday discussing her wants and needs, then I took a couple hours yesterday to put together a short-list of homes that met her requirements. And today we'd spent the past three hours driving around town visiting each of the properties, but nothing seemed to satisfy her.

She wasn't specifically looking for anything large or fancy, but she did require three or four bedrooms and she wanted it to have an established lawn and garden. That ruled out most of the smaller properties and everything in the newer subdivisions, but there were still plenty of homes around town that fit the bill.

She had no specific budget in mind, but by that point I was convinced money wasn't an issue for her at all. Logically I understood she was probably a wealthy European heiress, although I couldn't begin to guess why she'd decided to move all the way here to our small town with nothing but the clothes on her back and a literal sack full of gold coins.

Except my intuition kept telling me that logic was wrong. That Miss Strand came from somewhere much further away than Europe. Somewhere you couldn't find on any maps, much less book plane tickets to. I had no idea what she really was, but I couldn't shake the feeling that she was something else.

The funny thing was she kept reminding me of that young lesbian couple who bought a house from me two years earlier. It didn't make any sense, they were nothing like Jordan in any way, apart from being unusual and being able to conjure up certified cheques out of nowhere. Miss Strand hadn't actually done that, or at least not yet. But something told me she wasn't what she appeared, just like Tanya and Julie weren't what they appeared.

Maybe it was her insistence on finding a property with the right 'energy'. That was something she couldn't explain, and they certainly didn't have a field for it on the computer so it wasn't something I could search up.

"The energies upstairs won't be any different than they are here," she finally replied in an apologetic tone. "Can we just move on to the next place?"

That was another thing that struck me. In just two days she'd completely lost her foreign accent. And instead of the gown and stiletto heels she was dressed in blue jeans, a t-shirt, and a pair of sneakers. Her outfit looked brand-new, she'd obviously spent yesterday shopping, but in forty-eight hours she'd transformed herself from an obvious new arrival to someone who'd almost pass as a local. She was still incredibly beautiful though, which was more than a little distracting at times.

I shook my head, "I'm sorry Miss Strand, this was the last property I had lined up for you to see today."

"Maybe you could give me some more guidance?" I added. "I get that you can't describe the energies you're looking for, but maybe you can tell me what sorts of places would have that kind of vibe?"

A thoughtful frown settled on her face, then as an afterthought she added "Please call me Jordan."

"All right Jordan," I replied with a smile. "You don't need to come up with an answer to that question right now by the way. I can take you back to the hotel if you like, and you're welcome to call me any time. Even after hours, you can leave a message if I'm not available."

She nodded slowly as the two of us made our way back out of the house. I locked the front door then we both got into my little sedan. As I started the car she finally spoke.

"The energy will have a sense of movement", she stated in a quiet serious tone. "Houses at a cross-road, or next to an old carriageway. Or on the banks of a river, although I don't believe there are rivers around this town? Creeks and streams are too small, it would have to be a navigable waterway to have the sort of energy I'm looking for."

I thought for a few moments about all of that, and wracked my mind for any properties I could remember off the top of my head that fit the bill. Otherwise I'd be spending more time back at the office pouring over the most recent print-out of local listings, along with a map of town to try and find all the corner lots or the properties that fronted onto one of our three major thoroughfares.

Unfortunately I could only think of one place, and it seemed like an oddball location. It had been on the market for a few months now, but so far nobody seemed interested. Still, I hadn't had any luck showing her the places I thought would be popular, so maybe an oddball was the way to go.

"Actually there's one more place I could show you this afternoon," I told her. "Let's go have a look at it."

She flashed me another one of those smiles that made my heart flutter, "All right Erin. I'm eager to see what you have for me."

Although the place wasn't that far away it took half an hour to actually get there, mostly because I had to make a stop at the office to use the telephone. Joseph and Peter both had phones in their cars, but I couldn't afford that sort of luxury. Jordan was patient though, and soon enough we were standing in the driveway of a little bungalow at the south end of town.

The property was a smaller residence on a good-sized lot, and it had three bedrooms which meant it met my client's earlier requirements. It was neither old or new, the place was built in the late sixties or early seventies which put it at fifteen to twenty years old. There were some mature trees on the lot, not much in the way of gardening or landscaping but the trees and both front and back yards were in good shape.

The reason other buyers seemed to avoid it was the reason I thought it might work for Jordan. The property backed onto a rail line that linked Toronto to Owen Sound, and the prospect of the occasional freight train rolling through less than a hundred feet from the back of the house tended to put most buyers off.

The agent who'd listed the place arrived a minute or two later with the keys, and after we got the introductions out of the way he gave both Jordan and I a tour of the place. There wasn't too much to see, but I could tell before we'd even made it through the living-room and kitchen that Miss Strand was happy.

The smile on her face and the spark in her eyes said it all. By the time we'd finished touring the interior and made it into the backyard she turned to me and exclaimed happily, "This is wonderful Erin! I knew you'd find me the perfect home! How soon can I move in?"

I was reminded of Julie and Tanya once again, but despite her sudden impatience things didn't move quite so fast with Jordan.

She didn't require financing, which somehow didn't surprise me. But she did have one more unusual request. She didn't want her name on the deed or the paperwork. She didn't have any good reason for that, or at least none she'd tell me, but I'd already learned not to question those sorts of things.

Instead I made some calls and did some research, and the following Monday I introduced Miss Strand to a young lawyer I'd met while working on an estate sale a couple months earlier. Jessie Vaughan passed the bar around the same time I got my real estate licence, and she could handle just about anything other than criminal cases.

With her help Jordan set up a numbered corporation which would be the owner of the property. It meant her name wasn't on the purchase agreement, apart from where she had to sign as an officer of the company. And it kept her name off the deed entirely.

The whole process took another couple weeks to complete, but my client was happy as things continued to progress. And almost exactly a month from the day she first arrived in town, Jordan Strand moved out of the hotel and into her own home.

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