Legacy, page 12
“Definitely out here. It’s so pretty out. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Sometimes, she thought as she walked through the big house to the big kitchen, the right choice was also the only choice.
She split the sub, used pretty plates, cloth napkins, and poured both water and wine. To tempt him, she added a handful of his favored salt-and-vinegar chips—damn the nutrition for one day—to each plate.
She carried the tray out, arranged it all on the long porch table.
“Let’s eat, Popi. Business was good when I stopped in.” She just kept chattering as he got up, slowly walked to the table. “Barry’s on today, and doing a good job—but he said they miss seeing you.”
“Maybe I’ll go in tomorrow.”
He’d said the same the day before.
“That’d be great. God, I haven’t had a meatball sub in … who knows?” She leaned over the plate, dripping sauce onto it as she took a bite. “Oh really, I bet this is illegal in some states. One day, you’re going to give me the recipe for the Rizzo secret sauce.”
“You know I will.” He smiled; he nibbled.
“So, I FaceTimed with Teesha—and the amazing Phineas—while I was out. They send love.”
“That’s a precious little boy. Smart as a whip. Smarter.”
“He is. I’m hoping we’ll see lots more of him if I managed to talk her and Monroe into moving down here.”
“Hmm? What, here?”
And there, she thought, was a chink in the curtain that had come down over his eyes.
“Mmm.” She took another bite. “I know we can work remotely, no problem, but they’ve been talking about getting a house—burbs, maybe even country—since Phin was born. Why not here? And her amazing business brain would help with Rizzo’s, too. Monroe can work anywhere.” She took a sip of wine, smiled, shrugged. “Like me.”
“I don’t understand.”
She made another sound, ate a chip. “Oh, I know why I try never to eat one of these. My system is crying for more now. Oh.” She beamed that smile again. “I’m moving in. Didn’t I mention that? I gave—or Teesha gave—my notice at the apartment in New York. She’s arranging for my stuff to be packed up and moved down here. Storage for some—she’s dealing with that. I don’t think I’d get through a day without her dealing with stuff.”
“Gioia, your life’s in New York.”
“It’s been in New York because that’s where Mom lived, and where I started out. But my home’s here, and has been for as long as I can remember. I’d like to have my life in my home.”
His jaw squared. “Adrian, you’re not upending your life for me. I won’t have it.”
Casually, she licked sauce off her finger. “That’s too bad, because it’s done. I’m doing it for you, because I love you. I’m doing it for me, because it’s what I want. I love you,” she repeated. “I love this big old house. I love the views, I love the trees, the gardens. I love the town, and I’m taking it. Just try to stop me.”
A tear slid down his cheek. “I don’t want you to—”
“Does it matter what I want?” She laid a hand over his. “Does it?”
“Of course it does. Of course.”
“This is what I want.”
“To live in this old place, outside of a three-stoplight town?”
She ate another chip. “Yes. That’s exactly what I want. Oh, and I’m taking over the lower level.”
“I—”
“Squatter’s rights. I need the space for my fitness area, my streaming. For my work. There’s that nice walk out on the back so there’s light, and I’ll have a crew come in to deal with the tech stuff. I might hire Barry’s little sister to work on the design.”
“Adrian, this is a big decision. You should take time to think it all through.”
“Have thought, have weighed pros and cons. Pros win. You know the Rizzos, Popi. We know what we want, then we work to get it.” She toasted him with her glass. “Get used to it, Roomie.”
She set it down, got up to put her arms around him as more tears fell. “You need me,” she murmured. “But I need you, too. We’re giving this to each other.”
“We’ll be all right.”
“Yes, we will.” She framed his face, kissed him. “She’d expect nothing less of us. Now, I need you to eat that damn sub because if you don’t and I do, I’m really going to pay for it later.”
“Okay. Okay. Barry knows how I like it.”
“So he said.”
When she sat again, he took another bite. He drank some wine, cleared his throat. “Do you really think you can talk them into moving down here with that precious little boy?”
Smiling, she tapped her glass to his. “I favor my odds there. That tire swing needs a new young butt.”
“It surely does. I thought, at first, I just wanted to fade away. How could I stay when she was gone? So just fade away.”
Tears burned and pushed at the backs of her eyes. “I know.”
“You won’t let me.”
“No, I won’t.”
Nodding, he looked directly into her eyes. “Why don’t you tell me what you have in mind to do to my basement? Our basement,” he corrected.
Two days later she wandered the space she intended to transform. Studying it, imagining, considering, rejecting. They’d put in a wine cellar before she’d been born, and that would stay, of course. As would the utility/storage room.
She wouldn’t need to touch the guest room or full-size bath.
That left her the entire family room area with its antique bar, the old brick fireplace, all mostly used when they held big parties.
More furniture to move or store, she mused, but the bar, the fireplace would make interesting backdrops.
She wanted it to look like what it was—part of a home—but at the same time efficient, focused. Picking up her tablet, she started making notes she’d share with Kayla when her—hopefully—young designer came in for a consult.
A FaceTime signal interrupted, and had Adrian staring at the screen. Her mother never FaceTimed. Adrian tapped accept.
Lina came on-screen in full makeup, her chestnut hair sleeked back in a tail. Work mode, Adrian concluded.
“Hi. This is new.”
“We need a conversation, and this is the best way. I just read your blog.”
“Oh. I didn’t know you—”
“Adrian, you can’t bury yourself in that house, in that town. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking this is where I want to be—and need to be—and rather than burying myself, I see it as a new opportunity.”
“You established yourself in New York, and your use of locations there for your DVDs, your streaming is part of your signature.”
“I’m changing my signature.”
Lina waved someone away without taking her eyes off the screen. “Look, it’s laudable that you’d consider uprooting your life to look after your grandfather.”
“Laudable.”
“Yes. It’s kind and loving and laudable. I’m not stupid, Adrian, and I’m not blind to the circumstances. I know he shouldn’t stay in the house alone. I’d considered trying to convince him to move to New York, but realized that would be a study in frustration for both of us. I’ve been interviewing live-in nurse/companions.”
“Did you mention that to him?”
“No, because he’d reject the idea off the mark. But when I find someone—”
“Stop looking.” Adrian sat on the arm of a couch, reminded herself there was no point in anger. Her mother generally defaulted to throwing money at a problem or inconvenience.
On the plus side, she’d tried to do something.
“He’s not sick, he’s grieving. He doesn’t need a nurse. He needs me. And that street goes both ways. I want to be here, and not just to look after him. I want to be in our family home. Why does it matter to you?”
“I don’t want to see you tap the brakes on your career when it’s still accelerating. You have a gift.”
“And I’m going to keep using it.”
“In an old house outside of Dogpatch?”
“That’s right, and on the porch, on the back patio, in the park, in the town square. I’ve got plenty of ideas. We have the same root in the work, Mom, but we’ve grown it two different ways.”
“New Gen is still under the Yoga Baby umbrella.”
Now Adrian lifted her eyebrows. “It is. If my relocating causes you to rethink that, we can have the lawyers work out a split.”
“Don’t be—” Lina broke off, then looked away from the screen for a moment as Adrian watched her struggle for composure. “I’m trying to point out that this is a business as well as a passion, a lifestyle, and that in business you have to be practical as well as innovative. And you’re not the only one dealing with upheaval. She was my mother.”
After another breath, Lina looked back at the screen. “She was my mother.”
“I know. You’re right.” And she could see grief just as clearly as she herself felt it. “And I should have given you a heads-up, on a personal and a business level. I didn’t think of it. I just didn’t, so I’m sorry for that. Let’s try this. You give me a year, and if this relocation doesn’t work the way I think it will, we’ll reevaluate.”
“By reevaluating you mean actually consulting me, Harry, the rest of the team?”
“Yes.”
“All right.” She looked off-screen again. “Yes, yes, two minutes! I want you to succeed, Adrian.”
“I know you do.”
“I have to go. Tell Dad … tell him I’ll call him soon.”
“I will.”
When she ended the call, Adrian slid down to sit on the couch. She’d made a mistake, she admitted, not telling her mother about her decision. And for the life of her she couldn’t be sure if that had been deliberate on some level or just an oversight.
Done now, she thought. And once she got things moving Lina, and everyone else, would see she’d made the right move at the right time.
So she’d better get busy proving it.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Just another sunrise hiker. Blending was both a skill and personal entertainment. The canyon offered echoing silence—sometimes the cry of a hawk or an eagle.
Predators, and much admired.
She who wouldn’t live to see the sun again hiked here twice a week, three times if she could manage it, but the two were like clockwork.
Her alone time, her commune-with-nature time, her keep-body-and-soul-in-tune time.
Or so she said on Twitter.
The hunting, the planning here had been pure pleasure. Travel, such an innate part of the life led, offered so many opportunities.
New scenes, new sounds. New kills.
And here, like clockwork, she came. Striding along in her hiking boots, a bright pink fielder’s cap on her head with her fake blond hair pulled into a tail through the opening in the back. Sunglasses, cargo shorts.
Alone.
The fake limp, the slight wince caught her attention.
“Are you okay?”
A wave of a hand, a brave, slightly pained smile. And voice breathless, quiet. “Just twisted my ankle a little. Stupid.”
Another step, a little stumble.
And didn’t she reach right out to help?
The knife slid smoothly into her belly. Her mouth opened into a shocked O that might’ve turned into a scream, but the knife made those glorious wet sounds as it pulled out, pushed in.
When she went down, her sunglasses slid off.
Souvenirs! Sunglasses, sports watch, key fob, and of course the now traditional photo.
Her blood soaked the ground; the hawk circled and cried.
With another crossed off the list, the killer strode away. And thought of the new poem even now winging its way to Adrian.
Back to work. Traveling time!
Three days later, Adrian made the errands run again—this time with a full grocery stop, as Teesha and family were heading down. She picked up a handful of mail from the new box she’d listed on her blog, her website, and her social media, hit the florist for fresh flowers.
Dom helped her put groceries away—and she considered that a good sign. They ate Greek salads while she shared the bits of gossip she’d picked up in town.
When he laughed, really laughed, tears, happy ones, rose up in her throat.
She didn’t get to the mail until late in the day. And saw immediately her poet had found her.
Do you think you can hide, do you think you can run?
Oh no, my dear, we’re not nearly done.
Over all these years you think of me.
And with your last breath, my face you’ll see.
Postmarked from Baltimore this time, Adrian saw, and thought: Too close.
But the postmark meant nothing, she knew. They’d come from all over the country in the past decade.
But never outside of February.
So the move hadn’t just rattled her mother. It had rattled her poetic stalker. Now she’d have to share it all with the local police—because she had to be sensible. And with Harry and—though she hated it—with her grandfather.
And to be safe, because she had Dom to think of, maybe they should add something to the alarm system.
She had some ideas on that.
CHAPTER NINE
The minute Teesha’s car pulled up in front of the house, Adrian ran out the door. And found herself delighted Dom wasn’t far behind her. She snagged Teesha in a hug, squeezed, squeezed.
“You’re here! Now hand over the boy! Hi, Monroe.”
“Hi yourself, pretty girl.”
Tall and lean and absurdly handsome, he leaned in the back to release Phineas from the car seat.
Phineas’s daddy had skin a couple of shades deeper than his mommy’s, short dreads, sexy chocolate eyes, and a trim little chin beard that suited his angular face.
Adrian ran around to hug him, and get her hands on the baby as Teesha let out a sudden: “Whoa! Is that a bear?”
Adrian stole Phineas, and planted kisses all over his face to make him laugh. “It’s a dog. It’s our dog as of yesterday.”
“Well, holy sh … shoeshine, it’s huge.” Instinctively Teesha backed up as the big black mountain of dog ambled her way.
“She’s a Newfoundland—that’s what the shelter said, and the vet confirmed. She’s about nine months old, so she’ll get a little bigger. And she’s as gentle as a baby lamb.”
“I don’t know any baby lambs.”
The dog sat at Teesha’s feet, looked up at her with soulful eyes, and held out a paw.
“She’s housebroken, sits, shakes, fetches. Her breed’s called nanny dogs because they’re so patient and careful with kids.”
As she spoke, Adrian carried the bouncing, arm-waving Phineas over to meet the dog.
“Adrian—”
“Do you think I’d get a dog that would hurt this beautiful boy? Or anyone? This is Sadie, and she’s a big, fluffy mound of love.”
“Sexy Sadie.” Grinning, Monroe bent down, rubbed his hands over the dog, who thumped her tail and waited for more.
“Somebody found her—they think her owner just dumped her the way some very-bad-word people do when they decide they don’t want a dog. They’d taken her to the shelter the day before Popi and I went in. So it was meant, wasn’t it, Popi?”
“Love at first sight,” he agreed.
Adrian crouched down.
“Dog, dog, dog. Bark!” Phineas tapped his hands on Sadie’s head, a gesture she accepted as willingly as Monroe’s rubs. Then she licked the boy’s face and sent him into wild laughter.
“She’s smart, too. I googled the breed right there in the shelter after she stole our hearts. Smart, highly trainable, loving, gentle, patient, adores kids especially.”
“I always wanted a dog.”
“Sophia and I talked about another dog after we lost Tom and Jerry. I think we never did because we had to wait for Sadie.”
“Well, you combined years of waiting and wanting into one big-ass reality.” Finally, Teesha laid a tentative hand on the dog’s head.
“Let’s get you all settled inside.” Dom drilled a finger in Phineas’s belly. “And we’ll have some wine.”
“Popi.” Monroe opened the cargo door. “You’re speaking my language. No, sir, I got this. If you pour that wine, I’d sure be grateful.”
“I’ll give him a hand.” After another smacking kiss, Adrian passed Phineas back to Teesha. But he just wiggled down so he could throw his arms around Sadie.
“Why don’t you give Teesha a hand with our boy here,” Adrian suggested. “And pass out those cookies you baked when I wasn’t looking.”
“Can’t have a young one in a house without cookies.”
She went around to the cargo doors, grabbed a couple of bags. “So … any chance of talking the two of you into moving down this way?”
Monroe smiled at her. “Teesha’s used to the city. I wanted the country life, so we compromised on looking at the suburbs. But with you here, I think we’ve got a shot.”
“Really? Really? You’d move here?”
“I like the quiet,” he said in his dreamy way. “I can hear the music in the quiet. She’s going to need something with neighbors,” he continued as they carried bags toward the house. “And where she can walk to shops and stuff. We gotta think of good schools, safe streets.”
“I’ve got three houses picked out to start.”
He looked down at her, shook his head. “No moss ever has a chance on you, my Rizz.”
“Popi knows everybody, including the best Realtor in the area.”
“We’ll work on it,” he told her.
Adrian knew she’d made the right choice in design consultants when Kayla came to their meeting with a tablet full of apps, a tape measure, a paint fan, and lots of ideas.
Tall and slim, her streaky blond hair in French braids, she radiated enthusiasm.
“What a great space.” She’d already crouched down to rub and coo over Sadie. “So much more good, natural light than I figured—and I worried you’d have low ceilings. But this is awesome. I’m nervous. I’m trying not to sound goofy, but I’m nervous. This is my first real consult. Friends and family don’t count. I don’t want to mess it up.”
Sometimes, she thought as she walked through the big house to the big kitchen, the right choice was also the only choice.
She split the sub, used pretty plates, cloth napkins, and poured both water and wine. To tempt him, she added a handful of his favored salt-and-vinegar chips—damn the nutrition for one day—to each plate.
She carried the tray out, arranged it all on the long porch table.
“Let’s eat, Popi. Business was good when I stopped in.” She just kept chattering as he got up, slowly walked to the table. “Barry’s on today, and doing a good job—but he said they miss seeing you.”
“Maybe I’ll go in tomorrow.”
He’d said the same the day before.
“That’d be great. God, I haven’t had a meatball sub in … who knows?” She leaned over the plate, dripping sauce onto it as she took a bite. “Oh really, I bet this is illegal in some states. One day, you’re going to give me the recipe for the Rizzo secret sauce.”
“You know I will.” He smiled; he nibbled.
“So, I FaceTimed with Teesha—and the amazing Phineas—while I was out. They send love.”
“That’s a precious little boy. Smart as a whip. Smarter.”
“He is. I’m hoping we’ll see lots more of him if I managed to talk her and Monroe into moving down here.”
“Hmm? What, here?”
And there, she thought, was a chink in the curtain that had come down over his eyes.
“Mmm.” She took another bite. “I know we can work remotely, no problem, but they’ve been talking about getting a house—burbs, maybe even country—since Phin was born. Why not here? And her amazing business brain would help with Rizzo’s, too. Monroe can work anywhere.” She took a sip of wine, smiled, shrugged. “Like me.”
“I don’t understand.”
She made another sound, ate a chip. “Oh, I know why I try never to eat one of these. My system is crying for more now. Oh.” She beamed that smile again. “I’m moving in. Didn’t I mention that? I gave—or Teesha gave—my notice at the apartment in New York. She’s arranging for my stuff to be packed up and moved down here. Storage for some—she’s dealing with that. I don’t think I’d get through a day without her dealing with stuff.”
“Gioia, your life’s in New York.”
“It’s been in New York because that’s where Mom lived, and where I started out. But my home’s here, and has been for as long as I can remember. I’d like to have my life in my home.”
His jaw squared. “Adrian, you’re not upending your life for me. I won’t have it.”
Casually, she licked sauce off her finger. “That’s too bad, because it’s done. I’m doing it for you, because I love you. I’m doing it for me, because it’s what I want. I love you,” she repeated. “I love this big old house. I love the views, I love the trees, the gardens. I love the town, and I’m taking it. Just try to stop me.”
A tear slid down his cheek. “I don’t want you to—”
“Does it matter what I want?” She laid a hand over his. “Does it?”
“Of course it does. Of course.”
“This is what I want.”
“To live in this old place, outside of a three-stoplight town?”
She ate another chip. “Yes. That’s exactly what I want. Oh, and I’m taking over the lower level.”
“I—”
“Squatter’s rights. I need the space for my fitness area, my streaming. For my work. There’s that nice walk out on the back so there’s light, and I’ll have a crew come in to deal with the tech stuff. I might hire Barry’s little sister to work on the design.”
“Adrian, this is a big decision. You should take time to think it all through.”
“Have thought, have weighed pros and cons. Pros win. You know the Rizzos, Popi. We know what we want, then we work to get it.” She toasted him with her glass. “Get used to it, Roomie.”
She set it down, got up to put her arms around him as more tears fell. “You need me,” she murmured. “But I need you, too. We’re giving this to each other.”
“We’ll be all right.”
“Yes, we will.” She framed his face, kissed him. “She’d expect nothing less of us. Now, I need you to eat that damn sub because if you don’t and I do, I’m really going to pay for it later.”
“Okay. Okay. Barry knows how I like it.”
“So he said.”
When she sat again, he took another bite. He drank some wine, cleared his throat. “Do you really think you can talk them into moving down here with that precious little boy?”
Smiling, she tapped her glass to his. “I favor my odds there. That tire swing needs a new young butt.”
“It surely does. I thought, at first, I just wanted to fade away. How could I stay when she was gone? So just fade away.”
Tears burned and pushed at the backs of her eyes. “I know.”
“You won’t let me.”
“No, I won’t.”
Nodding, he looked directly into her eyes. “Why don’t you tell me what you have in mind to do to my basement? Our basement,” he corrected.
Two days later she wandered the space she intended to transform. Studying it, imagining, considering, rejecting. They’d put in a wine cellar before she’d been born, and that would stay, of course. As would the utility/storage room.
She wouldn’t need to touch the guest room or full-size bath.
That left her the entire family room area with its antique bar, the old brick fireplace, all mostly used when they held big parties.
More furniture to move or store, she mused, but the bar, the fireplace would make interesting backdrops.
She wanted it to look like what it was—part of a home—but at the same time efficient, focused. Picking up her tablet, she started making notes she’d share with Kayla when her—hopefully—young designer came in for a consult.
A FaceTime signal interrupted, and had Adrian staring at the screen. Her mother never FaceTimed. Adrian tapped accept.
Lina came on-screen in full makeup, her chestnut hair sleeked back in a tail. Work mode, Adrian concluded.
“Hi. This is new.”
“We need a conversation, and this is the best way. I just read your blog.”
“Oh. I didn’t know you—”
“Adrian, you can’t bury yourself in that house, in that town. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking this is where I want to be—and need to be—and rather than burying myself, I see it as a new opportunity.”
“You established yourself in New York, and your use of locations there for your DVDs, your streaming is part of your signature.”
“I’m changing my signature.”
Lina waved someone away without taking her eyes off the screen. “Look, it’s laudable that you’d consider uprooting your life to look after your grandfather.”
“Laudable.”
“Yes. It’s kind and loving and laudable. I’m not stupid, Adrian, and I’m not blind to the circumstances. I know he shouldn’t stay in the house alone. I’d considered trying to convince him to move to New York, but realized that would be a study in frustration for both of us. I’ve been interviewing live-in nurse/companions.”
“Did you mention that to him?”
“No, because he’d reject the idea off the mark. But when I find someone—”
“Stop looking.” Adrian sat on the arm of a couch, reminded herself there was no point in anger. Her mother generally defaulted to throwing money at a problem or inconvenience.
On the plus side, she’d tried to do something.
“He’s not sick, he’s grieving. He doesn’t need a nurse. He needs me. And that street goes both ways. I want to be here, and not just to look after him. I want to be in our family home. Why does it matter to you?”
“I don’t want to see you tap the brakes on your career when it’s still accelerating. You have a gift.”
“And I’m going to keep using it.”
“In an old house outside of Dogpatch?”
“That’s right, and on the porch, on the back patio, in the park, in the town square. I’ve got plenty of ideas. We have the same root in the work, Mom, but we’ve grown it two different ways.”
“New Gen is still under the Yoga Baby umbrella.”
Now Adrian lifted her eyebrows. “It is. If my relocating causes you to rethink that, we can have the lawyers work out a split.”
“Don’t be—” Lina broke off, then looked away from the screen for a moment as Adrian watched her struggle for composure. “I’m trying to point out that this is a business as well as a passion, a lifestyle, and that in business you have to be practical as well as innovative. And you’re not the only one dealing with upheaval. She was my mother.”
After another breath, Lina looked back at the screen. “She was my mother.”
“I know. You’re right.” And she could see grief just as clearly as she herself felt it. “And I should have given you a heads-up, on a personal and a business level. I didn’t think of it. I just didn’t, so I’m sorry for that. Let’s try this. You give me a year, and if this relocation doesn’t work the way I think it will, we’ll reevaluate.”
“By reevaluating you mean actually consulting me, Harry, the rest of the team?”
“Yes.”
“All right.” She looked off-screen again. “Yes, yes, two minutes! I want you to succeed, Adrian.”
“I know you do.”
“I have to go. Tell Dad … tell him I’ll call him soon.”
“I will.”
When she ended the call, Adrian slid down to sit on the couch. She’d made a mistake, she admitted, not telling her mother about her decision. And for the life of her she couldn’t be sure if that had been deliberate on some level or just an oversight.
Done now, she thought. And once she got things moving Lina, and everyone else, would see she’d made the right move at the right time.
So she’d better get busy proving it.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Just another sunrise hiker. Blending was both a skill and personal entertainment. The canyon offered echoing silence—sometimes the cry of a hawk or an eagle.
Predators, and much admired.
She who wouldn’t live to see the sun again hiked here twice a week, three times if she could manage it, but the two were like clockwork.
Her alone time, her commune-with-nature time, her keep-body-and-soul-in-tune time.
Or so she said on Twitter.
The hunting, the planning here had been pure pleasure. Travel, such an innate part of the life led, offered so many opportunities.
New scenes, new sounds. New kills.
And here, like clockwork, she came. Striding along in her hiking boots, a bright pink fielder’s cap on her head with her fake blond hair pulled into a tail through the opening in the back. Sunglasses, cargo shorts.
Alone.
The fake limp, the slight wince caught her attention.
“Are you okay?”
A wave of a hand, a brave, slightly pained smile. And voice breathless, quiet. “Just twisted my ankle a little. Stupid.”
Another step, a little stumble.
And didn’t she reach right out to help?
The knife slid smoothly into her belly. Her mouth opened into a shocked O that might’ve turned into a scream, but the knife made those glorious wet sounds as it pulled out, pushed in.
When she went down, her sunglasses slid off.
Souvenirs! Sunglasses, sports watch, key fob, and of course the now traditional photo.
Her blood soaked the ground; the hawk circled and cried.
With another crossed off the list, the killer strode away. And thought of the new poem even now winging its way to Adrian.
Back to work. Traveling time!
Three days later, Adrian made the errands run again—this time with a full grocery stop, as Teesha and family were heading down. She picked up a handful of mail from the new box she’d listed on her blog, her website, and her social media, hit the florist for fresh flowers.
Dom helped her put groceries away—and she considered that a good sign. They ate Greek salads while she shared the bits of gossip she’d picked up in town.
When he laughed, really laughed, tears, happy ones, rose up in her throat.
She didn’t get to the mail until late in the day. And saw immediately her poet had found her.
Do you think you can hide, do you think you can run?
Oh no, my dear, we’re not nearly done.
Over all these years you think of me.
And with your last breath, my face you’ll see.
Postmarked from Baltimore this time, Adrian saw, and thought: Too close.
But the postmark meant nothing, she knew. They’d come from all over the country in the past decade.
But never outside of February.
So the move hadn’t just rattled her mother. It had rattled her poetic stalker. Now she’d have to share it all with the local police—because she had to be sensible. And with Harry and—though she hated it—with her grandfather.
And to be safe, because she had Dom to think of, maybe they should add something to the alarm system.
She had some ideas on that.
CHAPTER NINE
The minute Teesha’s car pulled up in front of the house, Adrian ran out the door. And found herself delighted Dom wasn’t far behind her. She snagged Teesha in a hug, squeezed, squeezed.
“You’re here! Now hand over the boy! Hi, Monroe.”
“Hi yourself, pretty girl.”
Tall and lean and absurdly handsome, he leaned in the back to release Phineas from the car seat.
Phineas’s daddy had skin a couple of shades deeper than his mommy’s, short dreads, sexy chocolate eyes, and a trim little chin beard that suited his angular face.
Adrian ran around to hug him, and get her hands on the baby as Teesha let out a sudden: “Whoa! Is that a bear?”
Adrian stole Phineas, and planted kisses all over his face to make him laugh. “It’s a dog. It’s our dog as of yesterday.”
“Well, holy sh … shoeshine, it’s huge.” Instinctively Teesha backed up as the big black mountain of dog ambled her way.
“She’s a Newfoundland—that’s what the shelter said, and the vet confirmed. She’s about nine months old, so she’ll get a little bigger. And she’s as gentle as a baby lamb.”
“I don’t know any baby lambs.”
The dog sat at Teesha’s feet, looked up at her with soulful eyes, and held out a paw.
“She’s housebroken, sits, shakes, fetches. Her breed’s called nanny dogs because they’re so patient and careful with kids.”
As she spoke, Adrian carried the bouncing, arm-waving Phineas over to meet the dog.
“Adrian—”
“Do you think I’d get a dog that would hurt this beautiful boy? Or anyone? This is Sadie, and she’s a big, fluffy mound of love.”
“Sexy Sadie.” Grinning, Monroe bent down, rubbed his hands over the dog, who thumped her tail and waited for more.
“Somebody found her—they think her owner just dumped her the way some very-bad-word people do when they decide they don’t want a dog. They’d taken her to the shelter the day before Popi and I went in. So it was meant, wasn’t it, Popi?”
“Love at first sight,” he agreed.
Adrian crouched down.
“Dog, dog, dog. Bark!” Phineas tapped his hands on Sadie’s head, a gesture she accepted as willingly as Monroe’s rubs. Then she licked the boy’s face and sent him into wild laughter.
“She’s smart, too. I googled the breed right there in the shelter after she stole our hearts. Smart, highly trainable, loving, gentle, patient, adores kids especially.”
“I always wanted a dog.”
“Sophia and I talked about another dog after we lost Tom and Jerry. I think we never did because we had to wait for Sadie.”
“Well, you combined years of waiting and wanting into one big-ass reality.” Finally, Teesha laid a tentative hand on the dog’s head.
“Let’s get you all settled inside.” Dom drilled a finger in Phineas’s belly. “And we’ll have some wine.”
“Popi.” Monroe opened the cargo door. “You’re speaking my language. No, sir, I got this. If you pour that wine, I’d sure be grateful.”
“I’ll give him a hand.” After another smacking kiss, Adrian passed Phineas back to Teesha. But he just wiggled down so he could throw his arms around Sadie.
“Why don’t you give Teesha a hand with our boy here,” Adrian suggested. “And pass out those cookies you baked when I wasn’t looking.”
“Can’t have a young one in a house without cookies.”
She went around to the cargo doors, grabbed a couple of bags. “So … any chance of talking the two of you into moving down this way?”
Monroe smiled at her. “Teesha’s used to the city. I wanted the country life, so we compromised on looking at the suburbs. But with you here, I think we’ve got a shot.”
“Really? Really? You’d move here?”
“I like the quiet,” he said in his dreamy way. “I can hear the music in the quiet. She’s going to need something with neighbors,” he continued as they carried bags toward the house. “And where she can walk to shops and stuff. We gotta think of good schools, safe streets.”
“I’ve got three houses picked out to start.”
He looked down at her, shook his head. “No moss ever has a chance on you, my Rizz.”
“Popi knows everybody, including the best Realtor in the area.”
“We’ll work on it,” he told her.
Adrian knew she’d made the right choice in design consultants when Kayla came to their meeting with a tablet full of apps, a tape measure, a paint fan, and lots of ideas.
Tall and slim, her streaky blond hair in French braids, she radiated enthusiasm.
“What a great space.” She’d already crouched down to rub and coo over Sadie. “So much more good, natural light than I figured—and I worried you’d have low ceilings. But this is awesome. I’m nervous. I’m trying not to sound goofy, but I’m nervous. This is my first real consult. Friends and family don’t count. I don’t want to mess it up.”
