a few more days, let everything settle, let it all simmer in his head.
And, if part of the simmering, the settling led to the remote possibility he’d run into Suskind on one of his walks, have the satisfaction of confronting him face-to-face.
Eli felt he’d earned it.
When he knocked off for the day, he let himself think of Abra. He went downstairs, put Barbie out on the terrace as they’d both learned she’d stay and enjoy a little sunshine before their walk.
Then he checked Abra’s daily schedule. Five-o’clock class, he noted. Maybe he’d cook something.
On second thought, a much safer, more palatable thought, he’d get pizza delivered. They could eat outside in the dusky spring evening with the pansies and daffodils. He’d stick a couple of candles out there. She liked candles. He’d turn on the strings of glass balls he’d found in his search-and-rummage through storage and managed to repair and hung on the eaves over the main terrace.
Maybe he’d steal some of the flowers around the house and put them on the table. She’d appreciate that.
He’d have time to walk the dog, put in an hour or so in the library, even set a nice outdoor table before she got home.
Got home, he thought. Technically, Laughing Gull was her home, but for all intents and purposes she lived in Bluff House, with him.
And how did he feel about that?
Comfortable, he realized. He felt comfortable about that. If anyone had asked him a few months before how he’d feel about being in any sort of relationship, he wouldn’t have had an answer.
The question wouldn’t have processed. There just hadn’t been enough of him to form any part of any relationship.
He opened the refrigerator, thinking Mountain Dew or possibly Gatorade, and saw the bottle of water with its sticky note, one he’d ignored that morning.
Be good to yourself.
Drink me first.
“Okay, okay.” He took out the water, peeled off the sticky note. It made him smile.
Did he say comfortable? True enough, he decided, but more than comfortable, for the first time in a very long time, he was happy.
No, there hadn’t been much of him at the start of things, but there’d been plenty of her. She filled the spaces. Now she made him want to do the same, even if it was only fumbling through a repair of a string of lights and hanging them because they’d made him think of her.
“Coming along,” he murmured.
He’d walk the dog, drink the water, then shift to research mode.
At the knock on the door, he detoured to the front of the house.
“Hey, Mike.” He stepped back—more progress, he thought. It pleased him to have a friend drop by.
“Eli. Sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier. We’ve been slammed. Housing picking up, and rentals, too. The spring season’s rocking it.”
“That’s good news.” Still he frowned.
“What?”
“The tie.”
“Oh, yeah, pretty cool, huh? I got it at the consignment shop. Hermès,” he added with a tony accent. “Forty-five bucks, but it’s good for impressing clients.”
“Yeah.” Eli had thought the same once. “Yeah, I bet.”
“So I looked through my files on Sandcastle, refresh my memory, you know. I can give you what’s public record, and some impressions. Some stuff, you know, falls into confidential.”
“Got it. You want a drink?”
“Could use something cold. It’s been a long one.”
“Let’s see what we’ve got.” Eli led the way back to the kitchen. “Did you get the impression Suskind wanted it for a residence or an investment property?”
“Investment. The purchase was through his company, and there was some talk about company use. There wasn’t a lot of talk,” Mike added as they reached the kitchen. “Most of the deal was long-distance. E-mail, phone.”
“Mountain Dew? I haven’t had that since I was in college.”
“Super juice. You want one?”
“Why not?”
“Let’s take this outside, keep Barbie company.”
Mike spent a moment giving the delighted dog a rub before sitting down, stretching his legs out. “Now this is what I’m talking about. The flowers look good, man.”
“Credit Abra. I’m on watering detail though, so that counts.”
He liked doing it, liked watching the colors and shapes she’d crowded into pots grow, the shrubs along the edges of the stone flower. Occasionally he considered working out here, but realized he’d never get anything done. He’d just sit as he was now, listening to the wind chimes play their tune along with the whoosh of the sea while he looked out at the water, with his dog sitting beside