It felt like both an incredible amount of time to find a door hidden in a garden, and no time at all.
“Are you up to the challenge?” he wondered. He met my gaze. The way the sun hit his stormy eyes, it turned them bluer than I’d ever seen.
I nodded. “Let’s find you.”
“If anyone can, I’m sure it’s you.” He said it with such tenderness, I had to look away as a blush colored my cheeks. As I did, I noticed patches of soft white asters against the walls. Had they been there before? “And in the meantime, I guess I’ll busy myself here. The journal’s pretty straightforward, so I’ll start with the gazebo.”
“Are you sure Tom Ford will appreciate that?”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m getting restless just sitting around.”
“You and Oliver both,” I muttered. “It’s a wonder the two of you aren’t related.”
“Best we aren’t. Could you imagine if someone was the worst of both EulaandHenry?”
“Or the best,” I offered.
“I don’t think I’m the best of my uncle.”
“I think you’re too hard on yourself,” I said, realizing the light had shifted on his face. The sun was going to set soon, and I wanted to get out before the garden did that disorienting magic trick again and kicked me out. “When I come back tomorrow, do you want me to bring you anything?”
He stood, too, and decided to walk me to the door. “Gardening gloves, a shovel, and some shears would be a nice start.”
“Any food? Sodas? Updates on your favorite TV show?”
He quirked an eyebrow. “I think you’re forgetting I’ve only been here for a few hours.”
“Ah. Right. Tomeit’s been weeks.”
“Is that strange to you?”
I gave it a thought. “A little, but I’m sure it’s stranger for you. Do I just leave, and then a few minutes later, I come back?”
He put his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “Basically. I think it’s a little longer, but it doesn’t feel that way.”
“Weird.”
“A little. Are TV shows what you’d miss? If you were in my shoes?”
“I don’t really watch TV anymore,” I replied. The only shows Ididwatch were reality shows, and it was only everwhile on the phone with Harriett. I hadn’t so much as glanced at a TV since she died, so I didn’t know whether Lukas ended up with Tania or Yasmin on the new season ofThe Bachelor. Harriett never found out, either. I liked not knowing. It connected us, still, even though the more time passed the more threadbare that connection became, the less I’d have in common with Harriett anymore, the more I’d experience that she’d never get to.
It was sobering.
He asked softly, “Where do you go, when you get that look?”
Startled, I snapped out of my thoughts. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You look like you’re a thousand miles away sometimes.” The way he watched me, gently, made the heat rise on my cheeks as I remembered that, for him, it wasn’t even an hour ago that he’d held me while I sobbed. I’d put distance between me and that disaster, but it was still fresh for him, and that made me evenmoreembarrassed.
“I don’t go anywhere,” I reiterated stubbornly. It wasn’t embarrassment making my heart flutter, because it wasn’t fluttering, it couldn’t flutter, it was just—just—
Indigestion.
“Haven’t really thought about food much,” he said, his eyebrows furrowing. “But now that I think about it … that feels odd, right? I must be hungry. I might be.” He barked a laugh. “I really don’t know. Bring me whatever you’d like, I guess.” Then his mouth twitched into a ghost of a smirk, and not the good kind. “On the outside, you should probably get to know Oliver a bit more.”
My mind blanked. I froze in my footsteps. “I—I’m sorry. What?”
“He knows this place better than he lets on, trust me. He’ll be a help to you. I doubt he’d say no if you asked.”
